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I was lucky to find
this locally at only a fraction of its ongoing price on E-bay. The car is
not part of the Millennium collection and comes in the usual open window green
box that AA used in its first days. It is my second Jaguar, the other
one being the VIII E Type which is also an AUTOart.
The box has some informative
paragraphs at the back, "Jaguar entered the 1954 24 hours race at Le Mans with
a D-Type Short Nose. The vehicle featured a centre magnesium and aluminium
alloy monocoque. With a tubular front sub frame carrying the front suspension,
steering and the engine. It had an aluminium lid cover on the passenger side to
aid airflow. The 3.4 Litre straight-six DOHC engine, fitted with dry sump
lubrication and three Weber 45DCOE carburetors, could power the vehicle from
0-60 MPH in 4.7 seconds and achieve a top speed of 162 MPH. The wheels were
light alloy perforated discs with a centre-lock system."
The model itself is quite a nice piece with great
shiny,smooth and orange peel free paintjob which is homogenous on all areas.
Shut lines are very small and the mesh at the front is real and perforated. The
front lights are great with no attachment stubs and a quite realistic
reproduction. The rear lights could have been a little better, but of course we
are talking about a model which is now quite old. All four back lights have an
attachment stub, although its hard to see on the red lensed ones. All the
graphics found on the car are tampoes.
The body oozes with fine details. The cockpit
windshield has a number of silver rivets holding it down, the rear
part is also full of tiny rivets (see second picture) which have been made with
great care at uniform spaces. AA did a good job on the double silencer, I
cannot see where its pipes end. The front engine cover is held down by two
rubber (mimicking leather) belts.
The model has an opening driver door; an engine
cover which folds forwards; a small rear compartment which houses a spare tyre
and a small cover that can be taken off. The small cover was put for
aerodynamic reasons over the passenger seat. It is made out of plastic,
but there is no colour difference.
As already mentioned before, the front engine cover is held down by two belts
which are made out of rubber. The whole belt is made from whole piece, that is,
the actual lock is not a photo etched piece attached to the rubber. It is quite
a realistic feature but nowadays companies make this part better.
The engine cover tilts forward to an almost 90 degree
position and as a result, most of the engine can be viewed -
Fuel cell on the left, battery on the right, radiator
right on the front and a beautiful engine in between. The engine is
made up from different pieces which are well put together and coloured very
realistically.
A number of wires are connected throughout the
engine. Two sets of three pipes each can be seen coming out of the engine;
these are connected to the exhaust system. From this area, one would also
expect to see some brake and suspension detail, but AUTOart seems to have
completely omitted this area from the model, a decision surely taken in
connection with the design of the rim.
Inside the cockpit, the seats do not give a real
sense of detail. They are made from dull hard green plastic with no sort of
'soft' feeling or at least some sort of texture. I would have genuinely
expected a little more after seeing the rest of the detail inside the
cockpit.
The steering wheel is well replicated in
colour and design. The car is all about the driver and this can be seen
when looking inside the cockpit. You can notice that two mirrors are
strategically positioned right next to the driver for optimal rear view.
The dials are hidden but well visible to the driver. It seems they are
painted on the model and not a decal.
The cockpit also houses the pedals which
are quite well made. The brake and clutch have some texture which added
some grip.
The rear part opens very nicely outwards and
downwards. The hinges are really small and lock into place. The
tyre seems to be exactly like the ones the car has on its axles.
The wheels are not branded but the rims are with
"Dunlop". Both rubber and rim are of good standard. As already
mentioned, the axle does not have any sort of detail regarding the brake and
suspension.
The undercarriage is also well made with some more details around the engine
and rear axle area, but overall, it is plain black.
In conclusion, AUTOart did a fine job, even by
today's standards. Of course some details as the seats and brakes are nowadays
expected. Certainly worth its original price, maybe even today's
AUTOart price, but I doubt that its ongoing E-bay price is justified.
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