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Slot.it CA47a Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R #23 Winner Macau Guia Touring Car Race 1990, Masahiro Hasemi. Available Nov/Dec 2020. RRP £62.95

Slot.it have released the first set of pictures of their new Group-A Nissan Skyline - aka 'Godzilla'. It's in the Castrol Hasemi Motorsport livery of the factory-backed car Masahiro Hasemi drove to a famous - if not rather controversial - victory in the 1990 Guia Touring Car Race on the streets of Macau...

       

The Skyline R32 GT-R dominated the Japanese Touring Car Championship between 1989 and 1993, winning all 29 races it entered. Masahiro Hasemi won JTCC titles in 1989, 1991 and 1992...

       

The Skyline R32 GT-R was powered by a 2.6 litre, straight-six, twin-turbo engine. Key features of the car were it's electronically-controlled all-wheel-drive and four-wheel steering system that kicked in above 50 mph. Not all drivers were keen on the steering. Neither all-wheel-drive nor four-wheel-steering are included on the Slot.it model.

       

Hasemi dominated the 1990 Macau race - taking pole and leading from start to finish - beating a quality field of some of the best British, European, Japanese and local touring car teams and drivers. The nature of the GT-R's win led to a wave of protests from the European teams - and the car would be forced to carry a significant 140kg weight penalty in the following year's race. Here's some action from the opening laps of the race...




You can watch the race in four parts on YouTube or - if you are a Motorsport.TV subscriber - you can catch the full race in rather better quality!


The Slot.it Skyline has the usual DTM layout underneath the body - the 21k MX15 black can motor mounted in an inline 0.5mm offset pod, 9:28 gearing and aluminium hubs on the back. The car is fitted with the new JST connector for easy conversion to digital racing. The vital stats for the model are:

• Length: 142mm
  
• Height: 38mm
  
• Wheelbase: 81mm
  
• Width: 59mm
  
• Weight: 70.3g
  

That makes it in the same ballpark as the Calibra, Alfa and Mercedes DTM models - in fact very similar to the Calibra.

The car is available now on pre-order from Pendle Slot Racing and MRE for rather less than the official UK RRP.