The All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship or JGTC which was founded by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) in 1994, replaced the defunct All Japan Sports Prototype Championship for Group C cars and the Japanese Touring Car Championship for Group A touring cars.
In recent years the series has been divided into two categories, GT500 and GT300. The figures refer to the maximum permitted power output in bhp for each class, and this is regulated through the use of air intake restrictors which the cars must have. In addition to restricting horsepower, successful cars gain weight penalties to prevent the domination of the championship by any one team. Weight penalties are added to the cars if in the previous race they finished 1st, and also to cars which put in the fastest lap or gained pole position in the preceding race. Hence, if a team does well for the first few races of the year, they suffer a weight penalty which drops them down the order for the next few races. This form of handicapping does not appeal to most racing purists but the reason for it is to keep the competition close and to make it difficult for just one team to dominate (which can make for a boring show for the spectators).
Cars in the GT300 group tend to be quite similar to their road going equivalents (the category has recently been dominated by cars such as the Porsche 911 GT3) while the faster GT500 cars can often be highly modified when compared to the street versions on which they are supposed to be based. In this sense the GT500 category is similar to the old Group 5 rules for racing in that the cars retain the basic shape of the road car but are otherwise specialised racing machines. This Nismo (Nissan Motorsports) prepared FairladyZ (as the 350Z is known in Japan) for example has the same roofline and doors as the road going 350Z, but it has massively widened and re-shaped wings and wheelarches. It also has a large rear wing which is essential for most modern race cars in order to provide the necessary grip required for high speed cornering.
The street legal 350Z has a 3.5 litre V6 engine in a front engined/rear wheel drive chassis, but I'm not sure how closely related the engine in this car is to the standard cars powerplant. This is because like all of AUTOart's JGTC models, this model of the Calsonic 350Z is a "sealed" model. This means that the doors, the rear hatch and the bonnet do no open, and while it does have good interior detailing (which is hard to see through the small windows) it does not have an engine at all. AUTOart justify their sealed model range by claiming that it allows them to rapidly release models a short time after they raced as it takes less time to produce them without openings. However, most collectors I know (including myself) would be quite happy to wait an additional six months or so and get a model that opens (just like even the most basic budget model does for the most part in 2006!). It certainly is a well make model of a superb looking race car, but I do wish it opened up! The truth I feel behind the new sealed line up of racing cars from AUTOart is that they are cheaper to make hence it was a decision based on trying to get more money for less product.
This particular Nissan was campaigned in the GT500 class of the 2004 JGTC series by the Calsonic sponsored Team Impulz, and was driven by the French/Japanese driver pairing of Benoit Treluyer and Yuji Ide. Calsonic have a long history of sponsoring Nissans including many superb looking Nissan Skyline touring cars. They manufacture car parts and components such as whole dashboard assemblies, exhaust systems, cooling systems and climate control units.
They managed to win the 7th round of the series (out of 8 in total), the 300km race at the Suzuka circuit in Japan. The GT500 championship in 2004 went to the works Nismo team driver pairing of Satoshi Motoyama and Richard Lyons, who drove a Xanavi sponsored FairladyZ in 2004 (a model of which is also available from AUTOart).
At the end of the 2004 season, the JGTC changed it's name to the Super GT series with the future aim of giving it more international appeal (a few JGTC races were held in the USA and other Asian countries up to 2004). But essentially the series remains unchanged apart from it's new name, retaining the GT500 and GT300 categories of racing, and most races still being held in Japan.
As I'm in the middle of a house move (as of August/September 2006) all my models are in storage hence I'm not able to accurately rate this model for this review. To do so properly I like to have the model to hand so I can inspect it properly in order to give it a fair rating. Once our house move is complete I aim to get my models out of storage ASAP and add a full rating of this model to this review.
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