Woaaaah AWESOME!!! First I didn't like this car at all, but on your pics it looks so brutal!!! Now I want it!!! :???:
Exoto GT40-MKIV Review...
Hello Everyone,
Here is my promised review of my Exoto Ford GT40-MKIV Works Prototype. I'd like to say that the pictures in this review are the best I've taken! I hope everyone enjoys this review, and on another note, I'd like to apologize...the photos are at the bottom of the review. In my poll, there were lots of requests asking that the photo's be innersperced throughout the review. This one was already in the works, so my reviews after this one will be that way. Anyway, Enjoy!!
Exoto 1967 Ford GT40 Mk IV Works Sebring Prototype
Paint: 8 out of 8
While a casual glance at this model may make it look like mostly 1 color (orange), there are actually several colors on this perfectly painted model. We have the primary Orange color, also we see gloss black, flat black, chrome, and silver. This model has 2 thin black stripes along the top, starting at the front bumper and going all the way back to the rear spoiler. Perfectly applied, no over spray anywhere. The undersides of the front hood and rear engine color are perfectly painted in a flat black, which does not look like an afterthought at all. So where's the chrome and silver?
Rivets, rivets, and more rivets! This model has tons of rivets on it's exterior, mostly molded in rivets, and a few that are separate pieces. All of the rivets on the models exterior are painted either chrome or silver, and they look great! Let me clarify the word "great" here. They do look great, but there are some of these rivets where you can see that the tampo machine or whatever used wasn't lined up exactly perfectly. But in each of these cases, the rivets are painted enough so they appear silver. To me, it's understandable, I don't see how anyone could make these molded in painted rivets painted perfectly, especially when there are 423 of these molded in, just on the exterior. And these go over all kinds of angles. Just on the front section, I count 70 molded in rivets, On the sides, there are a total of 262 molded in rivets, mostly in silver. These include the rivets molded into the side windows, which are painted chrome. 58 rivets on the c*ckpit roof and rear engine cover, and 33 molded in rivets on the cars rear, painted silver.
Exterior: 7.5 out of 8
As custom, I'll split this into 3 sections…front and rear covered here, and the interior covered in the Interior section.
The front:
This is a really beautiful, sexy beast! We see these beautiful clear headlight enclosures first. Within these flush fitting enclosures, which are surrounded by an orange band of trim, with chrome molded in rivets, we see some gorgeous headlights. There are 3 different lights here, all being surrounded by individual chrome rings. The outer most headlights are the largest, with their lenses being nicely engraved and slightly opaque. Towards the inside side of these enclosures, we see a smaller headlight, also nicely engraved and slightly opaque. I'm not sure if these are considered the high beams or driving lights. Above these "driving lights", we see a clear amber turn signal. This turn signal sticks out considerably from it's chrome frame. It is not engraved. Concerning the headlights, we do see mounting posts, but they make what I consider a terrific effort at being bulbs. To me, I know they are posts, but they do not look like posts.
The headlight enclosures interior is painted flat black, and really sets the lights off wonderfully.
Below and in between these light enclosures, we see 3 openings. The first is a long, horizontal opening, with rounded corners. Recessed within this opening is the best wire mesh I have seen on a model. Many of my models have wire mesh, but this mesh is substantial looking, while looking completely to scale. Meaning, it doesn't look delicate. Wonderfully done in a stainless steel color. On each side of this opening, we see 2 tow hooks, flat red in color. These are framed by silver colored molded in rivets. Going on out towards the edges of the model, we see 2 additional openings, 1 per side. These are true openings, but they are met by a flat black colored panel about 1/8th of an inch inside these little tunnels.
The 2 thin black stripes mentioned in the Paint section come down the center of the hood to the top edge of the large mesh covered opening, and continue at the bottom edge of this opening, as if the opening was not there at all.
At the front of the hood, on the drivers side, we see "MK-IV" tampo'd on in perfectly clear and sharp black paint. On the passenger side, at the top most edge of the headlight enclosure, we see a small V shaped air scoop. It is open as it should be.
At about the middle of the hood, and going up and meeting the windshield frame, we see a really large opening that recesses down into the front hood, for lack of better words. The black stripes by the way, do follow down into this large opening, and take back up on the top of the hood as if there was no opening. This opening, which is surrounded by thin vertical "fins" meets the interior side of the photo etch radiator, which is clearly visible through this large opening, residing at almost a 45 degree angle. These vertical fins have 2 little separately applied photo etch round large rivets, 2 for each fin. Within this large opening, we also see two additional round openings. These are the openings for the front brake cooling ducts. They reside on each side, within the large opening. Between these 2 openings, we see a square body panel, what it is for, I do not know, but you are able to feel the mold seams.
At the windshield side of this large opening, we see 2 large photo etch, separately applied oval shaped "rivets". Also seen here is the single arm, single blade windshield wiper. This resides on top of the front firewall, and the edges of the front hood circumvent the windshield wiper; meaning, when you lift the hood, you see a little indention where the windshield wiper meets the hood, if that makes sense.
On each side, above the front wheel wells, we see a riveted on flare. It looks tacked on, and it's supposed to look tacked on. Remember, this was a prototype. On the later GT40's, these enhancements became part of the body work. Along the rear side of these wheel wells, we see a chrome latch which is separately applied, and flush with the body. These are used to represent the latches that kept the hood closed.
The windshield curves slightly towards the doors of the car. The windshield is framed in black.
On the drivers side, we see a small opening cover. This piece flips up on tiny hinges that are miniature versions of the door hinges in one's home. This flips up to reveal the gas cap. The underside of this cover is painted silver. The very well rendered gas cap is molded in, and gold in color, residing on top of the silver interiors of the car. The gas cap doesn't open, but the cover that covers it does. This cover has a small, oval shaped photo etch "handle" on it's curved side. What is neat about this cover, is that it is not part of the front opening hood, it's a separate piece. And when you open the front hood, you see that on the drivers side of the hood, it is not symmetrical with the passenger side of the hood. The passenger side of the hood reaches towards the windshield and passenger door, while the driver side of the hood is stopped by this separate, functional cover.
In fact, this little separate cover is my one gripe with this model. Yes, it's neat to have lots of opening parts, but quite frankly, the edge of this little cover that meets the front hood is lacking. There is a lack of precision fit here…so that with the front cover down, lifting the hood causes this front cover to open slightly. And closing this hood with this little cover in it's down position does not allow the front hood to close all the way. To get it to close, you have to lift the front hood open again, open the small cover, close the hood, and then close the little cover. And when they are both closed, there is a section where the little cover meets the hood that doesn't line up exactly right. And the hinges are right, so it's not just angled wrong…it's like the little cover could be a little better made. I wish it didn't open, that's my opinion, and just because of this issue. Enough on that, lets open the front hood. OK, it's open, but it won't stay open, so let me get my little home made prop rod…
There's a reason that the hood won't stay open, and it's one of Exoto's neat little details. The hood is hinged at the very front of the car, that's all well and good. The hood has 2 little wound metal strings that connect to the frame of the car, so to keep the hood from falling back away from the car. Neat little, accurate detail…but the metal strings aren't quite long enough, so the hood just won't stay open by its self. I don't know if this is specific to my model or not.
