Nicholas' Diecast Models | Reviews and Galleries

AutoArt Ford GT Review

Authored by Nicholas
Gallery of this model can be found here

Manufacturer	AutoArt
Scale	1:18
Category	Mid-Range

The Ford GT, Ford's supercar defines American cars. The Ford GT is powered by a 5.4-litre V8 supercharged engine. While the motor might sound familiar, it doesn't come from AMG. It's from Ford. It produces a healthy 550 bhp. While this car sounds muscle car-ish, it isn't. It's a supercar. An American one. It handles like any of it's rivals. A customer even quoted "Handles like it's on rails". So there you have it, an American supercar from Ford. This is a review of the 1:18 Ford GT made by AutoArt in Speed Yellow with black stripes.

The Model

The Ford GT from AutoArt is priced in the Millennium range, which makes it more expensive than Performance models. It comes in two colors as of the writing of this article, Speed Yellow with black stripes and Mark IV Red with white stripes. If you're not a fan of either color combinations, AutoArt might produce the GT in other colors in the near future. Model feels well built and is fairly heavy.

What’s In The Box

The AutoArt Ford GT comes in AutoArt's standard box for Millennium models. For freshies to AutoArt, the Millennium box is an outer thick cardboard box with pictures of the model and a Styrofoam clamshell which contains the model. The model is held with two plastic 'shelves' under it. The model is held onto the bottom of the clamshell without screws or wires and does not move around in the box at all.

Exterior

My Ford GT came in a non-metallic yellow body with black 'Go Faster' stripes. The popular red with white stripes is also available. Paint is smooth and as this is in the Millennium range, it's paint job is significantly better than the models from the Performance range. Thickness of the paint is very good and realistic. The paint is also very waxy and shiny. There is, however, a major issue with the paint of the model on this variant, the paint matching. AutoArt saves cost by using plastic for some parts of the models. The paint matching for the yellow one is a bit too obvious to the casual eye and cannot be excused as this is in the Millennium range.

The stance of this model is superb, I have to say. From the side, it looks extremely intimidating. The Blue Oval logo up front is a raised piece and is very detailed. The headlights have no sign of attachment stubs. The side indicator on the front, however, is less successful as there is a very obvious attachment stub. Both front air intakes are very nicely modeled. They are covered with metal mesh and have two large fans beneath them. There also is another smaller air intake which is also covered with mesh just in front of the windscreen. One can see a radiator behind the mesh of the front air dam with a light. The only thing that spoils the front is the paint matching of the front bumper as the yellow is darker than the rest of the body's.

On the side, as I have said, the model looks very intimidating, with those large wheels and tires coupled with a low-slung body of the GT. The nice rear wheelarches, air intakes, the shape of the doors, need I say more? Oh, there is of course again, the paint matching of the air intakes just in front of the rear wheels and the piece below it.

The rear of this model is very nicely done. There are four air intakes just behind the glass or rather plastic, in this case of the engine cover. The menacing twin tailpipes are faithful reproductions of the 1:1. The tail lights look good from 3-5 feet away, and I'm not going to beat around the bush, it just doesn't look realistic and looks wrong. The rear bumper also has bad paint matching qualities. The model also holds a "Ford GT" number plate at the rear.

Wheels, Brakes and Undercarriage

The wheels on the 1:1 Ford GT have a very pleasant design, I must say. There is also an option for lightweight alloys on the 1:1 GT. These are not available on the 1:18 AutoArt. The centre caps of the wheels are faithful reproductions from the 1:1. They are chromed, with three things sticking out as on most Italian and American classics such as the Ford GT40 and the Lamborghini Miura. This design gives the GT a classical look while it's a modern supercar. There is the "Ford GT" wording tampoed on the centre of the wheel cap. The rest of the 6-spoke wheels are painted with powder coat and have a matte appearance. The tires have accurate tread patterns and profile. However, there is a problem with the tires. They are too narrow on the model. The 1:1 has 315 spec-ed tires at the rear and 235 at the front. On the model, it appears too narrow to meet the scaled size of the 1:1. The rest of the wheels and tires look correct to scale. The 1:1's tire specs are as follows: 235/45ZR-18 for the front tires and 315/40ZR-19 for the rear. Back to the tire width issue on the model, because it’s narrow, it makes the model look a little ungainly from the front or the rear. The brakes, are typical AutoArt quality and detail. Need I say more? They are brushed to look extremely realistic and are dimpled neatly with small holes. There is a huge caliper at the front which is painted black and a similarly sized one at the rear which works together with a smaller one. All calipers are painted in black. The undercarriage of this model is completely sealed, which I belive is true to the 1:1. There is a visible rear diffuser too. However, this isn’t just a sea of black as you might have expected, there is also silver on the undercarriage.

Engine

The engine on the AutoArt Ford GT is a very strong point of this model. On most modern supercars, the manufacturers just love to cover the engines with plastic parts and covers. This does not tart up the looks of the engine, don't get me wrong. When model car manufacturers produce models of the car, the engine will just look plain and boring in most cases. The 1:1 Ford GT’s engine doesn’t suffer from plastic covers. On the model, there is a visible huge supercharger, as on the 1:1. The part is decent in detail too. This, coupled with nice plumbing, wiring, pipes, a visible engine block and also warning signs and wordings you can read off in the engine bay and some fluid bottles makes the engine very, very good for it's value.

Interior

The interior, unfortunately, isn't as successful as the mighty engine is. I'll list down the colors in it. Black and silver. Yes, black and silver. Okay, there are little lines of blue and red for the climate controls but this interior isn't well done, I have to say. Why? Because it's true to the 1:1. The model, however, missed out on one part the 1:1 has. The seats do not have the silver trimming as on the real car. They’re all black. The model has very thin carpets, which I believe is true to the 1:1. The dashboard is nicely done, putting aside the colors of the interior. The meters are highly detailed and one can even see the needle and numerics on it. The air-cons on this model appear to be opened and painted in silver. The seats are black in color and made of hard plastic. Again. We’re getting really bored of this hard materials AutoArt has been using for ages on the interior of their models. The trunk of this model is not carpeted, accurate to the 1:1. There are two large cooling fans in it, as I have mentioned earlier.

Conclusion

The AutoArt Ford GT is a good effort. The work put into it and the price tag it carries puts it into the Millennium range, AutoArt's 2^nd highest and I must say, it deserves to be in that range. If you just hate bad paint matching and cannot accept it, you just have to go for the Mark IV Red with white 'Go Faster' stripes color combination. All in all, this car is worth it's slightly steep price tag. It's a must have for every Ford/supercar fanatic and also the Ford GT owner.

Score Sheet

Exterior	Good smooth paint, bad paint matching	8.5
Wheels, Brakes and Undercarriage	Great detail on the wheels, tires and brakes, undercarriage is a little boring as it’s sealed	8.0
Engine	Great detail all round!	9.0
Interior	Just black and silver, true to the 1:1 though	7.0
Score	[Emphasis of score placed on interior and exterior]	8.3