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Best of the GT40 Kits?


Randy D

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Most of the Fujimi kits are curbside. The Revell ones are reboxed Fujimi. The early IMC ones are full detail but can be quite finicky to build. I know a few that have kitbashed them to make full detail cars using Fujimi bodies and IMC innards. And of course, there are a few aftermarket vendors who make conversion kits for full detail.

Have fun!

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Opinions abound on this topic, but I personally think the MkI version in the Fujimi GT40 P1075 kits, as raced in Gulf colors at LeMans in '68-'69 is the definitive and best-looking of all of the many GT40 variants. Over the years there were variations of roofline and spoiler profile, scoop placement, number and size, hood vent configuration, and even front fender shape. I think the '68-'69 MkI is the peak aesthetically.

There is good structural detail in these kits, and ample opportunity to add full engines and details with a little work.

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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  • 1 year later...

To my knowledge the LS/Arii, Aurora/Revell and IMC/Testors kits are the only model kits of the early Ford GT prototype, yes it's was only called GT so the boxart on the LS/Arii kit is wrong there too, the GT40 name came later with the production GT40 Mk I cars wich are a bit different from the early GT's.

The Aurora/Revell and the IMC/Testors kits are full detail, the Aurora/Revell kit has only one engine option, the 260-289 with four Webers, the IMC/Testors kit includes three engine options, a 260-289 four Weber small block and an injected 255 Indy motor wich both are correct for the GT as both were used...they also included a 2X4bbl 427 SOHC for some reason wich was never used in this car as far as I know. :o

Even the IMC/Testors GT40 Mk I and Mk II kits has the 289 small block and the 255 Indy engine options from the GT together with a single 4bbl 427 (not SOHC), allthough the real Mk II's was only raced with the 427 and the Mk I's only with small block.

All depends on what you're going to do, but I agree with vamach1, if you can find an Aurora/Revell or an IMC/Testors kit I think you'll have a better starting point.

Edit: This wasn't the thread I was ansvering to, it's moved from the original thread wich was about the LS/Arii GT40 kit and was an answer to another post in that thread, it looks kind of taken out of it's context now.

Edited by Force
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Do a search and look at build-ups of the various kits. I'm not saying the IMC/Testors or the Aurora/Revell can't be built into a very nice model but they are far more challenging to build than any of the Fujimi/Revell versions.

Also only the Fujimi/Revell and LS/Arii are 1/24 scale, all the other kits are 1/25 scale. If that matters.

Edited by afx
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Yes they are, but the Fujimi/Revell and LS/Arii kits are curbside kits with less detail, the 1:25 Aurora/Revell and IMC/Testors are full detail...and are a lot older so they are more difficult.

Ford did 12 GT Prototype cars back in 1964-5 and the Aurora/Revell GT, the IMC/Testors GT and the LS/Arii GT(40) is the only kits I know of of this GT Prototype, the other kits from Fujimi, Revell (reboxed Fujimi), IMC/Testors/Union and MPC are of the later GT40 production Mk I, Mk II, J-Car and Mk IV cars and they are quite different.

Edited by Force
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Harolds resin engine/suspension kit is for the Fujimi GT40 Mk I kit (I don't think Revell has issued the Fujimi Mk I kit) and I have a couple of those...very nice kits with a small block Ford with Gourney/Weslake heads and four Webers, and almost all you need to detail the Mk I under the hood.

He had a kit for the Fujimi/Revell GT40 Mk II with a FE 427 in the works when I talked to him over the phone some years ago but I haven't seen anything of it yet...but if he gets it out it's a sure buy as he does quality parts.

To straighten things out a bit regarding the Ford GT and GT40 cars.

The first 12 was prototypes, was built 1964 in England and was called Ford GT at first, they predecessed the first production cars Ford GT40 Mk I from 1965, the engines in those were small block Ford 260-289 with four Webers, and a four cam injected 255 Indy engine in some cars, 3 of the first 12 prototypes were equipped with 427 engines tho' and was testbeds for the later Mk II's.

1966 came the reworked and modified GT40 Mk II with the larger 427 motor with a single 4bbl carburator, this car gave Ford their first Le Mans victory and Ford finished 1-2-3, and Mk II was also built in England.

The GT40 Mk III was a street legal car, only 7 built in 1967, the engine was a detuned 289.

1967 came the Mk IV wich was built in America and was based on the J-car prototype, it had a 427 with dual 4bbl and the Mk IV gave Ford the second victory at Le Mans that year.

They changed the rules for 1968 and put in a maximum 5 litre rule, so the Gulf Team dusted off the old GT40 Mk I, modified it a bit and put in Gourney/Weslake head 302's with four Webers and gave Ford their fourth and fifth victories at Le Mans 68 and 69.

Edited by Force
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The Fujimi kit of the 68 and 69 winners are Mk I GT-40's. The kits come curbside, Historic Racing Miniatures has an engine kit with the correct small block Ford and Gurney-Westlake heads with Weber carbs. The MKII cars were not raced after 66, the MKIV car was raced in 67. Both used the 427 NASCAR engine with a big Holley carb. In 68 they changed the rules to a smaller displacement engine and the MKI cars were rebuilt to run and won both years eligible. In 70 the displacement was lowered again and Ford was done.

As far as kits go, the IMC is made of lots of tiny parts and theoretically detailed, however they overall shape of the car is way off, particularly the top and front windshield areas. The kit is somewhat dated in design and not accurate for the later successful Ford GT-40's, it is also 1:25 scale. Revell's reissue of the old Aurora kit is a decent replica of the GT 40 when first showing some winning potential, after Shelby took over the program. There are several inaccuracies and it is also a 1:25 scale kit.

