Remember that annoying teaser? Yeah. This was inside the box.
German racing driver Rolf Stommelen (1943 - 1983) had a phenomenal career. He was one of the best endurance drivers of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, winning the Daytona 24 Hours four times among a total of 34 wins, and a further 14 class wins. 93 podium finishes in total. He had some fantastic co-drivers: Toine Hezemans, Hans Herrmann, Dick Barbour, Derek Bell, Jack Brabham. This car, however, was not driven to one of those 34 wins and had none of those famous co-drivers.
This Gozzy Kremer Racing Porsche 935 K3/80 with main sponsor Japanese fashion house La Moda Goji’s Italiya brand scored a DNF at the 1980 24 Heures du Mans. The usually so reliable 3164 CC twin turbo flat-6 spitting out 750 BHP was done in by a head gasket early in the race after earning a promising 3rd spot on the grid.
In general, the Porsche 935 K3 is one of the prettiest racecars of all time to me. It’s low, it’s mean, it’s beefy and swoopy and has a giant wing. It spits huge flames, thanks to forced induction and mechanical fuel injection. And despite the fact that this car DNF’d up in 1980, it is one of my favorites of all the K3s. The livery is beautiful (and fashionable!), with the black lines following the body contours, accented by Japanese calligraphy, and the pink and white just work. There is just something about a pink racecar (I’m looking at you, Porsche 917!) that is just fantastic.
Plus, I think I have a thing for race cars with weird (and, as it turns out, Japanese) sponsors. Another of my favorites is the 1995 Le Mans winning McLaren F1 sponsored by male enhancement specializing Ueno Clinic.
This 1:18 version was produced in 2009 by True Scale Miniatures, and was evidently not a huge seller for them (I don’t know if it’s any indication, but mine is #215 out of a total run of 1500). They are pretty prevalent on Ebay, and TSM themselves have this car listed on Amazon. Mine was tracked down by the ever extremely helpful CitizenPatrick of Model Citizen Diecast, and I’m very grateful for his willingness to enable my special request once again, especially since this is an older model.
Unboxing took me a while, but to spare you the whole process, here it is in timelapse form:
Without a doubt this is the most detailed car I own. TSM did an amazing job on pretty much all aspects of this car. The giant beautiful wing comes off to reveal great engine detail, with the most glorious view being from the bottom. All the hoses and braded lines are there. Cooling fins on the cylinders are visible.
There are springs present despite the fact that there is no working suspension. The interior is spartan (because racecar, obviously) but phenomenally detailed. Gorgeous seats, cloth seatbelts with laser etched buckles, very nice guages, and a very nicely detailed fire suppresion system by Heinzmann.
Warning stickers and badges galore, a beautiful fuel cell and filler under the frunk, perforated mesh on the front radiator and rear NACA ducts, electronics kill switches near the windshield, MASSIVE racing slicks, with amazing detail on the cone wheels, half shafts with u-joints, perforated brake disks despite not being visible from the outside, turbo waste gates, and a wonderful exhaust system coming out of the back end of the turbos.
Yes, there are some mold lines, the rear wheels don’t roll as true as they should, and the front wheels in their current state have a turning radius of about 6 miles, but I love this car so much. I could not be happier with it, and after having the Ebbro 1:43 version on my Ebay watch list for about 2 years now, I’m beyond stoked to have a TSM 1:18 version instead.
Now I need to get a newer TSM model, because according to t_s’s list, they are even better than this one. And that would be saying something!