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43rd and More - Model reviews by Wayne Moyer
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Review: Factory-Built Starter 1998 Toyota GT-One
by Wayne E. Moyer
The smart money said that a Mercedes CLK-LM would win the 1998 Le Mans 24 Hours. It was the first GT-Class car ever to sit on the pole at the Sarthe circuit. Although one of the swoopy Toyota GT-Ones was only a fraction of a second slower than the CLK, that "smart money" labeled the Toyotas as fast but fragile. As far as a Porsche threat, well, the prototypes that had won the race the preceding two years were now three years old-- positively ancient by current endurance racing standards. And as far as the 911GT1--- well, new bodywork or not, the same thing was true of it, was it not?
But after only two hours of racing, all of the CLK's were parked (had Daimler-Benz only known what was to come, they'd have remained parked) and the Toyotas were leading Le Mans. The Porsche team waited for the radical-looking GT-Ones to break. And waited. And waited. Attrition did take its toll, but with only two hours left, the sole surviving GT-One had a comfortable half-lap lead when its transmission packed up, giving Porsche its long-sought outright win with a GT-Class car. The number 27 Toyota did make it back out onto the track to come home ninth overall.
As has been the practice in recent years, between them Starter and their rival Provence Moulage produced fine resin kits of virtually all the 1998 Le Mans grid, with lots of duplication of the top cars along the way. Starter, though, has begun to make "factory-built" versions of their models also, tapping into the "non-building collector" market. That's not unusual, but the price is; typically the price of a factory-built model is two to three times the price of the kit version, but Starter offers theirs for less than 40% more than the kit. Obviously, these aren't comparable to a BBR or Marsh build, but I wouldn't build you one for that little money either!
Parts cleanup and surface preparation, at least on the upper surfaces, was quite well done on my sample. The underside of the nose and tail got less attention, though, as some file marks and bubble holes are visible when the model is turned over. The bright red finish is smooth and glossy and the decals-- and there are a lot of them-- have all been carefully applied and snugged down with a solvent. A clear gloss top coat was applied after the decals were in place; here again, the underside didn't get much of the clear coat. The windshield "glass" was neatly trimmed and fits well, but the much simpler headlight covers don't fit nearly as well; I wonder if an assembly line process is used and there was a novice doing the light covers? Air scoop and vent faces were neatly painted flat black after the clear coat was applied as was the rear wing. The underside of the model is hand-painted flat black, too, but with a lot less care. All the interior is flat black, with a crisp decal for the instrument panel and nice hand-painting on the seat belts, belt hardware, and some of the wiring bundles.
The lines and details of my sample match photos in "Auto Modelisme" very well, as do all the details. It would be even more realistic, though, if the faces of the four large air scoops in the nose were painted flat black-- that's something I plan to do to my model. I think the leading edges of the wing side plates should extend maybe 0.01" further forward, but that's a nit-- the model really does match photos well. Starter has even gotten the staggered position of the mirrors correct. Length, width, and wheelbase check out to precisely 1/43 scale, too, so this one is accurate in both dimension and appearance. I've been critical of the work on the bottom of the model; to be fair, none of that is seen when the model is sitting in its case, but then, we do pick our models up and look at them from all angles on occasion. Dellergo Import & Export, 3653 Bunker Hill St. N.W., Massillon, OH 44646, (PH/FAX: 330/477-8496) has the factory-built Starter 1998 Toyota GT-One for-- would you believe-- $59.00 plus shipping and handling. The best price you can find for the kit is around $45.00, so this is a real bargain.
See Wayne's review of the MiniChamps Porsche GT-1, too! (shown on left)
Contact Wayne at mailto:wmoyer@infinet.com
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