Tom's Minolta Toyota 88C-V [>intensive pics<]

[peregrine1]

The Tom's Toyota 88c-v is not a famous car. Many people (including me) got to know this car because of the PlayStation2 game GranTurismo 4. It's astonishing that the world record of Nurburgring can be 4'44" in GT4 and it's done by a Minolta 88c-v which looks similar to this one (you can still find that ps2 video on YouTube). As for the 88c-v it self, it's said that it has never raced outside Japan and in the Fuji 500 Miles Race it only covered 119 laps then quit due to transmission failure. (Pics below from RSC photos)



The instruction writes: the body is so beautifully sculptured you would almost
think it was created for showroom competition. Well, that's why I built this one too: it's so good looking, the exterior and the way they painted it.

My friend bought this original Tamiya decal for me and I built it out from a TakaQ ver. Speaking of the TakaQ one, it looks even cooler than the blue-white #36 car but it’s not that rare. The #37 car actually did better than the #36 as it finished 21st in 1988 Fuji 1000km Race, 63 laps behind the winner.




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For the exterior, I painted the side windows according to the Fuji 500 miles pic above rather than the instruction. I like that Tom’s logo so I added that to the model. For the modification, I added some wires, some CF decals, seatbelt and some PE rivet.

Is it OK to post some WIP pics here? Then I don’t have to separate them into 2 posts.



Engine:





The rear radiator is a little bit “empty” so I painted a “DENSO” logo on it. This is just a DIY.





I tried to create some burn effect on the exhaust pipe (like those motorbikes) but it turned out to be strange under bright light.





The most unreal part of the original kit: nothing connects the turbo and the air intake pipe.





I used two cotton swabs to build this connection part then painted it in Gunze Super Metallic 07.




Wheels mounted:




Engine again:





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Finally finished:












Rivets:




I planned to polish the rear view mirror but something went wrong. Then I re-painted it in Gunze GX1 white and it turned out to be better than the polished one. So that’s it.




In case the original door is separated, I didn’t attach it to the body.





Here comes interior. All the decals on those dials are different from each other!





See what's under the engine cover:





Engine Bay:





This picture is taken at a similar angle to the TakaQ ver. 88c-v box cover (Tamiya 24083):





2 generations of Toyota endurance racers:




My endurance cars meet:





The Nissan R390GT1 is my first build. Compare to the latest 88C, you can see the GX1 white is a lot "whiter" than the Tamiya white spray can.






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The weather’s fine yesterday so I took them out for a sunbathe:









Le Mans Meet:












Hope you like it!

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

Wow, very nice!

Also it's my favorite car in GT4

[jano11]

Wonderful! Exceptional build(s)!

[Spike2933]

wow

one great looking model you got their, oh wait 4

[Risko]

Beautyful builds! I love the group pics with views on the engines.

[Dylza]

Gorgeous model, I also loved it in GT4 and wanted to build one, I wasn't aware there was a decal set out for the Minolta version, since I'm not a fan of the Taka-Q. Nothing beats screaming down a straight at 300+km/h on GT4.

[peregrine1]

Originally Posted by Dylza

Gorgeous model, I also loved it in GT4 and wanted to build one, I wasn't aware there was a decal set out for the Minolta version, since I'm not a fan of the Taka-Q. Nothing beats screaming down a straight at 300+km/h on GT4.

The original Minolta ver. is Tamiya No.24079 while the Taka ver. is No.24083. In my hometown it's impossible to find 24079 now (as rare as the tamiya Mazda 787B) but there're still lots of Taka ver. available.

The GT4 ver. which I have a pic below is not the same as the Fuji 500 miles one. It's strange that the model's decal instruction seems to be an average of the two. (pics from internet)



[click on the pic above to see a larger pic]

[sportracer02]

Great !!!!!

[Martin S]

Great build ! The exhaust system looks wonderful

[stevenoble]

Fantastic builds!! All of them...

[Porsnatic]

Great build, man!...You did a masterpiece!

Do you have a picture of that Gunze Sangyo GX 1 White?
Where's your home town?

Thanks!

[peregrine1]

Originally Posted by Porsnatic

Great build, man!...You did a masterpiece!

Do you have a picture of that Gunze Sangyo GX 1 White?
Where's your home town?

Thanks!

Guangzhou (Canton), China.

GX1 is quite like the GSI white base paint which covers the original color far better than common white paints. But you still need some primer before applying it. The new GX series GSI paint seem to be good (I don't know what else they have besides GX1 Glossy White and GX100 Super Clear 3).

2 pics from internet:

[M-Tuning]

Very nice!

[Porsnatic]

OK, thanks a lot, nice pictures. I guess I can't find these paints here in America,. I guess these ones are part of the lacquer line from Gunze Sangyo, I had never hear about these GX line. What's the website you got these pictures?

Thanks again

Originally Posted by peregrine1

Guangzhou (Canton), China.

GX1 is quite like the GSI white base paint which covers the original color far better than common white paints. But you still need some primer before applying it. The new GX series GSI paint seem to be good (I don't know what else they have besides GX1 Glossy White and GX100 Super Clear 3).

2 pics from internet:

[peregrine1]

Originally Posted by Porsnatic

OK, thanks a lot, nice pictures. I guess I can't find these paints here in America,. I guess these ones are part of the lacquer line from Gunze Sangyo, I had never hear about these GX line. What's the website you got these pictures?

Thanks again

You can find some on eBay. I'm not familiar with bidding items on eBay, sorry. I purchased all my paints from a retail model shop.

We use GSI paints because they're very cheap. I guess in US there must be some better paints.

GX is a new series released less than a year ago. I think GSI is quite strange as they often re-produce some old paints with some improvement and label them with new numbers. Why can't they just replace the old one with the new one then keep the number unchanged. This is sometimes very confusing as people would ask what's the difference between clear paint #155 , #184 and GX100, why the super black is super compare to the original glossy black, ...