Bburago Ferrari Testarossa
From about 1968 to 1973 the top street car in Ferrari's line was the elegant, front-engined 365GTB/4 and -GTS/4, commonly known simply as the Daytona. The introduction of Lamborghini's mid-engined Miura changed all that, putting an evolutionary pressure on a car that had been alone until then. So in 1974 Ferrari matched Lamborghini's Miura with their own mid-engined car, the Pininfarina-designed 365GT4/BB -- only to find that the Miura had been replaced with the even more outrageous Countach! In 1976 the 365 was changed slightly to become the 512BB, adopting the Dino's nomenclature, in this case meaning "5 liters, 12 cylinders". The shapely body was changed only in details, and by 1982 it was seriously losing exotica points to the Lamborghini.
Ferrari decided something wild-looking was needed. Something to improve on the 512BB, and at the same time, snatch the public's imagination away from the Countach. In close collaboration with Pininfarina they developed the 512's successor -- the first Ferrari designed for the American market from the beginning. It would be mid-engined like the 512, but the engine would be forward of the transmission, giving a lower center of gravity. It would have twelve cylinders, again in a flat configuration (sometimes called a V-12, with the explanation that it's a 180 degree vee!). It would be low, and wide, and have huge side intakes to feed air to the hungry powerplant and the side-mounted radiators. And it would be named after one of the legendary racing Ferraris of the '50s -- the fabled (and fabulously valuable) 250 Testa Rossa.
(For what it's worth, "Testa Rossa" means "redhead" in Italian, and referred to the red crackle finish on the heads of the engine -- not, as some would have you believe, that the heads were so hot they glowed red! Ferrari deliberately made the name of the new car one word -- "Testarossa" -- to differentiate it from the original.)
To meet European regulations controlling the size of intake openings, and, more importantly, to leave an indelible print on the public's imagination, Pininfarina covered the intakes with a grille of side slats, running horizontally along the doors. As you all know, it worked -- the slats instantly identified the car, and were copied on everything from Porsche 911s, Corvettes, and Lamborghini Countaches (Pininfarina must have LOVED that!), to pickup trucks! They set a very distinct styling trend for late '80s rebody kits -- which was generally a "me, too!" trend -- but not in the case of the originator, the Testarossa.
Not everybody loved the car's styling. Besides the slatted intakes, there were many controversial styling elements, often suggested by the wind tunnel. The huge, square flanks, fully six feet wide, swept forward and down in a curve that was claimed to create downforce at speed. The traditional round Ferrari taillights were replaced by rectangular ones, covered with a grille of horizontal slats that echoed the intakes. Another of the more radical departures was the side mirror: the first samples had only one, on the driver's side, and it was mounted high on the A-pillar, so the driver had to look UP to see it. (Interestingly, all of the radical elements are gone by now: first was the high-mounted mirror; it lasted less than a year before being replaced by more conventional ones. The horizontal taillights lasted through the first redesign, the 512TR, but were replaced with round ones at the 1995 introduction of the 512M. The 348 adopted the slatted intake, but the slats were dropped in the F355. And in 1996, the mid-engined Boxers were replaced with the front-engined 550 Maranello, a car that might have descended from the Daytona in an unbroken line.)
Still, the Testarossa did capture the public fancy for a while. Its performance never matched that of Lamborghini's 202-mph Diablo, with a top speed of about 185, but it was no sluggard, and it was plenty exotic in its own way.
So here is Bburago's diecast model of the Testarossa. I have two samples -- one in the traditional Ferrari red, Rosso Corsa, the second (an earlier one) in Rosso Rubio -- Ruby Red, a darker hue. I have extensively detailed the Rosso Corsa model, but I won't be referring to those modifications in this review. This is about the model as it came from the factory.
It should be noted that these two have slight production differences, which is not uncommon for Bburagos. One difference is obvious with a little observation: the flanks of the darker car, the earlier production one, have a prominent mold separation line on the rear fenders. Another difference becomes apparent only if you dismantle them both: on the older one, the "glass" comes out freely; on the newer one, the glass and the ceiling console unit are cemented to the roof.
Speaking of the roof, this car, along with a few other Bburagos (Ferrari 288GTO, Bugatti EB110, at least) sport a peculiar plastic exterior roof panel. It's well done, with an excellent color match in each case, but I still wonder why it was done that way...