As mentioned in the Paint section, the underside of the hood is painted flat black. And the underside of the hood is quite astoundingly detailed for the underside of the hood. First, we see the back sides of the headlight enclosures, which are connected to the body with molded in, silver painted rivets. What else? How about also the back sides of the 2 headlights and turn signal holders, which are separate pieces. Also, we see 6 wires here, 3 on each side. These are the power cables for the headlights and turn signals. 4 of these wires are black, and 2 are orange. The 4 black wires go into the rear of the headlight holders, with the 2 orange wires going to the turn signal holders, and then on into the recess's of the hood. Pretty awesome!
We also see that the large recessed air intake is connected to the hood with silver colored molded in rivets, and that the two round openings in this area, when the hood is closed, meet up with silver connectors that are connected to flexible corrugated tubes so that the front brakes can be kept cool. These tubes are black in color, and they move with the front wheels when the front wheels are steered. More on that later.
We see the silver painted, and photo etch covered radiator way up front, angled at a 45 degree or so angle. On the inside side of the radiator, we see the very well detailed battery, which resides between the aforementioned silver connectors for the brake air ducts. This battery is black in color, with little round red battery acid covers, 6 of them. The word "Autolite" is spelled out in red on the front top of the battery, and on the rear top of the battery, we see a white tampo which represents tiny letters, which are not legible. The extremely detailed (for their size, more detailed than any other I've seen) battery terminal connectors connect to the battery posts. They are silver in color, and the terminal connectors are connected to the battery wires, 1 being red, 1 being black. These wires go into the recess's of the chassis.
In front of the front firewall, and behind the battery, we see a large, highly detailed silver "box" with several accessory attachments. We also see a magnesium colored round shaped tube here, whatever it is I have no clue. I have no clue about any of this stuff except it's extremely detailed, and made up of many different parts. There are also, on top of this silver box, two black things, separately molded. One is jar shaped, and has white tampo'd letters on it, too small to read. So, I'll go over what I know…
The suspension is completely functional and extremely well rendered. The coil over shocks are black in color, with silver caps. They are surrounded by red coil over springs, which compress. The front stabilizer bar goes across the silver box thing, angles towards the front of the car, and is then connected with the front suspension by 90 degree down pieces. This stabilizer bar is connected to the silver box by a silver component that has 4 gold colored molded nuts. All suspension components are functional, meaning, they move when you compress the wheel, and not just the wheel. When you compress the front suspension, you can see the stabilizer bar move upwards, you can see the wishbones move, the brake duct hoses move, everything that should move when you compress the suspension moves. The front suspension is made up of silver and black components, the wishbones, stabilizer bars being in silver, the tie rods being black.
The exterior of the passenger compartment is quite detailed. Probably the first thing you will notice are the doors. They are asymmetrical, meaning that the drivers door frame cuts quite significantly into the roof of the car, making it easier for the driver to enter the car quickly. The area on the cut out section of the roof is framed with what I can best describe as a "shield", which slightly covers the edge of the door when closed. Meaning, when you close the door, this shield covers the seam of the opening. You'll also notice that when the doors are open, the door frames on the "A" and "B" pillars are lined with recessed silver colored rivets. The driver doors have oval shaped holes cut into their sides, that is how the doors were opened. Both door windows have simulated sliding windows, which are connected with silver, horizontal bars and chrome rivets. These sliding windows do not open, however, they are well rendered. The doors, as you will see from the photo's are oddly, yet complexly shaped…on the sides of the doors, they angle in towards the passenger compartment side windows, at a 90 degree angle. This is because the passenger compartment is considerably in boards on each side…maybe a half of an inch on each side. In this area, we see a downward scoop, which goes towards an opening in the rear engine compartment, ending in a silver photo etch grill in the engine compartment.
On the roof of the passenger compartment, we see a square section surrounded by silver colored molded in rivets. Within this small square, we see 8 simulated louver vents. They are not see through, and who cares if this is Exoto or not, I don't see how they could make them real vents, being so small. We also see indentions cut into the roof, which are surrounded by silver colored molded in rivets. This is where the hinge to the rear engine cover resides.
The rear section:
First, there are 4 scoops right behind the passenger compartment, 2 on each side. These are actual scoops, and are see through. 2 small vents (1 per side) reside on the top flanks of the engine cover, while the other 2 larger vents reside on the sides of the engine cover. We also have 2 hinged covers here, they being hinged with the same house door hinge as mentioned in the front section. They are 1 per side, the drivers side cover being hinged towards the rear of the car, and the passenger side cover being hinged towards the front of the car. I'd like to say that these two covers look great, and do not have the issues I talked about in regards to the cover that was covered in the front section. These two covers have photo etched handles. They are oval in shape, and then they sort of bend up at a 90 degree angle so that you can grasp them with tweezers, carefully. You can use your fingers to sort of lift these covers. The drivers side cover opens to reveal a silver cap which goes to some apparatus, I'm thinking the oil cooler. The passenger side cover opens to reveal some other apparatus, which to me, is not very close to the cover, it's down towards the floor of the engine compartment.
On top of the engine compartment, we see a large rectangular shaped piece of glass. This is trimmed in orange, and has numerous chrome colored molded in rivets. You are able to look down into the engine and view the carbs, and exhausts among other things.
The sides of the rear cover flow beautifully over the rear wheel wells…like a slow motion wave almost, and the end up in a curved up rear spoiler. This spoiler appears tacked on, as it should. This spoiler starts at the rear of the rear wheel wells, and gracefully curves up. The spoiler, on the sides of the car, actually stick out perpendicular from the body work. The sides of the spoiler are connected to the sides of the body with the tiniest, silver colored molded in rivets seen on this car. So tiny, they are almost not noticeable…but they are their, raised, and painted silver. On the rear side of the spoiler, we see lots of molded in rivets, silver in color. These simply hold the spoiler together, as they are not meant to connect it to the body. The spoiler is connected to the rear of the car by 5 large photo etch pieces, which reside in 5 vertical groves. These are rendered to show that on the rear car, the spoiler could be slid up or down, depending on the conditions that were present.
