Sharper Honed Track Weapon
Mercedes-AMG GT R Pro
1:18 | $55 est
For 1967 Shelby knew he finally had a fight on his hands for his hot-rodded Mustangs. Chevy was bringing out the Camaro with an optional 396—significantly more potent than Ford’s top offering the 390. But Shelby knew the 390 shared the same block and exterior dimensions with the 428 Police Interceptor, so he bought a bunch of those, cast his own aluminum dual-quad intake manifold for it, and dropped it into a ’67 Mustang wearing special fiberglass hood, nose and tail pieces, extra scoops, a racy set of Le Mans stripes, and special center-mounted “driving light” high-beams. Solido brings a sharp-looking GT500 to market. The casting captures all the Shelby-specific goodies on the exterior, plus opening doors to reveal the Shelby gauge pack, steering wheel, and a roll bar with shoulder belts looped around them. At about $55 they’re a solid bargain in 1:18.
1:18 | $140
The base Mercedes-AMG GT is no slouch at the track to begin with. Then there’s the S, which adds an extra 45 horsepower and a few other goodies. Not content with that, AMG added the GT C—and another 35 horses, plus wider bodywork, bigger tires and a few other tweaks. Oh, but wait—there’s also the GT R, which takes all that, adds race tires, another 30hp, carbon-ceramic brakes, more aggressive front and rear aerodynamics, and an ingenious 9-position traction control system. But hold that stopwatch. Meet the GT R Pro, which, as the name implies, means AMG has decided to get serious-er. It makes the same ponies as the R, but the front has been reworked with dive planes and a giant splitter for even more downforce. There are also air extractors for the wheel wells, adjustable sway bars, and double-adjustable coil-overs and lighter wheels. So, yeah, faster. All of the visible stuff is present on GT Spirit’s new 1:18 resin model along with impressive interior detail. The stealthy beauty of the matte gunmetal finish doesn’t come through in photos, but in person it is lovely and accented nicely by the neon green stripe package.