43rd and More - Kit reviews by Wayne Moyer Archive Edition

Here's a model that Corvette fans simply must have and anyone with any interest in the era of sports car racing when Ford and G.M. slugged it out toe-to-toe for bragging rights should have. I won't go into the history of the Corvette Grand Sport here as I assume that anyone who's logged into Model Car Hub already knows that. If that's an incorrect assumption, drop whatever you're doing and order a copy of "Corvette Grand Sport" by Paddock & Friedman at once. You're going to need that book to really appreciate just how complete and accurate this model is!

Exoto's first releases are a "prototype" painted in the same color as the Mecom cars but without race markings, the "Mecom Racing Team" #65 driven by Hall and Penske at Nassau in December of 1963, the Mecom #80 driven by "The Flying Dentist", Dr. Dick Thompson, at the same race, and the Grand Sport that Don Yenko drove at Augusta in 1964. Jim Hall's later "Chaparral Grand Sport" and several other versions, including the roadsters, will follow. After a highly unsuccessful season in SCCA racing, two Grand Sports were "recalled" to the factory and modified with improved suspension, wider wheels, fat Goodyear stock car tires, and a huge (and illegal in SCCA racing) 377 cubic inch aluminum block engine. Those two cars, plus a newly built third Grand Sport, were sold to young Texas oilman John Mecom. Painted in his "Mecom Racing Team" color, Cadillac Pelham Blue, the three cars were sent to the "Run what ya brung" week-long party/slash international races at Nassau where they thoroughly trounced the factory Cobra team (for the first-- and last-- time, I must add). There are many photos from Nassau in the book cited and they all show that Exoto has modeled the car-- as it looked at this race-- perfectly.

The big multi-piece body has no mold lines or blemishes of any kind and its Pelham Blue paint is both smooth and highly glossy. It also matches my color chips precisely. The race graphics are hot-printed onto the body, so there's no decal film and everything--including all four colors in the Team Mecom logo-- is aligned correctly, but there's lots more than that. Up front, the small chrome Corvette badge has four (4!) colors printed onto it, all the body latches are reproduced with "3-D" photo-etched parts, and the tiny badge on the tail has "Grand Sport" engraved and the letters filled with red paint; they're so small I need a magnifying glass to read them! The scoop for the oil cooler that was hastily added at Nassau is in its place on the rear hatch, with lines running to the pump mounted on the rear axle.

The hood opens to show the big V-8 that's crisply molded in "aluminum" colored plastic and fully fitted out with chrome valve covers, "steel" exhaust headers, an "aluminum" intake manifold with four darker dual-throat Weber carbs and shiny chrome intake trumpets, spark plug and coil wires with individual "boots", chrome hose clamps on the coolant lines, and more. Open the doors and there are authentic two-tome blue seats with real fabric seat belts and photo-etched hardware; the buckles and adjusters have the belts threaded through them instead of simply being glued in place. And the Simpson logos aren't decals; they are printed onto the fabric. And the fabric straps used to raise and lower the Plexiglas side windows are cloth, too. Of course all the gauges have chrome bezels and fully detailed faces with red pointers, and the pedals, roll bar, and fire extinguisher are all there too.

The trunk lid fits so tightly that it's almost impossible to open; turn the model over, push up on the black "filter" and the deck lid pops open! Two things should catch your eye; there's no "floor" in the trunk and the spare tire sidewalls say "Firestone". Both are correct-- the big Goodyears were being used for the first time at Nassau and either wouldn't fit in the trunk or there weren't enough to use as spares. Exoto says that when other race versions are produced, the appropriate spare will be used.

I think the chassis would make a nice display all by itself; the large-diameter tube ladder frame and the suspension are modeled very accurately-- check out the lightening holes in the rear trailing arms and the transverse leaf rear spring. The front coil springs can be compressed to move the functional suspension, though the shock absorbers don't move. Although the differential oil cooler is plumbed, there are no hydraulic lines under the chassis. The big brake disks do rotate with the wheels while their calipers remain fixed as they should; the big Halibrand wheels have chrome rims, "magnesium" spiders, big chrome knock-off caps, and even valve stems. I must admit that I didn't try to unscrew the valve cap, though!

I don't know what the small probe on the roof is (sort of looks like a pitot tube, but the Grand Sport wasn't that fast!) but it's visible in pictures of this car at Nassau. With all the research that Exoto obviously did on this model, checking the dimensions was pretty much an academic exercise, but everything, chassis and body, check out to the specified 1/18 scale. The price has gone up a little bit since the first Exoto model, the Cobra Daytona Coupe, was introduced, but at $149.95 this big beautiful Grand Sport is still going to find a place of honor in many collections. Each model is individually serial-numbered, although I don't know just how many of each version will be made. Contact Exoto, 5440 Atlantis Court, Moorpark, CA 93021 (Ph. 805/530-3830, FAX 805/530-3840) for complete information.

Contact Wayne at mailto:wmoyer@infinet.com

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