Diecast Friends » AUTOart

AUTOart Coming Soon – Alfa Romeo Giulietta 1300 Spider 1957

David — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:13:14 +0000

AUTOart is soon to release a 1:18 scale replica of the beautiful Alfa Romeo Giulietta 1300 Spider from 1957. This model will be released in white, and will also come with a removable roof.

This Alfa Romeo is a really stunning car, not only to look at and admire, but also to drive, since it was one of the best handling cars of the 1950s. Its engine was capable of producing 90 horsepower at 6,500 rpm, which for a car of this size is quite good.

AUTOart 1:18 Range Rover 4.6 HSE Review

David — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:10:57 +0000

This replica is of the second generation of Range Rovers and it was built to compete with the Mercedes G-Wagen and other luxury SUVs. This generation was a long awaited improvement over the previous Range Rover which had been around for 25 years. Many improvements were made, such as an updated version of the Rover V8 engine, two-wheel traction control, and the addition of ABS.

This replica was released by AUTOart in the 1:18 scale and the 1:43 scale, but I will be talking about the 1:18 scale version in this review.

I have owned this model for a little over 10 years now, and it is still in perfect condition. It was a gift from my father, and this model is what got me interested in collecting SUVs and 4x4s.

Exterior Features

This model has opening doors in the front and the back, it has an opening hood, and also an opening trunk. When I received it I was surprised to see it had opening back doors since I had never seen them before on a 1:18 model. Nowadays most manufacturers include opening back doors, but you can still find some which don’t.

There is a small problem with the opening back doors though – you must first open the front doors to be able to open the back ones because there isn’t enough space between the doors for them to open properly. Therefore, for the back doors to be open, the front doors must also be open. This is a bit silly but it’s not a big deal for me since I display it with closed doors.

The hood opens quite easily on my replica, but it falls back shut once you let go of it, and there is no hood prop to hold it open either. It would have been nice if AUTOart had included a hood prop.

The trunk has two opening doors which must be opened in sequence since the lower tailgate is held shut by the rear window.

The front doors don’t have any plastic windows like with the rear doors, which is a shame in my opinion since the closed windows stop dust getting in car. However this is not a big deal and doesn’t hurt the looks of the model at all.

The model has a sunroof with a small tint to the plastic, which is a nice touch of detail, and makes the Range Rover look even more realistic.

The paint is nice and thick and evenly spread, and the metallic effect looks quite good on this dark green colour. The paint is so thick that a small flake of paint chipped off from the back of the car when I opened the tailgate. This happened because the tailgate was a tight fit and it scraped against the edge of the body chipping a piece of paint off. Luckily I was able to glue the paint flake back on. If the paint wasn’t of a good quality I wouldn’t have been able to do this, but then again, if the paint wasn’t so thick it wouldn’t have chipped off in the first place.

The Land Rover badge and the Range Rover lettering is of nice quality on both the back and the front of the car, and the orange paint on the side indicators is precisely positioned on the middle of the indicator – exactly how it should be.

The front and rear wipers are made of a rigid plastic and are not all flimsy and wobbly, and even the tiny headlight wipers are of high quality.

The model has suspensions on all four wheels, which again adds to the quality of this replica. It is quite a stiff suspension so the car won’t sag under its own weight like some of the lower quality models I own.

Interior Features

The interior of this replica is of a high quality, even by today’s standards. The front seats have moveable armrests and are moulded to look like leather seats. They have painted piping around the whole of the seat, and the electric seat controls are also painted out.

The dashboard is of two colour tones, just like the real car, and it also replicates the wood trim running along the front of the dash. The centre console is quite detailed, but there could have been a little more colour added to the switches. The steering is also quite nice, with the Range Rover and SRS text embossed in the plastic, although the real Range Rover had parts of the steering wheel in wood and this model does not replicate that.

The engine bay is not hugely detailed, but it is not bland either. The different engine components are visible, even with a few nice details such as wires and cables. The engine of the real Range Rover does not look terribly exciting so I would say AUTOart did a good enough job here.

Conclusion

Overall this is a great replica and I sincerely think AUTOart has done a good job with this model. I don’t think any other company replicates this particular Range Rover, so I guess AUTOart have a monopoly, but that doesn’t reflect badly on this replica in any way.

Obviously the model is not perfect, but in my opinion it is one of the best SUV diecast replicas out there.

AUTOart Coming Soon – Mazda Savanna RX-7

David — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:31:41 +0000

AUTOart will soon be releasing a 1:18 replica of the first generation Mazda Savanna RX-7 SA.

This Japanese built car was powered by a 1146 cc twin-rotor Wankel rotary engine which was situated slightly behind the front axle. Due to this, Mazda marketed this car as a "front mid-engine" coupé.

AUTOart Coming Soon – 1970 Alfa Romeo Montreal

David — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:35:00 +0000

AUTOart will be making a 1:18 replica of the 1970 Alfa Romeo Montreal.

The first production version of the real Montreal was seen at the 1970 Geneva Motor Show. It had a 2,593 cc quad-cam V8 engine and was capable of reaching a top speed of 220km/h. The engine produced a respectable 230 bhp and 235 Nm of torque.

Almost 4,000 Alfa Romeo Montreals were manufactured, but ironically none were ever sold in Montreal since it was limited to the European market. The Montreal was discontinued in 1977.

A Montreal can be seen in the 1974 movie The Marseille Contract where Michael Caine drives a metallic dark brown one.

AUTOart New Release – 1:18 Lamborghini Reventon

David — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:40:10 +0000

AUTOart has recently released this beautiful 1:18 replica of the Lamborghini Reventon. As you can see in the below pictures, this model is highly detailed, as usually is with AUTOart models. There is a nice carbon fibre detail included around the engine and also on the dashboard and steering wheel.