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AutoArt 1:12 1954 Jaguar D-Type #3- Rheims 12Hr Race Winner- Whitehead/Wharton

Reviewed by: Joe Kelly

Okay, let’s start off with what AUTOart’s new 1/12 Jaguar D-Type “1954 Rheims 12 Hours Winner” is: it’s big, it’s beautiful, it’s expensive, and it’s detailed just enough to keep all but the truly spoiled rotten among us entertained for many happy hours. Its shape, stance, finish, and all of its visual and tactile bells and whistles – which I’ll get into in a minute – befit this upscale beauty’s asking price of close to four hundred bucks.

I almost wish it wasn’t so good. Because what this particular AUTOart Jag isn’t, despite its livery, its box art, and the enclosed “features and history” booklet, is the car that won at Rheims in 1954.

Nope. Not even close.

OKV 3 – or, XKD404, the third Jaguar D-Type ever built – was a contender at the 1954 LeMans, a race that saw the new Jags beaten, if only slightly, by hellaciously quick Ferraris with 4.9 liter V12 engines (and by a mysterious, sandy gray powder that was discovered in the Jaguar team’s fuel supply). Being an early model, the car came to LeMans with a short nose, an attached stabilizing fin… and an apparent weakness in its gearbox, which failed late in the race. Cleaned up, re-numbered, and with Peter Whitehead again at the wheel, the blunt-nosed Brit went on a few weeks later to Rheims, where it won first place overall in the twelve hour contest. Over the years, it got crashed a lot, got fixed even more, and also got sold around like a bottle imp.

Sorry, kids, but under its surgically-rendered badging and roundels, this latest big-scale AUTOart isn’t that car at all. It’s a re-badged, note-for-note replication of another famous D-Type – the long-nosed car that won LeMans in 1955. That car, XKD505, still sees action at Goodwood, has its own web site (www.xkd505.com) – and , as it happens, will be the next D-Type AUTOart will release in this scale. Savvy?

In the “amortizing a mold set can be fun” section, the job AUTOart did in replicating the latter car is danged good, right down to the aberrant aftermarket side view mirror that was affixed to the real car’s door at some point, probably to make it legal for competition. It’s a metal-intense bomb that rolls on neat vented Dunlop wheels (with a set of four left hand knockoffs – a mistake Aa also makes on its 1/18 Jags) and grippy, no-name rubber. Everywhere there are rivets, and screws, and fasteners; jewelry that sparkles off the cue ball smooth BRG paint in a slightly-oversized sizzle.

The intro to the car’s engineering is the included metal hatch cover. The piece snicks precisely into the car’s body with locating pins at one end and a spring-loaded slide latch at the other. Displaying the car with the cover off is an option; there are neat details and real wiring fastened to the bulkhead. Hardware gizmos abound. The rear tire cubby is also held in place by a working twist latch that’s got a coil spring holding it tight, and the fuel filler door swings up on a hinge, with leather straps keeping it in check. You can open the fuel filler proper, too.

Just ahead of that, the driver’s door opens up crisply. Just be sure not to use the glass to pull it, or you’ll be mixing epoxy in short order. Next to a flat looking leather-covered seat is a poseable shifter (no detents, but fun to wonk around, nonetheless). But I’d advise you to hold off on steering the wheels with that great looking tiller. With its photoetch center and its scale-on accurate construction, the load of the car’s steering mechanism could easily overwhelm it. Better to lift the car’s nose and pose things as you like them. Should you spontaneously break out in a case of happy fingers, you can make like Hawthorn and press down on the pedals – they work.

Much has been made of the apparent lack of detail under the Jag’s hood. I’d say that, barring a questionable cylinder head casting (just what the hell are those extra spark plugs doing there, anyway?), the detail level on the XK DOHC six is just fine. Unlatch the handles at either side, loosen the leather straps (and, for the love of Mike, leave them that way), and tilt the nose for a pleasing vista of comprehensively cast and conjured wiring and cabling set against a very tidy engine bay. Metal trumpets ride the trio of DC03 Webers, and a nice palette of metallized and neatly applied finishes join with sharp castings to replicate the 250-horsepower six very nicely, indeed. Curious – but befitting a “modernized” racer like the real XKD505 – is the electric fan behind the radiator.

Below, the car sports brake and fuel cables and a working – if stiff – suspension, as well as a serialized plate attached to the belly pan, all painted and installed just as neatly as anything topside.

Considering the other little built-in notes and things to see – like the wires to the lights up front, and the beautiful, die-pressed vents in the hood – the manufacturer’s apparent lack of desire to tool up a correct short nose and correct tail for this release might have been easier to take had AUTOart simply chosen another long-nosed Jag of some historical significance – or even a non-liveried model – as the first release in this particular series.

Calling this otherwise very good model car the 1954 Rheims winner may ultimately prove to be a big mistake. Four hundred clams is a steep price point; by now you’ve probably figured out where you stand. If you’re in the market for a truly representative piece of motor racing history, hold out for the upcoming (I don’t know when) LeMans car.

But if you’ve simply been pining for a truly cool D-Type, and have more hobby cash on-hand than you have patience, look no further. Your model has arrived. On execution and overall build, I’d give it four out of five stars. On historical accuracy, one.

(12/10/2006)