Longshot.... WTB # 50552 bodyset......

[iluvmud]

Title says it all.... looking to see if I can find this body kit.

 

Anyways, if you got one you arent wanting let me know!

[Tamiyabigstuff]

I think there were 2 versions of this - 1 for the Group C chassis & 1 for the TA chassis - I think I have 1 of these somewhere around but not sure which.

Do you know what differences there are between them ? 

[WillyChang]

IMSA Zed... thought they're both the same shell? GrpC body should fit touring car wheelbase fine, just needs big offset wheels.

Vaguely remembering a few (3-5? maybe more) years ago a bunch of Zed shells popped up out of Japan... possibly show special or some AO batch issued by spares dept? Popped up somewhere between appearance of painted F40 & rere NSX. They were bare lexan moldings only no stickers no other bits.

 

[Mokei Kagaku]

50403 Nissan 300ZX IMSA GTO Body Parts Set for 58091 (Gr.C)
50552 Nissan 300ZX IMSA GTS Body Parts Set for 58144 (TA02W)

Bodies are the same (except possibly for punched holes), but wings and stickers are quite different. I don't know anything about IMSA-racing, so I have no idea what the differences between "GTO" and "GTS" are.

Anyway, the wing of 50552 seems to be more authentic when looking at pics of the real car(s), and the stickers of 50552 are clearly an improvement over those included in 50403. Unless I wanted an original body for a 58091, I'd definitely go for the 50552 body parts set.

[Grastens]

The IMSA GTO car ran turbochargers; the GTS car was developed when IMSA banned turbocharged engines. The GTS used a V8 instead of the boosted six-cylinder that was in there previously. What this has to do with the specific rule differences between GTO and GTS, I am not entirely certain, but this is one difference between the GTO and GTS versions of the car.

As the GTS car used an engine not initially developed for it, I think the category had some more liberal rules; hence, the larger rear wing on that car compared to the GTO*.

In any case, the IMSA 300ZX is quite an intimidating-looking machine, and Tamiya has done a nice job with its 1:10 replications.

I hope you can find the bodyset!

*Edit - I could be wrong about a number of things after this picture:

Perhaps the car used the smaller wing for lower-downforce races? IMSA cars tended to use more visibly-different aerodynamic packages between races, especially in the GTP series...

[iluvmud]

19 hours ago, Tamiyabigstuff said:

I think there were 2 versions of this - 1 for the Group C chassis & 1 for the TA chassis - I think I have 1 of these somewhere around but not sure which.

Do you know what differences there are between them ? 

The shells are actually different from what I can tell. The one I’m after has no vents molded into the body whereas the group c version seems to have vents molded in.

[Mokei Kagaku]

1 hour ago, iluvmud said:

The shells are actually different from what I can tell. The one I’m after has no vents molded into the body whereas the group c version seems to have vents molded in.

Wow! Never noticed that!  Looking at pics of the real different 300ZX IMSA cars, I can understand why. The vents in the bonnets were in many different positions and shapes, including just one large one in the middle.

Anyway, I really need to dig out both the  Tamiya bodies and compare directly to see if there are further minor differences.

With regard to differences on the real cars, the version(s) prepared for 24h racing had additional headlights under covers, 240-280Z style. Should be easy enough to replicate on the Tamiya Shell. The sticker sheet of 50552 even includes stickers for the outlining of the opaque covers used when not running additional headlights.

 

[Tamiyabigstuff]

The bodyset I have is for kit 58091

[iluvmud]

No one? So mad I didn’t bid on the one that popped up on ebay