Toyota-7: not a real WIP, but...

[1959scudetto]

... saving a junker from being discarded:

When buying a built-up Heller Lotus 49 F1  recently (only for wheels), I got 2 additional buildups, among them this one:  Otaki  1/24 Toyota-7 (1968).

It was dirty and rusty, but nearly all parts were there (even the instructions): a typical Japanese  “kit” from way back with a battery- powered e-motor and no detail at all. The body looked not too bad, but  totally different from  the box lid rendering.

Here you can see all the detail that is in this "kit":

 

Internet search finally brought a few pictures, among them almost exactly the kit (left picture) ...

... and also the box lid car - see below:

My guess is : Otaki got the license from Toyota together with drawings of the very first version, while the car was constantly developed  further, and when its race debut came, the kit was ready for sale but looked very different,  so only the box lid could be updated showing the final version:

Anyway, though I had not intended to resurrect this one, I did not want to throw it into the garbage either, so I removed all the electrical wiring and battery clamps, fabricated some panels from styrene sheet just to prevent looking through the whole car and sprayed the chassis aluminium silver.

The (certainly wrong) interior came from an Arii Chaparral, in the parts box I could find a steering wheel and a mirror. The rear deck openings were altered, the letterings  will be hand-drawn – old school build for an old school kit.

The body is spraypainted with Mercedes Benz' "light ivory Taxi"  which looks  like the real racer.

Maybe I will modify the rear rims for wider tires at a later date – they are very narrow and look rather wonky. The body looks very tail-heavy (I would have preferred the box-lid version)

More or less it is an out-of- the-box build with the  only addition of a rear spoiler (like in the photo below) – Toyota changed hoods, rollbars and added fins and spoilers during development of the car, they even ran a race simulation on  track with 3 cars! So this is kind of  a mish-mash of several evolution versions ...

In 1968 they stood no chance with their 3-ltr. Yamaha engine against the stronger Nissans with their big V8-Chevys, so they built stronger versions for the next years, but in 1969 and before the start of the 1970 season, they lost 2 of their promising Japanese drivers in fatal accidents during testing – the company pulled the plug in their program, and the Toyota 7 in its turbocharged 1970 version was never raced (it was intended to take part in the CanAm series) – it is told to have had more than 800 (or even 1000) hp.

So this chapter was closed and Toyota returned to sports car racing in the 1980’s Group C.

More pics in the next days "Under glass".

Edited January 31 by 1959scudetto

[Dave Van]

I picked up a mint kit last Fall at the Ohio model show. I'll be watching!

[Pierre Rivard]

Super interesting and informative story about a car I did not know about. Notice the black one has the spaghetti exhaust flowing above the rear deck. Looks cool like that.

[Rich Chernosky]

Helmut....I have a lot of these early Japanese kits and most of mine were built way back when and completely box stock.  Information on these cars is hard to come by and you did well  finding way more than I did.  Don't know if I have this one (probably)  so I will be following along. Thanks for posting and good luck with the project.  Too bad Toyota didn't participate in the 1970 Can-Am. With all that horsepower they might have been a contender. 

[iBorg]

Looks like you're doing a great job to add detail to this kit. It is very impressive.

[1959scudetto]

Thank you all, guys, for the comments - as you can see an interior which deserves this name does not exist here (only 2 seats) ...

The kit has very few parts:

[Ace-Garageguy]

Great save. 

[Dave B]

Helmut, I agree with Bill, this is going to be a great save.  Looking forward to seeing your progress.

Dave B

[1959scudetto]

21 hours ago, Dave B said:

Helmut, I agree with Bill, this is going to be a great save.  Looking forward to seeing your progress.

Dave B

You won't see much progress here, Dave - I did not much to it (apart from filling the hollow body with some junk).