Porsches are cool aren't they? Well at least I think they are. Racing Porsches are even cooler. Then what about racing Porsches in one of that marque's most representative liveries? We've covered Martini, I'll cover Jaegermeister, but what about all of those other amazing teams who've flown the Porsche flag? One of the most famous and successful has got to be Brumos. Started in 1971 by Peter Gregg and sponsored by the long-time Florida dealership of the same name Brumos has long been synonymous with Porsche racers. Beautifully understated Porsche racers at that, dominant white with blue and red stripes, that's your lot when it comes to Brumos racing colours.
So what do we have here? It's an Exoto rendition of the winner of the 1978 Daytona 24 hours. Here's a bit of background direct from Exoto's website:
IMSA decided to relax the rules slightly on their highly popular series for 1978, allowing the Porsche 935 to compete for the first time. The 24 hour event in Florida would prove to be a good start to a season that would end with 935s winning 12 of 14 races.
The #99 car certainly looked like a standard Brumos entry, but was actually the German GELO team's 935/78 enteredby Brumos Porsche for Rolf Stommelen and Toine Hezemans. Peter Gregg, one of the primary drivers of the #59 car, also put in an hour behind the wheel of #99. Of course, Gregg was more than happy to apply pressure to Stommelen/Hezemans when they met on-track!
Porsches air-cooled coupes are proven endurance race winners. The new twin-turbo flat-six in the #99 935/78 had a tendency to smoke under deceleration, however, and so Stommelen/Hezemans were careful to keep a light foot on the throttle every lap as they passed the race officials! The duo worked very hard to avoid getting black-flagged.
At the end of 24 hours, the spectacularly fast twin-turbo 935/78 was fully 30 laps clear of the second place Dick Barbour Racing 935/77! Driving carefully and consistently, Stommelen and Hezemans, with the help of Gregg, earned Porsche's first FIA World Championship points in a year that Porsche would leave for the private teams to contest... to defend Porsche's honor!
Design and Accuracy: 9/10
Exoto has long been the gold standard of 1/18 scale models. Other marques are starting to encroach on their territory, but they're still right up there with the best. This is an incredibly well-detailed model which displays all of the features of the full-size counterpart. The oil feed and return lines on the engine are all there, as are the spark plug wires. One thing which knocks it down a touch in my eyes is the slightly high rear end which appears to be a bit off.
Fit and Finish 9/10
Very very impressive and exactly what you'd expect from an Exoto model. The paint is very good (white is very difficult on scale models I find), sponsor decals are painfully detailed and the panel gaps are razor sharp, even on the fully removable hood, which is tricky to manage.
Features: 8/10
So what have we got here? Opening doors are on hand, the aforementioned removable hood is also in attendance, as is the opening engine cover. One slight niggle is that said engine cover doesn't really open that far, so you can't really see inside as much as you'd like.
As usual I'm being that annoying guy and docking a point for no suspension action.
Value: 5/10
Hmm, this is where things get a bit tricky. I went through a bit of an Exoto binge back in 2008/2009, as this image may attest.
Back then there was a glut of them on the market and even a comparatively rare twin turbo version with the addition of spotlights on the hood (not present on other Exotos) was easy pickings on eBay under €200. The same search today has yielded the sum total of two cars, one has broken spotlights and is at $311 BIN, the other, complete, one is at a frankly ridiculous $562 BIN. Now I love these models dearly, but they just aren't worth that sort of money. It may be a temporary glitch in the market, but you can pick up single turbo 935s in the (admittedly hideous) Standox colours for $200, and that's about right. But at its current price point, this particular model offers hideously bad value for money.
Rarity: 9/10
As a counterpoint to the above statement, it's definitely rare. Exoto lists it as out of production and there are only two doing the rounds on eBay. If you absolutely must have an Exoto Brumos 935, then you're stuck I'm afraid.
Total: 40/50
Don't get me wrong, this is a great model, Exoto really knows how to take care of business, but I think there are too many smartypants people on the internet taking advantage of the name and pricing the models out of reasonable range. I'm ok with four figure asking prices for the Martini or Jaegermeister twin sets, but the thick end of five hundred bucks for one of these seems a bit wrong.
This has turned into a bit of a rant on the state of the model market and that wasn't my intention. I think these 935s are gorgeous models and everybody who likes competition-themed Porsches should welcome one into their collection. The 935 in twin turbo guise represents an interesting stepping stone in the development of the 911 as a race car, we're getting to the point where things are starting to look different to the 911 on the street (slant nose, those twin turbos), but we're still in the recognizable 911 shape which would soon end with the arrival of Moby Dick, Kremer K3 and K4 and finally the insane JLP-4...