On the back side of the car, we see 4 tail lights, 2 per side, 1 on top of the other. These are clear red plastic, and they are surrounded by chrome rings. Also, present on the actual lights themselves, are 2 raised rivets, which are silver in color. The red lenses are nicely rendered, and mounting posts are not visible. Between these tail lights, we see a large rectangular opening in the center of the rear body work. Coming out of this large opening, we see the silver engine compartment floor, two black tow hooks, and the two large almost trumpet shaped exhausts, among other things, such as braces, a silver hollow box used to store items, which resides on the drivers side, and a compressed, full size spare (not blown up) on the passenger side. This large rectangle opening is horizontally inclined, and the body work does not go beneath it. Are we ready to open the engine cover? My typing fingers are afraid to, but here goes…
Where to begin? I guess from the rear of the passenger compartment to the rear of the car. Well, when we open the engine compartment, we see some neat things. The underside of the engine compartment is painted flat black in color, and the rectangular shaped window that covers the engine has a silver colored cover beneath it that sections off the carburetors. We see several silver colored rivets in various places here. The rear engine compartment, as stated, is hinged at the top of the rear passenger compartment firewall. This piece is held up by a really cool complex hinge double arm. When closed, this double arm bends in half at a hinge and rests between the exhausts when closed. On this arm, we see a tiny linked chain, metal in color. At the end of this chain, we see a black little pipe, which is designed to go into a hole in this double arm. This double arm, by the way, locks when in the up position. This is done by the weight of the engine compartment, and by the complex hinge itself. When you open the engine compartment, it opens slightly higher than it's resting open position. Then, it sets down, and compress's this double arm at the hinge, where there is some sort of stop built in. To close the engine compartment, you simply lift it up slightly, then the double arm gets out of that stop and begins to bend as you close the compartment.
On the passenger side, we see the silver housing which is where the aforementioned depressions on the doors lead to. These silver housings have photo etch grills. First, I'd like to say I have no idea what these are for, so I'll explain as best as I can. The passenger side silver box is held up by a triangular shaped piece of silver, with drilled holes, the smallest holes being towards the top, and the larger holes being towards the bottom. Behind and within the backsides of this silver box we see lots of separately molded pieces, and several metal "mesh" or "woven" wires, simulating excellently tubing. These metal colored tubes begin and end in metallic blue and metallic red connectors. We also see here lots of molded in rivets on the engine compartment floor. These woven tubes go to various areas within the engine compartment. One of note is the passenger side rear firewall, which is painted flat black, where we see silver accessory items, and we see several of those woven tubes and connectors here. These accessories reside right below the lower left side of the rear view window which is on the rear firewall.
On the driver side, we see similar items, except we have the oil filler cap and compartment, also with those metal mesh tubing. We see this mesh tubing running towards the front and rear of the engine compartment. Towards the front, we see a woven tube connecting to a silver canister, where it connects at the top. This canister is vertical in position.
Towards the rear of the car, we see the completely functional rear suspension. We have here silver shocks with black caps, surrounded by red coil over's, which of course, compress. As in the front, all suspension components move when you compress a wheel. One thing of interest here, is we see a stabilizer bar, which appears to be adjustable. This stabilizer bar resides on top of the transmission and below the rear exhausts. They run the length of the rear axle's, and towards their edges, they curve 90 degrees back towards the rear of the car, where they meet uprights which are connected to the suspension. This is where they are adjustable. On the stabilizer bars, we see little ridges that would hold the stabilizer bar to various strengths. The stabilizer bar and uprights are silver in color, as are the wishbone connectors, which connect to black colored rear lower wishbones. Upper wishbones are not present. In place of these are long bars, silver in color, which stretch back from the rear suspension on towards the rear firewall (passenger compartment), where they connect. These bars are hinged at the rear suspension and firewall, and move up and down when you compress a wheel. This bar as said, is silver in color, yet where it connects to the rear suspension, the color becomes black. On the drivers side, we see a woven metal tube running the length of this bar, residing somewhat on top of it.
Where we see the shocks, slightly towards the front of the car, and slightly outboard from the shocks, we see vertical silver towers, which are cut open on the outboard sides of these tubes. Residing in these silver tubes/towers, we see rubber corrugated tubes…these serve as cooling ducts for the rear brakes. These ducts connect to the larger aforementioned vents which reside on the top sides of the engine compartment cover. They connect via black painted connectors. These by the way, also supply air to the closed off carburetor compartment. These connectors have foam rubber connectors, which are awesome!
The drivers side, towards the very rear of the car, we see a large, hollow, open toped rectangular shaped box, silver in color. This is for storing items, I guess parts or tools. On the other side, we see the compressed spare tire.
Why 7.5 out of 8? Well, the front hood will not stay open on it's own, because the wires are too short, and the passenger side hinged cover is not molded as well as it should be. The reason I'm only taking half of a point off here, is because I believe that most likely, the hood not staying up is attributed to my model, and not in general. I'm not so sure about that hinged cover though.
Interior: 8 out of 8
The interior is a sight to behold. Awesome detail! First, I'll start with the interiors of the doors, which I think are cool. The door interiors are flat black. They reside on pretty much invisible hinges. But the neat thing about these doors is that you can see a stiff metal wire coming out of the door frame and into the interior of the car door. This is designed to keep the doors from opening too far. But what is neat is that this stiff little wire, when you close and open the doors, goes into and out of the interior of the door…it doesn't bend, but slides in and out of the door. Also, on the interior doors, we see a recessed area that has an additional, horizontal, metal wire. This runs almost the length of the interior door, and represents the pull cord the driver/passenger would use to close the door. It is a different piece of wire than the one that slides in and out, as it is on a different level.
Also, on the outer side of the interiors of the doors, we see a silver painted latch, that connects to a separately molded silver latch on the door frame. Very cool.
On both sides of the car, you have, upon opening the doors, a wide flat silver colored side "frame". From what I understand, these are the fuel tanks, 1 per side, but I may be wrong. They are maybe an inch in width and run the length of the door frame. On each side, we see a gold colored raised square, which is edged in silver rivets, as well as rivets running a line down the center. Also, on the drivers side, there is a round, raised, gold colored thing with 4 silver colored rivets. On the drivers side, beside the door frame mounted silver colored latch, we see a silver and black tampo, with black lettering, which my eyes can not make out.
On the passenger side, along this "bulkhead" or fuel tank, we also have an additional raised gold colored rectangle. But this one has 1 woven metal wire going into it, connected via the metallic blue and red connector. This wire runs behind the seat towards the rear firewall. There is also another woven metal tube, with the metallic blue and red connector connecting right at the right most side of the passenger seat, on the bulkhead. Also, coming out of this gold raised rectangle, we see another connector, however, this one solid metallic blue. It connects to a thin chrome pipe that takes a 90 degree turn and follows the bulkhead down towards the front firewall.
The gear shifter is silver in color, and topped with a wood grain handle. This resides to the drivers left and along the right side of the bulkhead.
The dashboard has 4 silver ringed gauges, 1 large one right behind the steering wheel, and the other 3 smaller ones angled to the right of the driver, mounted to the dash in a pyramid area (2 on top, 1 on the bottom). To the left of these 3 gauges is a red switch. The steering wheel is all black, with a black hub. The hub has 6 chrome rivets circling it. The gauge section of the dashboard (area behind and to the right of the steering wheel) has a binnacle that sticks out from the dashboard towards the steering wheel. This acts as a shield to glares, etc. It is attached by 3 tiny molded in silver rivets.
