HW Porsche 911 GT3

Heres a quick review.

The car comes packaged very tightly, theres some thin clear plastic cords holding the engine down and some thick non-adhesive tape going through the doors and behind the seats, probably the best packing job I've seen on a Hot Wheels.

Exterior is a bit off proportion in the front, but besides that very smooth, sleek and low. The only real proportionate problem I see is in the headlights. It is surprisingly light, off the top of my head I would say this is my lightest 1:18. It also is a bit small in stature for a 1:18 scale model.


Interior is pretty nice, theres not really that much exact detail but the seats are mammoth racing seats that I think are different than the type offered on the real vehicle, and the seats are rubber and can be bent all over the place. The steering wheel has a very wide turning radius even though the wheels dont.

Rims, brakes and tires are defenitely the best part of the model. Tires, although generic, are excellent as they are very wide in the back giving the car a mean look. Rims are pretty big and have GT3 on them, but the shining star are the brakes. PORSCHE is etched on the calipers and the rotors spin with the wheels while calipers stay still, the best brakes I've ever seen on a Mattel. The wheels really could turn a bit more, I have noticed Hot Wheels's wheels have the lowest range of motion.


Engine is not really that good. It does have fairly good detail, but the reason its not that good is because its buried deep down in the car and you kinda need to be shining direct light on it to really see all the detail. Heres a very nice shot of the engine:


Whats this? We have a special guest! The Bburago Porsche 911 Turbo is a very similar model looks wise.
The Bburago may have better overall detail, but nothing feels as sturdy as a Hot Wheels, because the wheels require a bit more effort to move, as do the doors to open and the engine cover to open and the model just feels a lot stronger.

When you first get your GT3, you may say that the headlights aren't disproportionate, but have a look at this shot of the Hot Wheels GT3 next to a Bburago 911 Turbo:



This makes it quite obvious that the Hot Wheels's lights are a bit too thin and tiny, and it kinda makes the model look bad, but Hot Wheels doesn't do much Porsches so I guess you cant blame them.

Overall I would say this is a very nice model, I am definitely noticing Hot Wheels's quality as going up, comparison of an older model (say the 360 modena) to a new model like this makes it very obvious that quality all around has gone up. Lets hope this steady rise keeps going!

:cheers

review added to the DX Model Review Database on 07-JUN-2004