IMC also did a MKII GT 40 which is similar to their first kit and the shape has some real flaws.

Fujimi has done both the MKII, big block car and the MK I small block cars, both are accurate to the eye in overall shape. HRM upgrade kit provides a correct and beautiful engine and some associated chassis parts, it is for the MK I Fujimi kits. It should be noted that there is a lot of ducting in the rear of the body and ducting that is inside the rear bodywork. That must all be scratch built if you want a truly accurate GT 40. None of the Fujimi, IMC, Revell/Aurora or ArII kits have the internal duct work.

The MOST accurate and most EXPENSIVE 1:24 scale GT-40 is the MK I LeMans winner made by LeMans Miniatures. It is out of production now. There were 2 versions of the kit, one was simple and the other had every detail, including the rear body ducting, engine, brakes, correct tires, etc. The kit was resin, photo-etch, white metal and vacuum formed for glass. Finding one today would be tough.

Edited by Bill J
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The Aurora/Revell Ford GT also has some issues. The side window openings do not go up high enough into the roof, and slope down as they flow to the back. The pic shows it after opening it up. New side windows were cut from a plastic bottle.

Also has alignment issues between the front and rear body shells. I added a strip of plastic to the rear of the cab, then had to cut and realign parts of the rear shell.

--AURORAFORDGT4002-TEMP-DELETE.jpg

--AURORAFORDGT40-TEMP-DELETE.jpg

--AURORAFORDGT4003-TEMP-DELETE.jpg

--AURORAFORDGT4004-TEMP-DELETE.jpg

--AURORAFORDGT4005-TEMP-DELETE.jpg

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You're doing nice work on that Revell/Aurora kit Jon. I noticed the side windows being wrong in the kit right off. To me the only one worth working with is the Fujimi MK 1 and MK II. They're curbside but at least all the shapes are there!

I look forward to seeing your Revell/Aurora finished, looks like a great start at making corrections on the body.

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I have several of the various Ford GT40 kits. One version of the Le mans miniatures kit. It says Goldline on the box. I also have some stuff from CMA. A nice body or two and some parts. Someday these will get built.

Early in MCM's life there was a decent article about building the ultimate GT40, you could look up that issue of the mag.

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The Fujimi kit of the 68 and 69 winners are Mk I GT-40's. The kits come curbside, Historic Racing Miniatures has an engine kit with the correct small block Ford and Gurney-Westlake heads with Weber carbs. The MKII cars were not raced after 66, the MKIV car was raced in 67. Both used the 427 NASCAR engine with a big Holley carb. In 68 they changed the rules to a smaller displacement engine and the MKI cars were rebuilt to run and won both years eligible. In 70 the displacement was lowered again and Ford was done.

Didn't I just say that? ;)

I agree on the Fujimi kits, they are the best injection molded kits out there shape wise, Fujimi has done several versions of the Mk I with different front hood, rear deck and wheels to do the cars from different years.

The Mk II from Fujimi and the reboxed Revell kit are all the same except for decals to do different versions.

Ford used the Prototype GT 1964.

The Mk I was used 1965, 66, 68 and 69 at Le Mans and several other races,

The Mk II were used 1966 and 67 at Le Mans, and were used at other races as Daytona, Sebring and others.

The Mk IV were used 1967 at Le Mans (4 cars, the other 8 Ford cars entered at Le Mans that year were Mk II's and Mirage's) and model kits of the Mk IV are done by IMC/Testors and MPC.

Edited by Force
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Edit: This wasn't the thread I was ansvering to, it's moved from the original thread wich was about the LS/Arii GT40 kit and was an answer to another post in that thread, it looks kind of taken out of it's context now.

That's what makes this board fun. One never knows where a post may end up. :o

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Thunder Valley Miniatures did a nice trans-kit of the MkI. It's long out of production but with the release of Fujimi's MKI it has pretty much become obsolete, except for the very nice wheels/tires. Fujimi took a short cut with their MkI kit in that the used the MkII rear tires that are much too narrow for the MkI.

photo2-vi.jpg

Compare the TVM set on the left with Fujimi’s on the right.

photo4-vi.jpg

Edited by afx
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Hakan, you did say all that, I was just reinforcing the history a little :)

Yes I suspected that. ^_^

Compare the TVM set on the left with Fujimi’s on the right.

photo1-vi.jpg

Those wheels are very nice, the Fujimi wheels and tires looks a bit too shallow for the 68-69 Gulf cars as you say.

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Great link, thanks. That is a car I remember from when Shelby first took over the GT program. One thing his team did to solve an overheating problem was to add a small lip in front of the air exits on the front hood area. That allowed the air to flow through the radiator and not be trapped in a low pressure area created by the nose. The car in the pictures clearly has that lip.

Interesting side note, when Ford reinvented the Ford GT in 2005 or 2006 they left off this important feature, so the new street models may have a tendency to fun warmer than desired? I am sure the lip was on cars that Ford used to look over when designing the new car. The designers probably had not idea why there was a little spoiler lip there!

I think the Arii kit does a nice representation of the body from this early era, about the time a few useful mods were added, which helped the car on it's way to later successes.

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Like Mike Kucaba said, Lemans Minitures had a great GT40 in the Goldline series, (very expensive), very detailed. Fujimi models also make great looking curbsides.

Go to my fotki link and I have 2, the 69 gulf colors and the Lemans winner.

Edited by mcandela
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