1:24 Toyota Supra Turbo A70 1989 Macau Guia Race

A turbocharged six-cylinder under a long hood

The third generation of the Supra, listed by the maker under the internal code A70, gave up its kinship with the Celica model and became a coupe of its own of classic layout: the engine longitudinally at the front, rear-wheel drive, a long nose and pop-up headlights. The top turbocharged version was built on an inline six-cylinder of about three liters completed by a turbocharger, and it was precisely from this that the cars prepared for Group A touring were derived.

The street circuit in Macau

The Guia Circuit is among the tightest tracks in the world. It runs along ordinary streets, climbs to the hill with the lighthouse, flashes down a long straight by the harbor and then closes into corners where almost nothing is left between the curb and the barrier. The November event brought a field here made up of Japanese and European works and semi-works teams, and large coupes fought in it against lighter but nimbler rivals.

What to watch out for during the build

The set is an injection-molded plastic model in the usual car scale, so the finished car measures roughly twenty centimeters. A racing specification means more work with masking than on a production car: the color divisions of the finish tend to be crisp and run across the edges of the fenders, so it pays to paint in layers from the lightest shade and to cover the transitions with tape.

The interior of a circuit version is bare, with a roll cage and a bucket seat, so even small pieces of work are visible from outside. The wheels with wide slick tires are worth flattening, so that they do not reflect the shine of fresh paint on the body.