To the drivers left, and in front of the passenger, we have this large, almost triangle shaped piece of the dash jut out. On the right side of this triangle, which is angled towards the driver, we see lots of silver and red painted switches, as well as some handles that are silver and red painted also. Handles meaning, switches that are not round. This triangle is topped with a black mesh piece that is held onto this triangle body by several silver rivets. But underneath that mesh, we see the tiny orange wires that run the gauges and switches on the dashboard. Each wire is an individual wire and looks awesome.
The black colored floor (with silver rivets here and there) has the driver pedals, gas in silver color, and brake and clutch in black. The brake and clutch pedals are textured, the gas pedal is smooth, all are hinged at the floor. On the passenger side, we see a red and silver fire extinguisher, with white and black tampo's for warning labels. Also seen here are braces that come down from the dashboard into the passenger floorboard. This brace is silver in color, and guess what? It's got a textured piece of leather on the front side of it, so as to not bruise the passenger in case of an accident. Pretty neat, considering you can barely see it. Also, on the passenger side, we see black rubber tubes coming out from beneath the dashboard towards the front firewall, coming up towards the edge of the dashboard, and then connecting to a silver connector right on the edge of the dashboard facing the passenger.
The seats are of soft rubber, resembling leather. They have separate fabric seatbelts with photo etch fasteners. The seats are black with tan textured trim in the centers. Being a prototype remember, the passenger seat does not have seatbelts.
The entire passenger compartment is ringed via a roll cage, which is separate pieces. The pieces coming down the "A" pillar are separate, not molded into the "A" pillars. Same goes for the bars along the ceiling and rear firewall.
The ceiling is finished in flat black, and there is a chrome and black rear view mirror mounted here, angled towards the driver.
Wheels/Brakes: 6 out of 6
The wheels and tires are awesome! They may at a casual glance appear somewhat simple, but that is definitely not the case here at all! First, we have numerous colors. The wheels themselves have chrome rims, with magnesium colored fins which make up the wheel. The center knock off hubs, on the drivers side, are metallic blue in color, with chrome hollow rings in their center. On the passenger side, we see the same thing, except the knock offs are metallic red in color. We of course, see Exoto's machined aluminum valve stems, and another neat item is that we see lead weights on the chrome rims. These are separate pieces, and are a dull silver in color. We see two lead weights per wheel.
The tires are awesome also. They have a yellow ring on their walls, "Firestone" in yellow letters, exactly rendered as Firestone writes their name as their logo. Also, we have a red "F" within a triangular shield. This is their other logo. The tire side walls are very smooth, and the tread is very accurate and extremely well rendered. We also notice here that on the tread portion of the tire, that it is dull and flat in color and texture. Meaning, this car's been driven! Totally awesome! The rear tires are much taller and wider than the front tires. The spare tire, which is compressed, i.e., not inflated, appears to be a front tire due to it's width, and is just as detailed.
The brakes are awesome as well. As mentioned above, the front wheels have flexible corrugated rubber tubes that serve as a way to channel air to the disks. They are flexible, and they move as you steer the front wheels. The front disks are flat silver in color, are grooved, and turn with the wheels inside fixed brake calipers, which are very detailed themselves, being gold in color. The rear disks are also flat silver and grooved, rotating with the wheels. These rear disks are very inboard in the rear wheels, so they are very hard to see. They rotate in fixed, very detailed brake calipers, being silver in color.
Engine & Undercarriage Detail: 8 out of 8
The engine…I've been dreading writing this, there's just so much to cover! You can see some of the engine with the rear engine cover closed, through the clear glass cover. From here, within the engine cover mounted silver container, we see the dual 4 barrel carburetors. They are within their own container, which has a clear plastic cover, which by the way, is held on with the tiniest metal springs, actual springs. Here also, we see the metal woven tubes with the metallic blue and red connectors. Totally awesome! We can also see the "snakes nest" exhaust, which is a burnt metal or copper in color. Resting on top of this snake nest is the double arm which hold open the engine compartment when open. You can also see part of the spare tire, the silver parts box, and the rear stabilizer bar. All this just from the window. Let's open the engine compartment again and look at the actual engine:
The engine block is flat silver in color, with chrome valve covers. Residing between these valve covers is the carburetor box. This box is flat silver in color. On each side, we see two flat silver tubes coming out which meet connectors on the engine cover. These tubes have foam rubber "do nuts" at their end to form a seal when they connect to the connectors on the engine cover. These connectors are flat black in color.
In front of this box, right behind the rear firewall, is the distributor. The distributor has individual orange colored spark plug wires coming out of it, which are wound together. These go into the sides of the engine below the chrome valve covers.
The exhausts look quite tantric in their positions, they are so wrapped around each other it's amazing…like a kinky game of "Twister". But regardless of my mind being in the gutter right now, their beautifully rendered. As said, they are a burnt metal or copper in color, and they are hollow. They come together into 2 larger exhaust, which gradually get wider as they go towards the rear of the car, trumpet in shape. One thing of interest here is that right where all the tubes come together to form the two tubes, there is a hinge, one on each of the two pipes. This is a simulated hinge. I guess on the real car, you could lift the rear portion of the exhausts up to service the area beneath it. Since these exhausts are hinged, well, something's got to keep them in place. How about 4 beautiful, tiny little springs? Two per exhaust. They wrap around these exhausts, and connect to a housing beneath these exhausts. Speaking of beneath the exhausts, we see one of the neatest, in my opinion items on this car, even if it's hard to see.
We see something, either the rear of the transmission, or what, but it's beautifully rendered, and have engraved and molded in fins. There are 4 of those woven metal tubes coming into this, each with their own metallic blue and red connectors, at varying angles, depending on where the wire connects to this. See, even the details you can't see that well are rendered greatly on this model.
Flipping the car over, you are able to view the Diecast chassis, which has probably as many rivets on it as the body of the car. It is a flat silver in color, and towards the rear, we see an opening where you can see the underside of the engine. Here, we see the oil pan, sort of in a light gold color, with cooling fins. On the front most and rear most edges of this pan, the color becomes a dark silver. You can see separately molded accessories here, mostly in flat silver. The oil filter is a dark orange color, and "FRAM" is tampo'd on in black letters in two places. Also from viewing the engine from the underside, you can see the cylinder banks angle out, and can see the exhausts coming out. Also seen here are 4 of those woven metal tubes, with their respective metallic blue and red connectors. 1 is on each side of the engine, and two are towards the front of the engine.
Competition: 6 out of 6
No one to my knowledge, makes the GT40-MKIV in 1/18 scale other than Exoto. Eagles Race, aka, Universal Hobbies, makes a poorly detailed GT40-MKII, but not the MKIV. And, the MKII can not hold a candle to Exoto's MKII
Desirability: 6 out of 6
I love this car.
Overall: 49.5 out of 50
Hope you all enjoy!
Here is my promised review of my Exoto Ford GT40-MKIV Works Prototype. I'd like to say that the pictures in this review are the best I've taken! I hope everyone enjoys this review, and on another note, I'd like to apologize...the photos are at the bottom of the review. In my poll, there were lots of requests asking that the photo's be innersperced throughout the review. This one was already in the works, so my reviews after this one will be that way. Anyway, Enjoy!!
Exoto 1967 Ford GT40 Mk IV Works Sebring Prototype
Paint: 8 out of 8
While a casual glance at this model may make it look like mostly 1 color (orange), there are actually several colors on this perfectly painted model. We have the primary Orange color, also we see gloss black, flat black, chrome, and silver. This model has 2 thin black stripes along the top, starting at the front bumper and going all the way back to the rear spoiler. Perfectly applied, no over spray anywhere. The undersides of the front hood and rear engine color are perfectly painted in a flat black, which does not look like an afterthought at all. So where's the chrome and silver?
Rivets, rivets, and more rivets! This model has tons of rivets on it's exterior, mostly molded in rivets, and a few that are separate pieces. All of the rivets on the models exterior are painted either chrome or silver, and they look great! Let me clarify the word "great" here. They do look great, but there are some of these rivets where you can see that the tampo machine or whatever used wasn't lined up exactly perfectly. But in each of these cases, the rivets are painted enough so they appear silver. To me, it's understandable, I don't see how anyone could make these molded in painted rivets painted perfectly, especially when there are 423 of these molded in, just on the exterior. And these go over all kinds of angles. Just on the front section, I count 70 molded in rivets, On the sides, there are a total of 262 molded in rivets, mostly in silver. These include the rivets molded into the side windows, which are painted chrome. 58 rivets on the c*ckpit roof and rear engine cover, and 33 molded in rivets on the cars rear, painted silver.
Exterior: 7.5 out of 8
As custom, I'll split this into 3 sections…front and rear covered here, and the interior covered in the Interior section.
The front:
This is a really beautiful, sexy beast! We see these beautiful clear headlight enclosures first. Within these flush fitting enclosures, which are surrounded by an orange band of trim, with chrome molded in rivets, we see some gorgeous headlights. There are 3 different lights here, all being surrounded by individual chrome rings. The outer most headlights are the largest, with their lenses being nicely engraved and slightly opaque. Towards the inside side of these enclosures, we see a smaller headlight, also nicely engraved and slightly opaque. I'm not sure if these are considered the high beams or driving lights. Above these "driving lights", we see a clear amber turn signal. This turn signal sticks out considerably from it's chrome frame. It is not engraved. Concerning the headlights, we do see mounting posts, but they make what I consider a terrific effort at being bulbs. To me, I know they are posts, but they do not look like posts.
The headlight enclosures interior is painted flat black, and really sets the lights off wonderfully.
Below and in between these light enclosures, we see 3 openings. The first is a long, horizontal opening, with rounded corners. Recessed within this opening is the best wire mesh I have seen on a model. Many of my models have wire mesh, but this mesh is substantial looking, while looking completely to scale. Meaning, it doesn't look delicate. Wonderfully done in a stainless steel color. On each side of this opening, we see 2 tow hooks, flat red in color. These are framed by silver colored molded in rivets. Going on out towards the edges of the model, we see 2 additional openings, 1 per side. These are true openings, but they are met by a flat black colored panel about 1/8th of an inch inside these little tunnels.
The 2 thin black stripes mentioned in the Paint section come down the center of the hood to the top edge of the large mesh covered opening, and continue at the bottom edge of this opening, as if the opening was not there at all.
At the front of the hood, on the drivers side, we see "MK-IV" tampo'd on in perfectly clear and sharp black paint. On the passenger side, at the top most edge of the headlight enclosure, we see a small V shaped air scoop. It is open as it should be.
At about the middle of the hood, and going up and meeting the windshield frame, we see a really large opening that recesses down into the front hood, for lack of better words. The black stripes by the way, do follow down into this large opening, and take back up on the top of the hood as if there was no opening. This opening, which is surrounded by thin vertical "fins" meets the interior side of the photo etch radiator, which is clearly visible through this large opening, residing at almost a 45 degree angle. These vertical fins have 2 little separately applied photo etch round large rivets, 2 for each fin. Within this large opening, we also see two additional round openings. These are the openings for the front brake cooling ducts. They reside on each side, within the large opening. Between these 2 openings, we see a square body panel, what it is for, I do not know, but you are able to feel the mold seams.
At the windshield side of this large opening, we see 2 large photo etch, separately applied oval shaped "rivets". Also seen here is the single arm, single blade windshield wiper. This resides on top of the front firewall, and the edges of the front hood circumvent the windshield wiper; meaning, when you lift the hood, you see a little indention where the windshield wiper meets the hood, if that makes sense.
On each side, above the front wheel wells, we see a riveted on flare. It looks tacked on, and it's supposed to look tacked on. Remember, this was a prototype. On the later GT40's, these enhancements became part of the body work. Along the rear side of these wheel wells, we see a chrome latch which is separately applied, and flush with the body. These are used to represent the latches that kept the hood closed.
The windshield curves slightly towards the doors of the car. The windshield is framed in black.
On the drivers side, we see a small opening cover. This piece flips up on tiny hinges that are miniature versions of the door hinges in one's home. This flips up to reveal the gas cap. The underside of this cover is painted silver. The very well rendered gas cap is molded in, and gold in color, residing on top of the silver interiors of the car. The gas cap doesn't open, but the cover that covers it does. This cover has a small, oval shaped photo etch "handle" on it's curved side. What is neat about this cover, is that it is not part of the front opening hood, it's a separate piece. And when you open the front hood, you see that on the drivers side of the hood, it is not symmetrical with the passenger side of the hood. The passenger side of the hood reaches towards the windshield and passenger door, while the driver side of the hood is stopped by this separate, functional cover.
In fact, this little separate cover is my one gripe with this model. Yes, it's neat to have lots of opening parts, but quite frankly, the edge of this little cover that meets the front hood is lacking. There is a lack of precision fit here…so that with the front cover down, lifting the hood causes this front cover to open slightly. And closing this hood with this little cover in it's down position does not allow the front hood to close all the way. To get it to close, you have to lift the front hood open again, open the small cover, close the hood, and then close the little cover. And when they are both closed, there is a section where the little cover meets the hood that doesn't line up exactly right. And the hinges are right, so it's not just angled wrong…it's like the little cover could be a little better made. I wish it didn't open, that's my opinion, and just because of this issue. Enough on that, lets open the front hood. OK, it's open, but it won't stay open, so let me get my little home made prop rod…
There's a reason that the hood won't stay open, and it's one of Exoto's neat little details. The hood is hinged at the very front of the car, that's all well and good. The hood has 2 little wound metal strings that connect to the frame of the car, so to keep the hood from falling back away from the car. Neat little, accurate detail…but the metal strings aren't quite long enough, so the hood just won't stay open by its self. I don't know if this is specific to my model or not.
