This British “Car, Light Utility” was based on a passenger car chassis. They were produced by several manufactures and used throughout WWII from Dunkirk to North Africa. Nicknamed “Tilly”, they were powered by a 10 hp engine, lacked 4-wheel drive, and poorly suited for off road assignments. They were used in rear areas and on British airbases in a variety of roles.

This new kit from Tamiya is contains one sprue of gray parts and one of clear parts. The clear parts are for the windshield, windows, one headlight, fender lights, and the canvas cover for the cargo compartment. The molding is crisp and clean with excellent detail and no flash. There is a driver figure included, as well as an excellent decal sheet. The instruction sheet includes 8 construction steps with detail painting call outs form Tamiya paints. It also includes a marking and painting guide on the back of the sheet for 3 trucks.

Back in 1976 Ken Tyrrell ran a Formula One Race team. He employed an innovative car designer named Derek Gardner. Up to this point in Formula One or Grand Prix as it is called, many designers tried some pretty radical designs in the hopes of gaining an advantage over the other competitors. Mr. Gardner came up with one of the wildest designs and it worked. This was the Tyrrell Project 34 six wheeled car. He felt that by reducing the drag on the front end the car would have an advantage in front line speed. By doing this he put four small (10") wheels on the front thereby reducing the drag and still keeping the grip. This car ran for 30 races between 1976 and 1979 and achieved a win in the process at the Swedish Gran Prix.

Having recently gotten back into car modeling, more specifically Group "C" type cars, I jumped at the chance to review this pre-painted (blue) 5-point Sparco harness set. As with most high speed racing endeavors, the rules require some very stout driver to seat retention systems (seat belts), but these are poorly represented by either molded-in details or by decals. Eduard has come to the rescue with these excellent looking seat belt/harness sets.

I had to do a little research and stash cross-referencing to see what Group "C" car model that I had that would use the blue harnesses. After a short search, I found that the 1988 Le Mans winning Jaguar XJR-9LM (the Tamiya kit) used this color harness. The belts have a very nice texture to them and the colors are quite brilliant. As can also be seen in the photos, the lettering is very sharp and clearly printed.