Tamiya 1:24 Toyota Kit No 24158
July 14th 1996

Injected plastic, clear, mesh material, tires and decals

Curbside kit from Japanese Turing car championship.

Majority of parts fit together well. Everything inside the car went together with no problems. Nicely molded components. Little to no flash. Problems occurred when I tried to put the wheels on.

At first it may appear that the wheels have too much of an angle on them and that there was some error in the engineering. This is correct although it appears strange.

The major problem with the wheels are the front ones. When I tried to put them on there was interference with the bottom suspension component. No matter how much I fiddled and pushed, the wheel would not go on at all. I had to take the tires off the wheels and cut the wheels 1/4"(6mm) on the inside. This allowed the wheels to go on the model. Even with this surgery there was still a bit of interference and the wheels don't turn that much.

Tires have a shiney appearance and look ok.

Decals were excellent and the use of Micro Sol made difficult ones lay down perfectly. The problem with the decals is that only portions of the orange colour were supplied, the rest had to be mixed. The instructions give you the mixing formula (in Tamiya paints) but it was still slightly off. It is recommended that all the orange be painted on. The extra masking is pretty easy.

Overall a good kit, if it weren't for the wheel fit problems it would be an excellent kit. The body is very well done and an excellent looking model when finished.

The only problem is the subject matter. Not many North American people would be interested in a car that raced in a Japanese series, that we don't see on TV. This car isn't even offered in North America. In Japan this kit would be very popular.

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