Exoto 1:43 Ford Racing Team Transporter, Team AIR, Lola They say good things come in small packages. This gem proves they were right. Review by Rusty Hurley

Overview

If you needed to brand anybody as a man’s man, than James Garner is a good candidate for the role. In fact, I can't think of better casting. Garner had it all, especially the girls and the cars. He's portrayed uniquely American characters like Brett Maverick and Jim Rockford with gusto and a ruddy charm. He is handsome, yes – but just a pretty face? Not at all – he wants to have too much fun for that. Garner is the guy you can hang out with at the bar.

It was Garner’s celebrity and leadership that was the catalyst for American International Racing. In an age of the rock’n roll supergroup, AIR was essentially the same concept brought to road racing. AIR brought together Davey Jordan, Dick Guldstrand, Scooter Patrick, Lothar Motschenbacher, Bob Bondurant, and others. Add Garner's celebrity, redoubtable charm and none to shabby skills as a wheelman and you had a winning formula. With their Ford "C" Transporter emblazoned with the red, white and blue war paint, the team barnstormed the country running in any number of series. Today, AIR is primarily remembered for their Corvette and Lola road racers as well as some Rambler SC off-road cars.

Exoto has reproduced the Ford C Transporter in 1/43 scale in several liveries and has two offerings of the AIR, one without a car, available now, and a forthcoming version featuring a 1/43 Lola crafted by Best. This is a review of the non-car model and I am so impressed that I’d recommend waiting to get the version with the 1:43. Why? Hours spent scouring the internet for a 1:43 AIR car to pose with the transporter proved fruitless unless I wanted to pony up a few Benjamins for the privilege. So, the review model is posed here using a 1:43 Vitesse from the Porsche Museum in Germany.

The model is especially punctilious for a 1:43, but you’d expect no less from Exoto. Let’s get right to to it and talk about the marvelous adjustable rear hatch. With the detailed instructions provided and some patience, you’ll have lots of fun opening and closing the hauler and the adjustability of the ramp is surprisingly robust in its engineering.

There are a stunning amount of well thought out details, from the skylight, the caution-tape yellow tire rack holding extra sets of rubber and the consistently riveted interior. The exterior features chromed stowage handles, anodized wheels, tires with extruded lettering , high quality light lenses and photo etched badging. The stenciling on the doors proclaiming Thunder Alley in Culver City, CA as the truck’s home port is remarkably crisp.

Most surprising of all is an undercarriage featuring a drive train more detailed than anything I’ve seen in this scale. There is a price for such marvelous engineering though, both in terms of dollars and fragility; as part of shooting the undercarriage I snapped off one of the rear view mirrors. That’s why we appreciate samples to review here at DZ – but just be patient and careful and you’ll avoid this fate.

I used to think race transporters were under-represented in our hobby, especially in larger scales. Then I got a CMC Rennstransporter and realized just how domineering a 1/18 transporter displays. Crafting these images in smaller scales where they can be better companion pieces in a display of larger scales or a perfect fit with your 1/43 racing images really makes sense. And when they are this well executed, it's just plain hard to say no to these gems.

Now we just have to get Exoto interested in crafting the AIR Vettes….