Memoire of 90's JDM race car part 2 - 1/24 Castrol Mugen Accord JTCC '97 and Castrol Mugen NSX JGTC '98

A second streak of 90's Japanese race car, this time are two legendary touring cars by Honda with the same sponsor/livery.  Any fans of the Gran Turismo 2 installment or Best Motoring should be familiar with any one of these - the Castrol Mugen Accord and NSX.

First up is the Accord.  For those unfamiliar, this is not an ordinary everyday accord with roll cage.  It features a 300hp destroked H22A engine and 6 speed sequential transmission.  Its sheer speed can walk a Skyline GTR N1 racer and eventually bypass the infamous 600hp Mine's Skyline (Source:  Best Motoring video - https://youtu.be/QhmCJOnFKZc?t=456 ) and that is what makes this Accord so special.  Below is a picture of the real car from a screencap on Best Motoring:

For my kit I used straight up stock Tamiya kit and followed the Tamiya's version with the carbon color front lower lip.  The fit and finish is good for this kit, however the red decals around the front and bumper trim is tricky to apply and I had to finish up with some red florescent pain to complete the look.

The Castrol Mugen NSX should need less introduction - a NSX fully factory modified gran touring car bored the engine to 3.5L outputting ~500hp racing in the Japanese championship in the GT500 class.  A picture of the real car:

Being the original Playstation, I first got in touch of this car through Gran Turismo 2:

The model kit is straight up kit Tamiya.  Fitment for parts are good and contains the C35B engine detail.

If they race together it will be pretty epic:

Enjoy!

Memoire of 90's JDM race car - 1/24 Falken Nissan Skyline GTR R33 N1

Many original Gran Turismo and Best Motoring fan should be familiar of this car from the 90's - Falken Nissan Skyline GTR R33 N1 endurance race car.

This car in real life is modified to race in the Japanese endurance series "Super Taikyu" and the Skyline GTR was a dominant platform in the 90's.  The interior is completely stripped with roll cage and the engine output remains ~300hp.  Below is a picture of the real car featuring in Best Motoring.

Specs and modifications of my model:

• Fujiimi 1/24 Nissan R33 Skyline GTR 1997 base kit
• Fujimi Nismo LM-GT2 wheels
• 1/24 Tamiya R32 Group N race interior and roll cage
• Custom modified trunk gas inlet
• Studio 27 R34 Falken N1 decals

Enjoy!

1/24 Evangelion Racing Porsche GT3R 2011 and Mclaren MP4-12C GT3 2013

First post of the year and celebrating the Lunar new year with a pair of red racing models that I actually finished up at the end of 2015.   It's also been sometime since I have posted a racing project, so while at it I will give a little review for both cars.  For this pair, they are GT3 cars racing in the Japanese Super GT series from the GT300 class. 

The sponsor is a very famous and classic Japanese animation the "Evangelion" series and they actually sponsored  their own Evangelion Racing team since 2011.  The livery is my favorite character mech machine - Asuka and the EVA unit 02 in red.  Below is the race queen and the actual GT3R race car:

Official Super GT entry can be found here:
https://supergt.net/tandds/team/2011/138


The kit itself is straight out of the box from Fujimi.  Fujimi's quality have improved over the past years, the basic fitment and finish for this Porsche GT3R is very good.  The chassis underneath and the front vents still lack the details of Tamiya, but the body and exterior quality have increased comparing to the earlier road models from a couple of years ago.  However, the decals are another story..  Although the livery and decals are relatively simple, some of the fitments are off and can take some skills to correct it.  An example is the yellowish orange strip on top of the front splitter.  The curves do not really match with the shape of the bumper and for me it takes a bit of cut and move for it to look like fitting the real car.  Some of the body color decals also have extra films that require adjustments.

The second car of this pair is the MP4-12C GT3.  Unlike the GT3R, this livery actually did not seem to make it to the race series and remained as a show car livery.  For the actual race the team used the purple unit 01 livery.  For this kit, the quality is pretty much the same as the GT3R.  Good fitment on most body parts, some decals position is off and requires adjustments on the side panels and front splitter. 

A pair of Unit 02:

Enjoy!

1/24 Honda "real" NSX-R GT in Monte Carlo blue with engine

Another tribute to the first gen NSX since the second gen is released, I have custom made a NSX-R GT model using the Fujimi NA2 base kit.

 

A little brief history of the car, this NSX variant was produced by Honda in 2005(also marks the 10th anniversary for this car, time flys) for production-based race car homogenization requirements on the Japanese touring car series Super GT.  The original NSX production had already seized in 2003, so only 5 of these unicorns were made in 2005 so the NSX can still compete in the race series.  Later on tuner companies like Route KS and Spoon have replica body kits for the regular NSX's that you can buy and replicate.  Below is a picture of the real car  in Champion White for reference:

The reason I call my creation the "real" R GT is because I have made modification for it be more a homogenize road car of the Super GT car than the R GT car itself in real life.   Specs and modifications of my model:

• 1/24 Fujimi Honda NSX-R NA2 base kit
• 1/24 Tamiya Honda NSX JGTC GT500 3.5L V6 mounted longitudinally with ITB similar to the NSX Super GT race car
• 2005 NA2 NSX Super GT race car headlights (from 1/24 Tamiya Honda Super GT race car)
• 18" Volks Racing TE37, similar to the NSX Super GT race car
• Wider air inlet on side
• Custom NSX-R GT front lip
• NSX Super GT car rear bumper and snorkel(from 1/24 Tamiya Honda Super GT race car) to finish up

The original NSX-R GT was suspected to only have visual add on parts with the same transverse mounted V6 as the road car.   So my model I decided to make it closer to the Super GT car by mounting the engine longitudinal.

Combining the snorkel and the ITB, if the real car have this it will breathe really well.

Pairing with my previously built Midnight Pearl NA2 NSX-R:

Enjoy!