This BMW M3 was driven by Mario Ketterer for Avus Racing Team in DTM. Despite the certain popularity of this livery-manufacturer combo, the car itself had a pretty poor season in 1988, Mario Ketterer only managed to grab 5 points in total and ended 45th out of 50 in the championship standing.

This is a 1/18 diecast scale model from Minichamps. The paint job is excellent, smooth and rich. The stance is also very well replicated. As with most of touring cars, the livery is differentiated throughout the season, but on the whole, it looks to be accurate. Sadly the livery is made out of decals, and mine already has a couple of small issues.

The front is very well captured with excellent proportions and accurate detailing. The hood as a couple of photoetched clips used to hold it down (non functional). Another of MC's historical problems are the all so obvious and ugly attachment stubs on all lights. The radiator is also not drilled, but its not so visible.

The rear has much better lights as there are no attachment stubs. Why isn't this the case with the front I ask myself. The double silencer is ok in size but it is deep only just a few millimetres, its quite unrealistic when looked at well.


The model has an opening hood, two doors and rear compartment. The shutlines are very discrete and the hinges are all excellent, no dog legs here.

The engine is highly detailed and surely one of the high spots of the car. It is wired and detailed well, all parts are connected to each other and the "BMW M Power" is very well made. I am quite impressed by this area.

The rear compartment houses the fuel cell. On the whole, this areas is almost empty apart from a few wires and small components connected to the fuel cell. Still, its pretty realistic.

The cockpit is a nice area too. The seat is well made with separate seatbelts made out of rubber. The dashboard is also very well made with all the components well visible and detailed. But, I really cannot believe that MC ruined this area by using a cheap decal for the gauges, it really ruins an otherwise very realistic area. The cockpit also houses a quite well made roolcage aswell.

The wheels are unbranded and made out of slick hard rubber. The rim is much nicer to look at. All four tyres are the same with black middle and chrome outline. The rims were held by quite large nuts which certainly made it easy in pit stops. Each rim also has a valve to change the tyre pressure. Rims are branded "Ronal".

As you can notice, the rim is flat, probably for aerodynamic reasons. This feature hides completely the brake area from the outside. Upon better inspection, each tyre has a well detailed brake disk caliper combo. The disk moves with the wheel while the caliper is static. On the other hand, no suspension system is to be seen, probably Minichamps omitted this part.

The undercarriage is another strong point. To my joy, it isn't a flat piece of dark plastic. Mc did an excellent job in replicating many details with excellent realism. All parts are connected and coloured well. As with most middle-range models, the model is held together and connected to the packing box using screws which are visible, but, with all the details MC packed in the undercarriage, they are quite unnoticable.

On the whole, it is a nice model with some high points and some low points like any other diecast model. The engine and undercarriage are certainly great areas that Minichamps excelled in. And to a certain extent, the cockpit is aswell, however, some details like the gauges, attachment stubs and mainly decals should be really be sorted out if they want to compete with the likes of AutoArt and Kyosho.