Background:

Despite not being a fan of the 911, the obscurity of this kit / livery, the Japanese connection and the fact that it'd gone unmade for more than 25 years (before I got it from ebay) made me interested in bringing it to life. There's very little on the internet about either the team or the driver, but I did find that apparently Koichi Kashiwabara won the 1993 Japanese Porsche Carrera Cup in this Nisseki Yanoshin sponsored car.

Pros:

The ride height is good, the tyres are nice and the door mirrors have small locator pins moulded onto them - although you have to drill your own holes. Fitting the body to the chassis is easy and about 80% of the parts fit with no problem.

Cons:

The kit is a road car kit with a rudimentary roll cage and racing seat on an extra sprue, plus decals. The means there are quite a few road car details that need correcting, especially in the interior. The instructions make no mention of any of this. The roll cage is not as comprehensive as the real car, and it's also a pain to assemble and get into the right place. The right place is only vaguely defined in the instructions and certainly has nothing like obvious positive mounting points.The wheels are OK but don't look exactly like the real thing. The rear wing has no real mounting points and like many things, is not really clear from the instructions. Neither of the two supplied road car steering wheels are correct for the race car version.

Verdict:

Neither Fujimi at it's worst or it's best, the kit is OK. Taken as a road car kit it's fine enough, but taken as a race car kit, it's lacking a lot of detail that has to be dealt with if you build it.

Build notes:

It's come out well considering the age of the very brittle decals and also the damaged A-pillar, and I'm happy with it despite it being a bit rough around the edges. A pristine build it isn't. Details added to the exterior are PE bonnet and boot pins, PE tow hooks, electrical shut off switch and Tamiya decals for the tyres. Also removal of the sunroof (just about - damn thing left a small line) and the side-repeater indicators. Details added to the interior are a Hobby Design fire extinguisher, scratch built electrical box/connecters, cables & wiring, seat belts, wood "mat", and about 40% extra on the rollcage, plus removal of the road-car rear seats.

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