Tamiya Porsche GT2 Club Racer (Review) Kit #_________
Overall impression: The GT2 Club Racer is the more civilized, urbanized street version of the Porsche GT2 race car release in a prior kit (kit #_____). It was inevitable that Tamiya would make a street car out of that kit as it proved to be a popular subject matter for conversions and modifications by many enthusiasts. All the good things that came with the original kit are there, but all the typical Tamiya problems (like lack of engine) are there as well.
Body
The body is Tamiya typical, flash free and in my sample had a few running mold lines along the top fenders that were difficult to remove perfectly, but other than that it is perfect. One negative about the body is that Tamiya chose to leave the opening for tow hook, roof mounted antenna, front hood flap and all the race prep hardware molded into the body. Developing a new mold for the main piece would be costly, but would have been preffered over the attempt of converting the race body to street use.
Chasis:
The jewels of this kit are by far the beautiful renditions of the BBS Le Mans multi piece wheels. These come with outrageous 345-size rear tires, monstrous lip, and can be super detailed to perfect accuracy. The tires are now street treaded Pirelli tires and they are nice, albeit a bit large of a sidewall for the wheel. The biggest gripe that I have with the chassis of this kit is the lack of engine, although there is a very prominent intercooler that is attached to the engine skeleton, it would take more work (such as robbing the engine from the Fujimi Enthusiast series Porsches) to make this look accurate. The suspension and exhaust seem realistic and with low part count (4 for the front and 6 for the rear) it does not take much to make it look realistic. The brakes are a good rendition of the Brembo F40 rotor and caliper and Tamiya provides decals for the caliper “Porsche” marking. They can look realistic if properly detailed, but be warned, these pieces are molded in black and need to be primered prior to painting, which may cause some lost detailed on a finely engraved cross drilled rotors.
Interior:
Interior is a step construction mixed bag of race ready technology and anchor points mounted on to the chassis pan, but with two seats, a slightly different non race steering wheel, but no mounting points for the passenger Recaro ? Tamiya clearly did not take the interior portion of this kit seriously, since the real road GT2 has a filled floor plan with carpeting, a different SPG Recaro seats and interior paneling. The kit represents something closer to the race ready stripped down model of a weekend racer car. A lot of work would have to be put into making the interior more “streeetable”, especially if you plan on opening the doors via a Renaissance transkit (which is described below)
Overall fit and finish
Overall this is a very enjoyable kit, typical Tamiya in terms of precision of fit and detail level. This kit could be built straight out of the box with great results, or super detailed using a variety of aftermarket items readily available. Some strong pros are the unique subject matter, great wheels, precise fit and ease of built, while strong cons are the lack of a detailed or correct interior, simplified chassis and lack of engine detail. It is overall a high 8/10 but could be finessed into a fine scale replica with a lot of work. Be prepared to use the BBS wheels on other projects as well. Highly Recommended!
Aftemarket:
Renaissance makes a conversion transkit for this kit that includes resin drivers door and window frame, interior side panel and everything you will need to detail this kit properly (PE fret sheet includes most of goodies like pedals, brakes, dry sump gas cap, etc) Studio 27 makes a number of decals that would allow you to build a different race version of each race that used this car.