The car that started the new chapter in Volkswagen's history, the Golf. In May 1974 the first Golf rolled out of the factory. The Golf, designed by Giugiaro had a watercooled 4 cyl enigne and was front wheel drive. A well built and cheap car for the public, that's why it became so popular. But as always there we're people looking for more power, so the first GTI was introduced, GTI stood for Grand Tourer Injection (named after the Italian Gran Turismo Iniezione). A GTI is known for having a fuel injected engine making the car more sporty to drive. The GTI had a 1.6 L fuel injected engine producing 109bhp, which was twice the power the standard Golf produced. To this date we can still notice the impact this car made, over 150 million Golf's have been produced and the Golf is still in production. The Golf 8 is closing in...
Enough about real cars, let's talk 1:18 scale model cars. So the model we're looking at today is made by Norev. Norev makes the GTI in both 1:18 and 1:43 in, black, red, white and silver.
The example we're looking at today is the white one coming from Ital Cars at €54,95,-.
Ital Cars is a dutch model car reseller selling all kinds of models from Volkswagen's till Aston Martin's.
Even for collectors who don't collect 1:18 can take a look at their site to see what other scales they have to offer.
www.italcars-schaalmodellen.nl/en_GB/
The example we're looking at today is the white one coming from Ital Cars at €54,95,-.
Ital Cars is a dutch model car reseller selling all kinds of models from Volkswagen's till Aston Martin's.
Even for collectors who don't collect 1:18 can take a look at their site to see what other scales they have to offer.
www.italcars-schaalmodellen.nl/en_GB/
As always, the front is where we start off this review. We immediately see the boxy 70's shape. The front grill with the typical red GTI outline, has been made out of plastic and sadly isn't meshed. As far as the lights go, they are decent. The shape is correct, but the middle plastic dot makes it a little unrealistic. Norev did do a good job on the indicators, most brands would've used paint here, but Norev used a real plastic part.
I like the metal etched badge used for the GTI script. |
Next up the side profile. Again the boxy shape is present.
The lines are all perfect and crisp, shutlines are thin and even. The wheels are made out of plastic, but have some great detail to them, with real separate lugnuts. The tyres on the other had feel a little to hard and don't have a rubber feel to 'em. The wheels do roll and turn.
The mirror is made out of plastic and has a nice reflective sticker attatched to it. I especially like the added detail to the door handle, see the slide show for the pictures.
The lines are all perfect and crisp, shutlines are thin and even. The wheels are made out of plastic, but have some great detail to them, with real separate lugnuts. The tyres on the other had feel a little to hard and don't have a rubber feel to 'em. The wheels do roll and turn.
The mirror is made out of plastic and has a nice reflective sticker attatched to it. I especially like the added detail to the door handle, see the slide show for the pictures.
Moving over to the square rear proportion of this model. Shut lines here are perfect, but the rear is closed would've loved to see a full opening model. Sadly that is rare these days, even brands like Norev make full closed models these days. But let's get back to this model now. Both rear emblems are metal etched. The rear lights are better then the front ones, a three colour plastic piece covers the nice inner lights. As on the side the black line is nice and crisp. The only downside is the exhaust, it looks to cheap, and has a bit of extra plastic left inside of it.
I just had to show you the underside of this model, there is a lot of detail in it, from the engine, the exhaust and the sparewheel hub. Not something we look at every day, but it's still cool to see.
Next up, the interior. I have to say, this is very good looking. Norev has defenitely put a lot of effort into it. The replicated all the air vents, all the gages and even the iconic seat pattern has been replicated. There is no carpet in the interior, which is a downside since Norev usually give their models carpeting. But it's not too big of a deal. The best part of the interior is by far the golfball gear stick, a very funny add.
Last but not least, the engine bay. And before we're starting there, I must say 'Norev what the hell have you done here?'. They haven't used big, no huge 'doglegs' as opening mechanism for the trunk, bwoah.. Oh well, let's move on. The engine detail is decent, there are some neat details, but there is a lot missing too. The Golf has an engine with a lot of details which is hard to replicate at this price point. They have done some wires and the biggest parts have been done, which is enough.
Conclusion time
Pros
- Overall shape
- Shutlines
- Wheels
- Emblems
- Interior
- Underside
- Rear lights
Cons
- Exhaust
- Front lights
- Engine
- Doglegs
- Frontgrill
Pros
- Overall shape
- Shutlines
- Wheels
- Emblems
- Interior
- Underside
- Rear lights
Cons
- Exhaust
- Front lights
- Engine
- Doglegs
- Frontgrill
Rating: 6,6/10
That's it for this one
A big thanks to Ital Cars for sending me this model www.italcars-schaalmodellen.nl/en_GB/ Check out the video of this model aswell Be sure to follow me on Instagram www.instagram.com/diecast._cars/ See you on the next one! |
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