Hasegawa 1/20 Ferrari 312T2 '1976 Japan GP'

The Ferrari 312T was a Ferrari Formula One car design, based on the 312B3 from 1974. In various versions, it was used from 1975 until 1980. It was designed by Mauro Forghieri for the 1975 season and was an uncomplicated and clean design, that responded to mechanical upgrades.

The 312T series won 27 races, four constructors' and three drivers' championships, and was replaced for the 1981 season by the 126 C, Ferrari's first turbocharged F1 car.

The 312T was used for the first three races of the season (Lauda won the first two and Regazzoni the third), and was then replaced by a modified version, the 312T2. This was effectively the same car, with detail changes to conform to the newly introduced regulations which included the banning of the tall air boxes - instead "NACA shaped" air intakes were placed on the cockpit sides. The 312T2 was if anything, more successful than the 312T. Lauda was comfortably leading the world championship after another 3 wins, when at the 1976 German Grand Prix at Nürburgring he had a massive accident caused by a suspected rear suspension failure. In the aftermath he nearly burned to death, but was miraculously back racing just 6 weeks later. Lauda conceded the title by just a single point to James Hunt, but the 312T2's superiority helped Ferrari win its second consecutive constructor's title.

Molded in a variety of colors, including red, black, grey and white, this is a superbly detailed kit. The first part of construction is dedicated to the engine and transmission section. The Flat-12 is very nicely done and includes all the detailing you'd want. The kit provides decals for many of the various data plates that are quite visible on the real engine. Exhaust are also multiple pieces to provide some ease of placement. There isn't much to the cockpit of these cars, but the kit does provide a nicely molded seat, instrument panel and steering wheel. A plastic harness is also included, but to be frank, it is thick and if you can provide a cloth one, it would look a lot better.

There is an extensive chromed sprue for the wings and other bits and pieces. Truth be known, these are really aluminum and so stripping them and repainting in aluminum would be the best bet. Besides, you'll have to sand down the mold seams anyway and replacing chrome after doing that is problematical at best. Hasegawa also gives to you four very nicely done pneumatic tires. These are kept in their own packaging. The wings on this kit are the high down-force ones normally used on tight circuits like Monaco. For those wondering what the difference is between this kit and the previous '1976 Monaco' release, I could find only two. One is that the side plates for the rear wing are a slightly different shape and the other is that the black 'Goodyear' logos on the decal sheet does not have a white background or upper and lower trim stripes. 

The instructions only provided placement markings for one car, that being Nikki Lauda's vehicle. However, there are numbers and name markings for Clay Reggazoni, the other team driver provided. The decal sheet is superb with nice whites and crisp printing. Paint references are by Gunze and their #68 Red Madder is suggested for the overall car body. Not sure if that is really an official Ferrari Red, but perhaps it is what matches the red decals. There are dry transfers for the tire lettering.

F-1 fans have had a number of excellent kits from both Fujimi and Hasegawa in the last couple of years. 1/20 scale seems to be what is becoming the 'de facto' scale for F-1 and one can only hope that we see more of these kits in the future. I'd like to see something from the '50s and '60s myself.