As mentioned in the Paint section, the underside of the hood is painted flat black. And the underside of the hood is quite astoundingly detailed for the underside of the hood. First, we see the back sides of the headlight enclosures, which are connected to the body with molded in, silver painted rivets. What else? How about also the back sides of the 2 headlights and turn signal holders, which are separate pieces. Also, we see 6 wires here, 3 on each side. These are the power cables for the headlights and turn signals. 4 of these wires are black, and 2 are orange. The 4 black wires go into the rear of the headlight holders, with the 2 orange wires going to the turn signal holders, and then on into the recess's of the hood. Pretty awesome!
We also see that the large recessed air intake is connected to the hood with silver colored molded in rivets, and that the two round openings in this area, when the hood is closed, meet up with silver connectors that are connected to flexible corrugated tubes so that the front brakes can be kept cool. These tubes are black in color, and they move with the front wheels when the front wheels are steered. More on that later.
We see the silver painted, and photo etch covered radiator way up front, angled at a 45 degree or so angle. On the inside side of the radiator, we see the very well detailed battery, which resides between the aforementioned silver connectors for the brake air ducts. This battery is black in color, with little round red battery acid covers, 6 of them. The word "Autolite" is spelled out in red on the front top of the battery, and on the rear top of the battery, we see a white tampo which represents tiny letters, which are not legible. The extremely detailed (for their size, more detailed than any other I've seen) battery terminal connectors connect to the battery posts. They are silver in color, and the terminal connectors are connected to the battery wires, 1 being red, 1 being black. These wires go into the recess's of the chassis.
In front of the front firewall, and behind the battery, we see a large, highly detailed silver "box" with several accessory attachments. We also see a magnesium colored round shaped tube here, whatever it is I have no clue. I have no clue about any of this stuff except it's extremely detailed, and made up of many different parts. There are also, on top of this silver box, two black things, separately molded. One is jar shaped, and has white tampo'd letters on it, too small to read. So, I'll go over what I know…
The suspension is completely functional and extremely well rendered. The coil over shocks are black in color, with silver caps. They are surrounded by red coil over springs, which compress. The front stabilizer bar goes across the silver box thing, angles towards the front of the car, and is then connected with the front suspension by 90 degree down pieces. This stabilizer bar is connected to the silver box by a silver component that has 4 gold colored molded nuts. All suspension components are functional, meaning, they move when you compress the wheel, and not just the wheel. When you compress the front suspension, you can see the stabilizer bar move upwards, you can see the wishbones move, the brake duct hoses move, everything that should move when you compress the suspension moves. The front suspension is made up of silver and black components, the wishbones, stabilizer bars being in silver, the tie rods being black.
The exterior of the passenger compartment is quite detailed. Probably the first thing you will notice are the doors. They are asymmetrical, meaning that the drivers door frame cuts quite significantly into the roof of the car, making it easier for the driver to enter the car quickly. The area on the cut out section of the roof is framed with what I can best describe as a "shield", which slightly covers the edge of the door when closed. Meaning, when you close the door, this shield covers the seam of the opening. You'll also notice that when the doors are open, the door frames on the "A" and "B" pillars are lined with recessed silver colored rivets. The driver doors have oval shaped holes cut into their sides, that is how the doors were opened. Both door windows have simulated sliding windows, which are connected with silver, horizontal bars and chrome rivets. These sliding windows do not open, however, they are well rendered. The doors, as you will see from the photo's are oddly, yet complexly shaped…on the sides of the doors, they angle in towards the passenger compartment side windows, at a 90 degree angle. This is because the passenger compartment is considerably in boards on each side…maybe a half of an inch on each side. In this area, we see a downward scoop, which goes towards an opening in the rear engine compartment, ending in a silver photo etch grill in the engine compartment.
On the roof of the passenger compartment, we see a square section surrounded by silver colored molded in rivets. Within this small square, we see 8 simulated louver vents. They are not see through, and who cares if this is Exoto or not, I don't see how they could make them real vents, being so small. We also see indentions cut into the roof, which are surrounded by silver colored molded in rivets. This is where the hinge to the rear engine cover resides.
The rear section:
First, there are 4 scoops right behind the passenger compartment, 2 on each side. These are actual scoops, and are see through. 2 small vents (1 per side) reside on the top flanks of the engine cover, while the other 2 larger vents reside on the sides of the engine cover. We also have 2 hinged covers here, they being hinged with the same house door hinge as mentioned in the front section. They are 1 per side, the drivers side cover being hinged towards the rear of the car, and the passenger side cover being hinged towards the front of the car. I'd like to say that these two covers look great, and do not have the issues I talked about in regards to the cover that was covered in the front section. These two covers have photo etched handles. They are oval in shape, and then they sort of bend up at a 90 degree angle so that you can grasp them with tweezers, carefully. You can use your fingers to sort of lift these covers. The drivers side cover opens to reveal a silver cap which goes to some apparatus, I'm thinking the oil cooler. The passenger side cover opens to reveal some other apparatus, which to me, is not very close to the cover, it's down towards the floor of the engine compartment.
On top of the engine compartment, we see a large rectangular shaped piece of glass. This is trimmed in orange, and has numerous chrome colored molded in rivets. You are able to look down into the engine and view the carbs, and exhausts among other things.
The sides of the rear cover flow beautifully over the rear wheel wells…like a slow motion wave almost, and the end up in a curved up rear spoiler. This spoiler appears tacked on, as it should. This spoiler starts at the rear of the rear wheel wells, and gracefully curves up. The spoiler, on the sides of the car, actually stick out perpendicular from the body work. The sides of the spoiler are connected to the sides of the body with the tiniest, silver colored molded in rivets seen on this car. So tiny, they are almost not noticeable…but they are their, raised, and painted silver. On the rear side of the spoiler, we see lots of molded in rivets, silver in color. These simply hold the spoiler together, as they are not meant to connect it to the body. The spoiler is connected to the rear of the car by 5 large photo etch pieces, which reside in 5 vertical groves. These are rendered to show that on the rear car, the spoiler could be slid up or down, depending on the conditions that were present.
On the back side of the car, we see 4 tail lights, 2 per side, 1 on top of the other. These are clear red plastic, and they are surrounded by chrome rings. Also, present on the actual lights themselves, are 2 raised rivets, which are silver in color. The red lenses are nicely rendered, and mounting posts are not visible. Between these tail lights, we see a large rectangular opening in the center of the rear body work. Coming out of this large opening, we see the silver engine compartment floor, two black tow hooks, and the two large almost trumpet shaped exhausts, among other things, such as braces, a silver hollow box used to store items, which resides on the drivers side, and a compressed, full size spare (not blown up) on the passenger side. This large rectangle opening is horizontally inclined, and the body work does not go beneath it. Are we ready to open the engine cover? My typing fingers are afraid to, but here goes…
Where to begin? I guess from the rear of the passenger compartment to the rear of the car. Well, when we open the engine compartment, we see some neat things. The underside of the engine compartment is painted flat black in color, and the rectangular shaped window that covers the engine has a silver colored cover beneath it that sections off the carburetors. We see several silver colored rivets in various places here. The rear engine compartment, as stated, is hinged at the top of the rear passenger compartment firewall. This piece is held up by a really cool complex hinge double arm. When closed, this double arm bends in half at a hinge and rests between the exhausts when closed. On this arm, we see a tiny linked chain, metal in color. At the end of this chain, we see a black little pipe, which is designed to go into a hole in this double arm. This double arm, by the way, locks when in the up position. This is done by the weight of the engine compartment, and by the complex hinge itself. When you open the engine compartment, it opens slightly higher than it's resting open position. Then, it sets down, and compress's this double arm at the hinge, where there is some sort of stop built in. To close the engine compartment, you simply lift it up slightly, then the double arm gets out of that stop and begins to bend as you close the compartment.
