GP4: 1996 Ligier JS43 walkaround part 1

The next car to feature in my GP4 walkarounds is the 1996 Ligier JS43, powered by the Mugen Honda engine. As always, you can read more about how the car faired during the 1996 season as well as the model review here: 1/43-model-review-1996-ligier-js43-mugen.html

As always, I have to thank my collaborators on this, which are Soulbringer and Kedy89 who did a great job in mapping and painting the car, I'm grateful that these talented and committed modders were working on one of my cars.

I also have to thank Oggo, because the nose and monocoque section of the car is taken from his excellent Benetton B196. The lumps and  bumps and suspension connections are all unique to the Ligier, but I'm grateful to Oggo for allowing me to use the front of his car as a base.

The 1996 Ligier still bore similarities to the Benetton because of the links between the two teams from back in 1994 when Flavio Briatore, who was running Benetton, bought Ligier. 50% was bought by Tom Walkinshaw (of TWR) in 1995, who was with Benetton at the time, and took over the running of the Ligier team and took some Benetton staff with him. One of these was Frank Dernie, the lead designer of this car, who worked for Benetton under a TWR contract, so naturally he was brought across whether he wanted to or not! This happened with a number of staff.

If you remember, the 1995 Ligier, from the outside, looked almost identical to the Benetton B195, but the team maintains that everything under the car was completely different. The 1995 Ligier was not particularly competitive, whilst the Benetton was at the front of the field, so that all makes sense. SO whilst the nose and monocoques were largely the same as their 1995 competitors, that's why there is a similarity between the two cars. However, the Ligier JS43 looks more like a developed 1995 concept.

However, Guy Ligier and Tom Walkinshaw did not get on, and Flavio didn't sell the remaining 50% to Walkinshaw as had initially agreed, so Walkinshaw went and bought the Arrows team instead. This culminated around March 1996, and explains why the Power Horse logos started the first few races on the Ligier before migrating to Arrows for the remainder of the year. Ligier was then sold to Alain Prost who had bought the team with the expectation that it would become almost the French national team, that French backing never sadly materializing.

I quite enjoyed making this car, it has some interesting details all the way through the car and there was a reasonable source of photos to be able to make the car fairly accurately. I will explain some of the details in later posts, but I'm quite pleased with how the whole car has come together, and Kedy89 has done a great job in re-creating the livery changes throughout the year. 

Again, here is the car in rfactor 2.