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

Renault began Formula One's modern "Turbo Era" in 1977 with a factory F.1 effort using their own RS-01 chassis and a 1.5 liter turbo-charged Renault-Gordini V-6 engine producing about 500 horsepower; nearly as much power as its normally aspirated V-8 and V-12 competitors from a much smaller and lighter package. "Blown" engines weren't new to Formula One; the pre-war giants had used superchargers, as had almost all F.1 cars until Ferrari began winning with an unblown engine in the mid Fifties. Regulations, though, limited blown engines to half (or less) the size of normally aspirated engines, a handicap that had been too great to overcome-- or so "conventional wisdom" held. Renault, along with Porsche had developed turbo-charged engines for sports car racing and were convinced that the technology could be successfully applied to Formula One. As it turned out, though, a turbo-boosted small displacement engine had two problems Renault hadn't encountered with bigger engines operating at lower boost: "turbo lag", the delay between the time a driver floored the accelerator and the turbo spun up to useful speed (boost pressure), and a very sudden increase in power when the turbo finally did kick in. I watched poor Jean-Pierre Jabouille trying to control the RS-01 in the rain at Watkins Glen in the fall of '77-- the Renault gave a whole new meaning to "wheelspin".

Renault added a second car for promising French driver Rene Arnoux in 1979 and introduced the new RE-10 with a twin-turbo V-6 that same year. The twin turbos helped both problems and between them the Renault drivers claimed 7 poles during the '79 season. Although the "turbos" were fast, reliability was still a problem and Jabouille won only one race, the French GP, in '79.

The Renault RE-20 demonstrated the full potential of the turbo in 1980 as Renault won three Grands Prix. Alan Jones won the Championship with a Ford V-8 in his Williams FW-07B, but Ferrari, McLaren and other teams were busily building 1.5 liter turbo-charged engines for the upcoming season. Ironically, Renault never did win the Championship, as arch-rival Porsche, in the guise of TAG, provided McLaren with a powerplant that was even to lure Rene Arnoux away from Renault.

The latest "Grand Prix Classic" from Exoto is the 1980 Renault RE-20, and with it Exoto has raised the standards of diecast models once again. According to the brochure, there are "more than 250 parts" in this 1/18 scale beauty and that's VERY easy to believe. I don't know exactly how many parts there are in the body, but there are a lot and they all fit very well. There are no mold lines at all, of course, and the bright yellow and white paint is flawlessly smooth and highly glossy. Color separation lines are so sharp-- the white portion of the upper body and its thin black pinstripe are especially good-- that the colors must be hot-printed on. Certainly all the many graphics have to be printed, but apparently the model was given a clear top coat as a last step. The wings are plastic, but painted to match, with the airfoil sections vacuum-plated with very shiny chrome to simulate the highly polished surfaces of the real car. The radiator exit vanes have a "natural, unpolished aluminum" finish that's equally realistic. The side skirts and rear body strakes are "3-D", multi-colored photo-etched metal. Check the rear wing assembly-- not only are the slots to adjust the wing angle open through the side-plates, but the bolt heads are there, too!.

The cockpit has a thick, textured, steering wheel, the seat has cloth belts that are correctly threaded through the photo-etched hardware, and all the knobs and switches are just where photos show they should be, though I'd like to have seen better gauge face detail. Talk about attention to detail; the NACA cockpit air scoops aren't just open through the body, but have ducts on the inside as well.

The big fat Michelin tires are especially good-looking and of course the wheels are detailed right down to the valve stems. Close inspection shows that the rear brake disks rotate with the wheels while the fronts are fixed. There are no brake lines on the model, though.

Now-- TA DAAA-- lift off the entire upper section of the body! There's the Renault-Gordini engine with "French Blue" cam covers and twin turbos that are fully connected from the exhausts through the intercoolers to the injection system, with "clamps" where appropriate. Of course it's fully wired and plumbed! Black, chrome, and several metallic shades of plastic are used to make a very realistic engine bay, and all radiator faces are photo-etched mesh. All the suspension parts are there, too, and are very much "in scale". Set the model on a flat surface, press down, and watch the shock absorber pull-rods (especially the fronts) function! Cockpit details are fully visible now (yes, the pedals are up under all that front structure) as are the steering and front suspension. The RE-20 was notable for all the rivets in its tub, and it looks like Exoto has reproduced most of them! There are some noticeable mold lines on the plastic parts, especially the larger ones like half-shafts and the air induction system. But curiously, smaller parts look much cleaner.

With or without the upper body in place, Exoto's Renault RE-20 matches photos from 1980 Road & Track issues perfectly-- at least this model of Arnoux's car does. Jabouille's car had different mirrors and I've not seen the model of it. Wheelbase and front track are precisely 1/18 scale, but Exoto has made a small but observable error at the rear. Outside front and rear dimensions should be the same (maximum allowable width) and photos of the real car confirm this-- but the model's rear track is about 0.25" (almost 5 scale inches) too wide and its rear wheels are noticeably wider than the front. O.K., it's not perfect, but it's still the best-detailed "mass-produced" diecast model I've seen, with really superb paint and graphics. Workmanship, inside and out, is as good as any you'll find on any model. At a price of $169.95, the RE-20 is more expensive than previous Exoto "Grand Prix Classics", but then there are more parts and a lot more painstaking work in this one, too. Contact Exoto, 5440 Atlantis Court, Moorpark, CA 93021 (FAX 805/530-3840) for more information on the new 1980 Renault RE-20 Turbo F.1.

Contact Wayne at mailto:wmoyer@infinet.com

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