On the passenger side, we see the silver housing which is where the aforementioned depressions on the doors lead to. These silver housings have photo etch grills. First, I'd like to say I have no idea what these are for, so I'll explain as best as I can. The passenger side silver box is held up by a triangular shaped piece of silver, with drilled holes, the smallest holes being towards the top, and the larger holes being towards the bottom. Behind and within the backsides of this silver box we see lots of separately molded pieces, and several metal "mesh" or "woven" wires, simulating excellently tubing. These metal colored tubes begin and end in metallic blue and metallic red connectors. We also see here lots of molded in rivets on the engine compartment floor. These woven tubes go to various areas within the engine compartment. One of note is the passenger side rear firewall, which is painted flat black, where we see silver accessory items, and we see several of those woven tubes and connectors here. These accessories reside right below the lower left side of the rear view window which is on the rear firewall.
On the driver side, we see similar items, except we have the oil filler cap and compartment, also with those metal mesh tubing. We see this mesh tubing running towards the front and rear of the engine compartment. Towards the front, we see a woven tube connecting to a silver canister, where it connects at the top. This canister is vertical in position.
Towards the rear of the car, we see the completely functional rear suspension. We have here silver shocks with black caps, surrounded by red coil over's, which of course, compress. As in the front, all suspension components move when you compress a wheel. One thing of interest here, is we see a stabilizer bar, which appears to be adjustable. This stabilizer bar resides on top of the transmission and below the rear exhausts. They run the length of the rear axle's, and towards their edges, they curve 90 degrees back towards the rear of the car, where they meet uprights which are connected to the suspension. This is where they are adjustable. On the stabilizer bars, we see little ridges that would hold the stabilizer bar to various strengths. The stabilizer bar and uprights are silver in color, as are the wishbone connectors, which connect to black colored rear lower wishbones. Upper wishbones are not present. In place of these are long bars, silver in color, which stretch back from the rear suspension on towards the rear firewall (passenger compartment), where they connect. These bars are hinged at the rear suspension and firewall, and move up and down when you compress a wheel. This bar as said, is silver in color, yet where it connects to the rear suspension, the color becomes black. On the drivers side, we see a woven metal tube running the length of this bar, residing somewhat on top of it.
Where we see the shocks, slightly towards the front of the car, and slightly outboard from the shocks, we see vertical silver towers, which are cut open on the outboard sides of these tubes. Residing in these silver tubes/towers, we see rubber corrugated tubes…these serve as cooling ducts for the rear brakes. These ducts connect to the larger aforementioned vents which reside on the top sides of the engine compartment cover. They connect via black painted connectors. These by the way, also supply air to the closed off carburetor compartment. These connectors have foam rubber connectors, which are awesome!
The drivers side, towards the very rear of the car, we see a large, hollow, open toped rectangular shaped box, silver in color. This is for storing items, I guess parts or tools. On the other side, we see the compressed spare tire.
Why 7.5 out of 8? Well, the front hood will not stay open on it's own, because the wires are too short, and the passenger side hinged cover is not molded as well as it should be. The reason I'm only taking half of a point off here, is because I believe that most likely, the hood not staying up is attributed to my model, and not in general. I'm not so sure about that hinged cover though.
Interior: 8 out of 8
The interior is a sight to behold. Awesome detail! First, I'll start with the interiors of the doors, which I think are cool. The door interiors are flat black. They reside on pretty much invisible hinges. But the neat thing about these doors is that you can see a stiff metal wire coming out of the door frame and into the interior of the car door. This is designed to keep the doors from opening too far. But what is neat is that this stiff little wire, when you close and open the doors, goes into and out of the interior of the door…it doesn't bend, but slides in and out of the door. Also, on the interior doors, we see a recessed area that has an additional, horizontal, metal wire. This runs almost the length of the interior door, and represents the pull cord the driver/passenger would use to close the door. It is a different piece of wire than the one that slides in and out, as it is on a different level.
Also, on the outer side of the interiors of the doors, we see a silver painted latch, that connects to a separately molded silver latch on the door frame. Very cool.
On both sides of the car, you have, upon opening the doors, a wide flat silver colored side "frame". From what I understand, these are the fuel tanks, 1 per side, but I may be wrong. They are maybe an inch in width and run the length of the door frame. On each side, we see a gold colored raised square, which is edged in silver rivets, as well as rivets running a line down the center. Also, on the drivers side, there is a round, raised, gold colored thing with 4 silver colored rivets. On the drivers side, beside the door frame mounted silver colored latch, we see a silver and black tampo, with black lettering, which my eyes can not make out.
On the passenger side, along this "bulkhead" or fuel tank, we also have an additional raised gold colored rectangle. But this one has 1 woven metal wire going into it, connected via the metallic blue and red connector. This wire runs behind the seat towards the rear firewall. There is also another woven metal tube, with the metallic blue and red connector connecting right at the right most side of the passenger seat, on the bulkhead. Also, coming out of this gold raised rectangle, we see another connector, however, this one solid metallic blue. It connects to a thin chrome pipe that takes a 90 degree turn and follows the bulkhead down towards the front firewall.
The gear shifter is silver in color, and topped with a wood grain handle. This resides to the drivers left and along the right side of the bulkhead.
The dashboard has 4 silver ringed gauges, 1 large one right behind the steering wheel, and the other 3 smaller ones angled to the right of the driver, mounted to the dash in a pyramid area (2 on top, 1 on the bottom). To the left of these 3 gauges is a red switch. The steering wheel is all black, with a black hub. The hub has 6 chrome rivets circling it. The gauge section of the dashboard (area behind and to the right of the steering wheel) has a binnacle that sticks out from the dashboard towards the steering wheel. This acts as a shield to glares, etc. It is attached by 3 tiny molded in silver rivets.
To the drivers left, and in front of the passenger, we have this large, almost triangle shaped piece of the dash jut out. On the right side of this triangle, which is angled towards the driver, we see lots of silver and red painted switches, as well as some handles that are silver and red painted also. Handles meaning, switches that are not round. This triangle is topped with a black mesh piece that is held onto this triangle body by several silver rivets. But underneath that mesh, we see the tiny orange wires that run the gauges and switches on the dashboard. Each wire is an individual wire and looks awesome.
