Tribute to the peak era of motoring TV show: Tamiya's 1/24 Porsche 992.1 GT3 RS Weissach Package

[Tyas]

I like cars for as long as I remember. However, there have been periods where my fondness of cars went away in the background, especially during my elementary school days. But come 2007, I found my fondness again for cars. Thanks to a small, little unknown car show called... uhhh, let me check... TopGear? Yeah, that.

 

TopGear shaped me into who I am today. And one of the most memorable episode for me was the episode 1 of series 10, where the trio took 3 lightweight track-spec version of 'daily-usable' sportscars (well, two of them anyway, James May foolishly brought a GT4-spec Aston V8 Vantage racecar with road tyres) in search of the best driving road in Europe. Back then when I first saw the episode on TV on a rerun, I fawned over Jeremy's Gallardo Superleggera in bright orange (Arancio Borealis, if I remembered correctly). But today, as a thirty-something pleb, I found myself wanting that RS Green 997.1 GT3 RS 3.6 that Richard took (RK07YGT, by the way, is still registered and I think still on the road).

 

However, I didn't start out liking 911 at first. When I was a wee lad I thought Porsche 911s are just expensive squashed Beetle. I don't see the point of buying one. That all change with a video from Chris Harris on his first drive of the then-new 991.1 GT3 RS. In purple. That video changed me forever and now I am a staunch Porsche fan. And as I rewatched that episode of TopGear the image of that RS Green 997.1RS scything up and down Swiss alpine road with its Mezger flat six making hollow haunting bark will forever be seared into my psyche. One of TopGear's best moment, along with the CLK Black Series review and the F12Berlinetta review in 'Hertfordshire'.

 

And that is what brought us to this. I've been looking for a model kit for modern 911 GT3s, and the one that I always wanted was the 991.2 GT3. To me it is THE greatest generation of 911. EVER. Unfortunately the only brand making the kit for 991.2 was Alpha Models. I am not made of money so I cannot afford spending close to GBP300 to buy one myself. So I decided to do the next best thing: Once Tamiya announced their 992.1 GT3 RS model kit, I decided to order one. Now the 992.1 GT3 RS isn't my favourite (mine would either be 992 S/T or 992 GT3 Touring). But this thing is EXTREMELY popular here in Indonesia. There are 2 997.1 GT3 RSs here. I think 5 997.2s and 4 997.2 RS4.0s. For 991 GT3 RS there were probably 8-10 991.1 and same number for 991.2. With 992.1? I think we got like 30 units in total. A LOT for a car that costs GBP700k here and where average GDP is less than GBP5000 per year. So there's that. When the kit arrived I was musing and pondering about what spec to do. But then I got reminded of that episode in TopGear. And I know exactly what spec I need to do.

 

The kit itself is pretty straightforward to build. Other than the fitment of the wing (which was pretty nerve-wracking) and having to fight with HobbyMio carbon decals for the interior trim, bucket seat, carbon rollcage (Tamiya only gives you a Weissach Package car with carbon rollcage, no non-Weissach with normal rollcage), and all the carbon external parts, it's a total peach. A lot of clever engineering solutions that other company should start using for their model kits (AOSHIMA PLEASE TAKE NOTE). The colour is PTS Viper Green, a colour first introduced in 911 Carrera RS 2.7 in 1973. It was one of several so-called 'skittles' colour introduced, with the others being Signal Yellow, Tangerine, and Royal Purple, the latter was reintroduced as Ultraviolet in 991.1 GT3 RS. I think Porsche have an obsession with naming some of their boldest green paints with snake names. Viper Green, Mamba Green, Python Green... what's next? Boomslang Green? Anyhow, I was musing on using the actual RS Green from the 997.1 RS, but I found myself wanting Viper a bit more, it is a bolder shade in my eyes and fits perfectly with GT3 RS's crazy aero-led design. The rest of it is pretty much boring matt black.

 

Enough rambling, here's some images:

 

 

 

[iamsuperdan]

Great colour choice!

 

I'm looking forward to starting my GT3 RS builds. I have a few in mind.

 

[meechum68]

I love it! The green it really pops!  

[Jim B]

Beautiful Porsche. Very well done. 

[Nacho Z]

Fantastic!

[Rattlecan Dan]

Looks real enough for sure. Nice stance and clean build. Really nice job!