** UPDATE ** Well we had a short one on one with ACME this afternoon. They love hearing your feedback so please keep it coming! This is a working sample, corrections are noted and will be addressed in the production version. A few things we want to correct or provide transparency. This is actually an ACME production under the brand “The Masterpiece Collection” label. And second, the only GMP reference is in regards to production tooling, which was used in development of this current piece.
DiecastSociety.com has the first look at the upcoming painted sample of the GMP/ACME Ferrari #11 Sunoco 512M 1971 Le Mans. This piece was first highlighted back in September in the early R&D stages. The model comes from GMP’s Masterpiece Collection with a suggested retail of $379US. Detail is very good, bringing back the hay day feeling of “diecast” collecting! Top view, side or undercarriage the model does shine. Street date is May 2018. Definitely a candidate for DS 2018 Model of the Year!
About the Ferrari #11 Sunoco 512M… “Kirk F. White’s #11 512M, the most famous 512 of all time, made its debut at Daytona in 1971 with the goal of beating the formidable Porsche 917s. To do this Mr. White assembled an elite team that included Roger Penske/ Sunoco, John Woodard, and drivers Mark Donohue and David Hobbs. After Daytona, the team set there sites on the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car had an excellent start but had to retire with engine failure on Saturday evening. Despite its misfortunes on the track, the Sunoco 512M and the team that ran it remain an iconic piece of racing history. The 512M along with the teamwork of White-penske-Donohue-Hobbs changed the dynamics of sports car racing as other teams quickly realized a new era of racing had arrived.”
Product# M1801001
Looks very good considering this is still a sample. Really looking forward to this one!
Looks great overall. Only criticism is that the the mesh plate (on both sides) above the front wheel arches should be slightly curved. Right now it is flat, and thus does not follow the curve of the fender.
Why is it there anyway? In all the photos I can find there is no such mesh.
On a different note, I really hope GMP also make red and yellow livery variants of the racer. It looks amazing in yellow race livery in particular.
UPDATE: OK, I can see what the mesh is trying to replicate, and how it is failing miserably. On the real car this area has an almost solid-looking, very fine mesh that is dark matte and entirely an inset part of the bodywork, rather than jutting from it. To see what I mean watch Petrolicious’ superb piece on the 512M, from the 1m14s mark: https://youtu.be/404PMZtqopA?t=1m13s
Compare that to the model, especially in pic #5 the mesh is looking horrible. Flat, jutting, shiny and silver as opposed to curved, inset, and matte.
I hope GMP improve on this area, the flat and shiny mesh pieces are currently detracting the quality of the model enough to question its Masterpiece credentials.
Not impressed; wing and tub sides are not chromed while the front bodywork lower sections look like photoetched–hope a way is found to make this more uniform.
Hmm…Not too sure about this.
The wheels in particular extremely look very poor. Those globs of silver paint are a bit disconcerting. Hopefully there’s more work to be done. The wheels on the not-very-good Tecnomodel version appear much nicer.
This is not an area to skimp on GMP!
I think this is just really fast put together sample and final product will be much much different. I hope so…this one is far from previous GMP Ferrari offerings. It would be such a pity otherwise.
These are only photos of the ** first **rough hand sample – I would say to expect that GMP will be making many improvements, and to keep watching for future updates from them…..
TECNOF1 is right, I did note the poor wheels but decided to focus on the front fenders mesh plate.
That said, the update your provided Kraftig is excellent. It is very heartening that ACME are listening to our suggestions, and it sounds like we are all allies in ensuring a fantastic product is released :)
(please combine with my recent message)
The wheels in this hand-sample are looking much worse than ones on previous GMP Masterpiece Ferrari models. The wheels and tyres on the 312 PB in particular are gorgeous, thanks to a very sharp wheel and the replicated pitlane chalk-markings on the tyre. I trust that ACME will have a similarly high level of finish and race track fidelity on this iconic Ferrari racer.
Good work in general. But the wheels looks bad especially the front ones. They are not deep enough and the bolt is too prominent. Also the silver painting looks very bad. A brushed metal will look much better.
I realize this is a sample, but given how awful the wheels look they should have just held back with preview pics until things were more presentable. Previews should create anticipation for the final product- looks like this backfired.
But who knows, maybe this is how the finished product will actually look. Yikes!
I agree with Roger. Even though I know for a fact that they will definitely be making improvements, it would have been much better to just wait to show a better/improved future sample, not this first one with all these issues. As they say; ‘you only get one chance to make a first impression.’
One other critical question: are the wheels and tires going to be removable? For a model of this price–and this level of expectation–I would hope so. Also, the center bolts are way too prominent. Not to mention the super sloppy detail on the rims. But I have faith in Acme–if this is the team developing the project. But if it’s Greenlight, I have my doubts. My understanding is that Greenlight bought GMP’s tooling back when one of their contracted factories in China went out of business. And this was the model being developed at the time. Let’s hope for the best, because this is a seminal release in the racing world.
When is the Acme Ferrari 512M Penske car going to be released? Have the improvements to the prototype been addressed?