The black colored floor (with silver rivets here and there) has the driver pedals, gas in silver color, and brake and clutch in black. The brake and clutch pedals are textured, the gas pedal is smooth, all are hinged at the floor. On the passenger side, we see a red and silver fire extinguisher, with white and black tampo's for warning labels. Also seen here are braces that come down from the dashboard into the passenger floorboard. This brace is silver in color, and guess what? It's got a textured piece of leather on the front side of it, so as to not bruise the passenger in case of an accident. Pretty neat, considering you can barely see it. Also, on the passenger side, we see black rubber tubes coming out from beneath the dashboard towards the front firewall, coming up towards the edge of the dashboard, and then connecting to a silver connector right on the edge of the dashboard facing the passenger.
The seats are of soft rubber, resembling leather. They have separate fabric seatbelts with photo etch fasteners. The seats are black with tan textured trim in the centers. Being a prototype remember, the passenger seat does not have seatbelts.
The entire passenger compartment is ringed via a roll cage, which is separate pieces. The pieces coming down the "A" pillar are separate, not molded into the "A" pillars. Same goes for the bars along the ceiling and rear firewall.
The ceiling is finished in flat black, and there is a chrome and black rear view mirror mounted here, angled towards the driver.
Wheels/Brakes: 6 out of 6
The wheels and tires are awesome! They may at a casual glance appear somewhat simple, but that is definitely not the case here at all! First, we have numerous colors. The wheels themselves have chrome rims, with magnesium colored fins which make up the wheel. The center knock off hubs, on the drivers side, are metallic blue in color, with chrome hollow rings in their center. On the passenger side, we see the same thing, except the knock offs are metallic red in color. We of course, see Exoto's machined aluminum valve stems, and another neat item is that we see lead weights on the chrome rims. These are separate pieces, and are a dull silver in color. We see two lead weights per wheel.
The tires are awesome also. They have a yellow ring on their walls, "Firestone" in yellow letters, exactly rendered as Firestone writes their name as their logo. Also, we have a red "F" within a triangular shield. This is their other logo. The tire side walls are very smooth, and the tread is very accurate and extremely well rendered. We also notice here that on the tread portion of the tire, that it is dull and flat in color and texture. Meaning, this car's been driven! Totally awesome! The rear tires are much taller and wider than the front tires. The spare tire, which is compressed, i.e., not inflated, appears to be a front tire due to it's width, and is just as detailed.
The brakes are awesome as well. As mentioned above, the front wheels have flexible corrugated rubber tubes that serve as a way to channel air to the disks. They are flexible, and they move as you steer the front wheels. The front disks are flat silver in color, are grooved, and turn with the wheels inside fixed brake calipers, which are very detailed themselves, being gold in color. The rear disks are also flat silver and grooved, rotating with the wheels. These rear disks are very inboard in the rear wheels, so they are very hard to see. They rotate in fixed, very detailed brake calipers, being silver in color.
Engine & Undercarriage Detail: 8 out of 8
The engine…I've been dreading writing this, there's just so much to cover! You can see some of the engine with the rear engine cover closed, through the clear glass cover. From here, within the engine cover mounted silver container, we see the dual 4 barrel carburetors. They are within their own container, which has a clear plastic cover, which by the way, is held on with the tiniest metal springs, actual springs. Here also, we see the metal woven tubes with the metallic blue and red connectors. Totally awesome! We can also see the "snakes nest" exhaust, which is a burnt metal or copper in color. Resting on top of this snake nest is the double arm which hold open the engine compartment when open. You can also see part of the spare tire, the silver parts box, and the rear stabilizer bar. All this just from the window. Let's open the engine compartment again and look at the actual engine:
The engine block is flat silver in color, with chrome valve covers. Residing between these valve covers is the carburetor box. This box is flat silver in color. On each side, we see two flat silver tubes coming out which meet connectors on the engine cover. These tubes have foam rubber "do nuts" at their end to form a seal when they connect to the connectors on the engine cover. These connectors are flat black in color.
In front of this box, right behind the rear firewall, is the distributor. The distributor has individual orange colored spark plug wires coming out of it, which are wound together. These go into the sides of the engine below the chrome valve covers.
The exhausts look quite tantric in their positions, they are so wrapped around each other it's amazing…like a kinky game of "Twister". But regardless of my mind being in the gutter right now, their beautifully rendered. As said, they are a burnt metal or copper in color, and they are hollow. They come together into 2 larger exhaust, which gradually get wider as they go towards the rear of the car, trumpet in shape. One thing of interest here is that right where all the tubes come together to form the two tubes, there is a hinge, one on each of the two pipes. This is a simulated hinge. I guess on the real car, you could lift the rear portion of the exhausts up to service the area beneath it. Since these exhausts are hinged, well, something's got to keep them in place. How about 4 beautiful, tiny little springs? Two per exhaust. They wrap around these exhausts, and connect to a housing beneath these exhausts. Speaking of beneath the exhausts, we see one of the neatest, in my opinion items on this car, even if it's hard to see.
We see something, either the rear of the transmission, or what, but it's beautifully rendered, and have engraved and molded in fins. There are 4 of those woven metal tubes coming into this, each with their own metallic blue and red connectors, at varying angles, depending on where the wire connects to this. See, even the details you can't see that well are rendered greatly on this model.
Flipping the car over, you are able to view the Diecast chassis, which has probably as many rivets on it as the body of the car. It is a flat silver in color, and towards the rear, we see an opening where you can see the underside of the engine. Here, we see the oil pan, sort of in a light gold color, with cooling fins. On the front most and rear most edges of this pan, the color becomes a dark silver. You can see separately molded accessories here, mostly in flat silver. The oil filter is a dark orange color, and "FRAM" is tampo'd on in black letters in two places. Also from viewing the engine from the underside, you can see the cylinder banks angle out, and can see the exhausts coming out. Also seen here are 4 of those woven metal tubes, with their respective metallic blue and red connectors. 1 is on each side of the engine, and two are towards the front of the engine.
Competition: 6 out of 6
No one to my knowledge, makes the GT40-MKIV in 1/18 scale other than Exoto. Eagles Race, aka, Universal Hobbies, makes a poorly detailed GT40-MKII, but not the MKIV. And, the MKII can not hold a candle to Exoto's MKII
Desirability: 6 out of 6
I love this car.
Overall: 49.5 out of 50
Hope you all enjoy!
**Review added to the DX Model Review Database**
1 - 8 of 8 Posts
Woaaaah AWESOME!!! First I didn't like this car at all, but on your pics it looks so brutal!!! Now I want it!!! :???:Many thanks again, mrmilo, for another great review. :mrgreen:
Personally I've always preferred the MkII but this model of the MkIV does the real car justice.
Great work! :angel:
I look forward to your next review.
Personally I've always preferred the MkII but this model of the MkIV does the real car justice.
Great work! :angel:
I look forward to your next review.
Wow!!! Awesome review and beautiful imagery!!! Good job!!! :jk: :jk: :jk: :jk: :jk:
Another outstanding effort! :jk:
:iagr: Truly!!! Great review mrmilo. :mrgreen: Those are terrific pics to go with your very detailed review.Another outstanding effort! :jk:
1 - 8 of 8 Posts
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