Today’s Japanese entry has a definite Burger and Fries flavor. Obviously, it is a Datsun (as they were still called Datsuns in the US then) - but it found success and moderate fame on the race tracks of the USA.
Don Devendorf formed Electramotive Inc and Electramotive Engineering in 1975 with a friend, John Knepp. Each member of the team came from the Los Angeles aerospace industry. In 1982, he won the GTO Championship with the Datsun 280ZX Turbo you see here. The GTO was the lower category of the IMSA series.
As you can see, the model does a good job of representing the paint job. But as it is based on the regular Tomica model of the road going 280Z-T, it misses out on the body kit.
The model is a Code 2 Tomica from the “Racing Mate Series” released by a company called “Air Cool”. But they don’t deal in VWs or Porsches, but rather supply spare parts for the Toyota 800 Sports (which did have an air cooled engine). And they also deal in Tomica models.
Thar sounds a lot like someone turned their Hobby into a business!
Air Cool released 18 special Tomica models between the years 2000 and 2008. All were unmodified Tomica castings with special racing liveries.
This one was #12 in that series and was released in December 2003.