Formula One racing is about to begin again. Love it or hate it, drama at the highest-level swirls around it like a tornado.
The Co-Hog Special Edition F1 distills the essence of an early 1980’s F1 race car into a 7" (18cm) long sculpture that looks like it’s ready for the coming season.
This example is the first one made of a total of only 15 made and is just shy of 43 years old. It originally went to the Auto Art Gallery in Connecticut along with its siblings (Lamborghini Countach, Mercedes 380SEC, Ferrari Boxer, and Ferrari Boxer LM) before returning home.
With the five new Special Editions Co-Hog was transitioning from the strong foundation of the original eighteen chunky models to sculptures with proportions and graphics more like their 1:1 counterpart.
The body and wing were made from ten pieces of Malaysian Jelutong wood. The front “suspension” is a brass tube with washers. Simple but appropriate. Automotive acrylic enamel paint was used for the bodies.
Wheels/tires were turned from maple and hand painted. The design of the wheel centers was interpreted as a 10x pen and ink drawing that was reduced, transferred to a silkscreen, and then printed on 3M Scotchcal vinyl.
Stripes and trim details were also done with hand cut vinyl. Flat black vinyl was used for vents and other features.
Lower views show off the low height despite the seemingly immense width - especially when someone was blocking you on the track!
From higher up the proportions make it look oddly like a water strider bug - tires were always positioned at the extremes - but the wings added at both ends made it longer and it covered more ground.
Side mounted radiators and larger fuel tanks for the thirsty turbos also added to the body width.
For those of you crying out “The proportions are all out of whack!” I’d remind you that in the early ‘80s, when this was sculpted, F1 cars were in fact undergoing drastic changes. The image above shows the differences over time as F1 cars have become huge beasts when compared with earlier cars.
The image is a screenshot courtesy of Aidan Millward from his YouTube video So How Did F1 Cars Get This Big? - My red box highlights the time of the Co-Hog Special Edition F1.
The side view is far more svelte and suggestive of the high speeds to be attained. Deep set wheels were still prevalent and quite gorgeous in their time.
Since everyone was learning the difficulties of high speed aero together, the wings were all over the place. The rear wing, in particular, saw some wild variations over a short period of time.
The underbody and rear of the car created more opportunities for creativity and gaining an advantage.
Forty-three years later, the #1/15 Co-Hog Special Edition F1 still looks hyper quick and ready for the track!
That’s a solid podium finish!
See a few more of the 22 different Co-Hog Special Editions here.