The acceptance that nobody/nothing can be perfect, allowing them to come to terms with their imperfections yet not allowing these imperfections to define them and instead of hiding their flaws, they embrace them. This is pretty much the top definition of “Perfectly flawed” as found on urbandictionary.com and i think it sums up this model as well as its subject matter spot on.
This is GT Spirit’s 1/18 RWB Porsche 964, in case you’ve been under a rock for the past couple of years, RWB is the (now legendary) brand of one Akira Nakai-san. From racing up and down the touges of Japan in his AE86 back in his youth, to customizing air-cooled Porsches all around the World today, the ethos of his RWB brand remains the same. All the World needs, is more Rough!
Which of course ties in with his style of customizing cars, all done by him alone, all done by hand. No fancy lasers, no fancy computers, just one man, his hands, his box of tools and his craft. This in turn means that no RWB is created equal and that each and every car is unique.
This also means that each car he crafts has its own unique details and because of the nature of all hand-crafted creations, all of them will also have their own unique quirks. Which is how i feel about GT Spirit’s 1/18 recreation of the car.
At first glance, this model is stunning, the red paint is beautiful, the little details that set apart an RWB from normal 964s are all there and the finishing looks to be top notch. But there are of course a few issues.
The most noticeable of which deals with one of the most important aspects of the real deal, stance. During the stages of creating an RWB, Nakai-san spends hours upon hours tweaking the suspension settings just to get the car to sit right and on our model, it doesn’t quite look right.
While the front sits perfectly, the rear wheels seem to sit way too high, giving the car a rather pronounced rake. While this rake might have been “okay” for a standard 964 model, i wish GT Spirit too more time to perfect the ride height of the rear.
Another point to take note of are the little black dots that represent the rivets on the flare fenders. On my car at least, there were around 2 black dots missing. Not a deal breaker as i easily just filled them in with a sharp tipped marker but i understand some collectors might be a little bit more fussy than me.
The rear deck also has faux mesh on the huge RWB letters, it would have been nicer to keep the letters flat black instead of trying to replicate wire mesh with a sticker.
But in the end, while the model might have its flaws and small finishing issues, the truly unique subject matter chose by GT Spirit means i have nothing but love for this 1/18. I hear they will be releasing a 1/18 of RWB’s Rough Rhythm 993, hopefully they have sorted out the ride height on that one. As it stands now, our GT Spirit RWB 964, like the real car, is flawed. But that’s just how we like it. Perfectly flawed, Perfectly Rough.
GARAGE36 