Wednesday, August 24, 2016

AutoArt Porsche 997 GT3 RS (13211 & 13212)

AutoArt surprised me with a package a little while back: a pair of their new Porsche 997 GT3 RS road cars.




In terms of appearance, AutoArt has done a great job capturing the shape and details of this car:






While adding some nice details like the roll bar and working headlights and tail lights, AutoArt has taken the easy way out when it comes to the marker lights - using silver paint instead of coloured translucent plastic. This was probably done to keep the cost and complexity of this model within reason. Paint and finish on my test cars is very good.


Underneath, AutoArt has gone with a rear engined chassis which makes sense given that AutoArt seems to take pride in how their cars are modelled, and this is how Porsche chose to build the 1:1 version of this car. Laying out the drivetrain in a similar fashion to the prototype allows for a half tray interior and lots of interior detail while leaving room for the model's motor and drivetrain.


The metal spring guide contacts on my test cars required a bit of tweaking to get these cars running smoothly. The rear end on one of my cars was a little tight and also needed a bit of work to get the rear axle spinning freely. Out of the box, these cars are mag missiles. Ditch the traction magnets and add some weight up front and these cars become very interesting to drive to say the least - in a fun way. The semi-tray interior leaves lots of room for weight placement on the chassis. The rear engined powertrain makes for some slidey driving on my Scalextric Sport test track. If you're racing this Porsche against other AutoArt cars I'm sure it will be in the zone. I wouldn't choose this model for my weekly club racing, but AutoArt isn't pretending to take on the pro Porsche 997s from the likes of NSR, NINCO, and SCX. If you're into street cars then these models are a good choice.