Finally, modelers could get their hands on a proper plastic Metro kit, thanks to Belkits’ great release. The MG Metro 6R4 was a very unique car in many sense, it was the smallest Gr.B car and had a normally aspirated 3 liter V6 engine stuffed in the mid-rear of the tiny car. All of its’ development was done by Tony Pond who drove the car to a respectful 3rd place on its’ international debut, despite tackling flu through the entire 1985 RAC Rally. Although the car was somewhat outclassed with its’ 400 HP engine, next year Pond achieved some great results with the car, like his fourth win on the Manx. The car also brought some good results for other drivers on international and national level, Jimmy Mcrae, Malcolm Wilson and David Llevellin achieved some great results with it.
The Belkits kit is really well done in every respect. Proportions are spot on and the level of details are superb! Both the interior and engine room is well detailed, some can build a great model straight out of the box! The only drawbacks are the tyres which has a particular half-fit on the rims with some rather poorly represented Michelin gravel tyre patterns. I corrected the rear edge of the rear fenders which are a bit too rounded but that is the only thing, the rest of the body is superb! Strange thing what I found, that none of the two released kits has the option the represent the most successful driver of the car, Tony Pond… I built the Triumph TR7 of Pond before and named that thread Very British, so this is the Very British - 2. Hopefully there will be more
When I received the kit, I had no doubt that I want to build a car, driven by Pond. My only question was whether it should be the RAC or the Manx car. I have the excellent decals from Decalcas for the RAC version and I made the decals for the Manx myself. I also knew that I wanted to make the car with the tarmac wheels fitted which - in my opinion gives the best looking Metro. I already purchased the excellent tarmac wheels from KMP Models. Those wheels look really great, I strongly recommend the investment to someone who wants to build the tarmac spec car. I started the build three weeks ago so I managed to advance a bit. I scratchbuilt the engine pulley cover to represent – first of all the offset of the pulley cover according to the nature of the V6 - and the earlier spec alternator configuration as my reference showed. I also modified the interior in some places according the contemporary photos and cut off the molded on details in the engine bay. Since I want to build the car with an openable rear hatch to show the engine bay, I needed to eliminate the rear cross member from the kit and transform the rear part of the wheelarches. The fiberglass lower part was represented with rough, thick acrylic paint dabbed with flat brush to achieve the texture. Lot’s of people doing it with kevlar, but in reality there was no visible kevlar texture on the early cars. Even the back of the seats were a type of gelcoat covered kevlars with no texture. I hope to get the rear hatch hinges fixed soon and get the engine in the chassis. This is how the build so far: