Background:

What a well designed and memorable livery the Michelin Pilot Escort has. Plus of course the great looking car it's draped on, and that glorious rear wing. I was certainly going to buy this when I spied it in a secondhand shop window on holiday in Japan, at a very reasonable price too.

Kit review:

Pros:

More or less all fits together very very well. As usual for Tamiya, great mouldings and very little cleanup required aside from a fairly strong separation line along the main light pods. Good quality decals, clean clear parts, nice rubber-like tyres. Solid contact points between the seats and the chassis.

Cons:

The rollcage is incomplete compared to the real car, missing half the rear x-member and missing two smaller horizontal parts the seatbelts attach to. The interior door cards and the rear interior wall are a little vague and flimsy in their assembly. There is nothing really positive to attach the spare wheel to.

Verdict:

Very very good. It's faults are few, its plus points are many. The photos speak a lot for the qualiyty of the kit.

Build notes:

Completed on January 25th 2026, taking a month to build and paint. I made a few changes to what came in the box: I masked and painted the livery stripes of the intermixed blue and yellow on and near the doors rather than using the decals. A few extra details are on the exterior - electrical shut off lever, aerial, small covers on the bumper and the loop parts of the bonnet pins. For the interior, the rollcage has been "completed" with 3 more pieces. PE buckles and card seatbelts are added, along with relays on the dashboard and fuel lines running down the interior to the tank. I've also added some of the paperwork attached to the roll cage. This build is painted with Tamiya's recommended colours, TS-15 Blue and TS-16 Yellow.

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