Anyway, let's start at the beginning:
When parking the Testarossa beside the 512BB, one of the most immediately obvious differences is that the black below the beltline is gone on the TR. This did not, in fact, originate with the TR -- in 1983 the last of the 5122BBi's went to a monochrome scheme. The TR does have a vestigial black band along the bottom, but the square sides make the body look heavy and low. The 512 had a sharklike downward taper to the front grille; the TR's is squared.
Where the 512BB was a collection of curves on curves, the Testarossa brings squares to the equation. Bburago captured this well: especially the squared flanks that replaced the flared rear fenders. In general, the sculpting of the body is pretty good, but there are a few areas that could be improved substantially.
The front end is squared vertically on this car, with a cluster of lights (driving lights and turn signals above) at the corners, and in the center a grille. The grille is the right shape, but every TR photo in my collection shows them as black -- yet somebody at Bburago decided it should be chromed!
Above this, the non-operational popup lights frame the trunklid, surmounted by a Ferrari crest that's too big for this scale. The trunklid ends just ahead of the windshield, with a louvered vent that should be black, but is simply represented by surface modeling. I can forgive that; Bburago isn't big on detail painting like UT or Kyosho.
Popping the trunklid shows us a removable spare tire, identical to the metric Michelins on the four corners. The tires actually do say "Michelin" and "280/45 VR 415" on them, but they're otherwise identical to those on Bburago's 288GTO -- those give the same size, but say "Bburago" instead of "Michelin." More on those tires and wheels later.
The other thing we see under the trunklid is a lot of grey plastic and bare metal, decorated sparingly with overspray. The undersurface should be black, but if they're not going to do that, Bburago should at least give us a consistent body-color paint job. Let's drop the hood -- it doesn't want to stay open anyway.
The front fenders have subtle dimples for orange side marker lights -- remember, this was the Ferrari designed for America -- but neither of my samples has even paint or decals to show the lights. In an ideal world, the dimples should be holes, mounting orange lenses. I would have settled for decals.
Next, there are none of the famous signature mirrors: neither the single, high-mounted mirror, nor the later, lower dual mirrors. Simply no exterior mirrors at all.
Moving on to the doors, it's impossible to ignore the much-copied side slats. They're part of a separate plastic casting that snaps into a depression on the door, but they're actually quite well done. Both my examples, however, have doors that don't want to close quite right. On one, it refuses to close tightly; on the other, it's visibly out of line, and the slats make sure you notice. These doors use a pin-and-slot type hinge, and it clearly isn't perfected. This is especially obvious when you occasionally run into one that doesn't want to close: the slot-plate can jam on the nearby plastic piece in the doorjamb, which comes too close.
The doors also lack a window frame or vent window, but that's no surprise.
And the doors, of course, lead us to the interior, over a threshold that shows overspray on one of my two (the other is well painted here). The "leather" of the seats, dash, and door liners is cast in a very pale tawny color, close to accurate (except the dash was usually brown). The floor and console is a dingy grey, nowhere near close. The windshield piece continues across the ceiling, secured by the ceiling console unit, with its rearview mirror. On the real cars, the console and headliner matched the seats. The rearview mirror was black. Here, it's all one chromed piece, to save them having to stick a "mirror" decal on the mirror. Bad shortcut.
Another chrome piece leaps to my eye in the interior: the pod on the steering column, housing the turn signal stalk. It was black on the real cars; what possessed them to chrome-plate it here?
The seats look square and ugly, but comparison with photos shows them to be pretty accurate: seats on the real TR's are square and ugly. The door panels are generally correct, except for the openings at the bottom, and the pull handles that are just raised bumps. Finally, the windshield wipers are grossly oversimplified -- but this is a common flaw among Bburagos, and these aren't the worst.
Moving back to the engine bay, a careful examination shows the cut of the engine lid to be somewhat inaccurate -- but the difference is minor, and forgivable. The lid itself is composed of a plastic grille, again color-matched, nicely snapped into two black plastic pieces that represent the vent strips on the real car. The name, "Ferrari" is embossed into the engine lid toward the back -- well done, raised just enough that it can be easily drybrushed silver. Notably absent is the center brake light, which should be on the sloped rear surface of the bulge over the engine -- but not all TR's had them.
Lifting the engine lid (it cooperatively stays open), we see the worst part of this model: the engine itself. Not only is the engine bay not properly colored, but most of the parts that should be black are acturally dingy grey, same as the floor. The namesake red heads are actually body color plastic -- as are the intake runners. Worse yet, the flanges where the intake runners join are at an incorrect angle, making it close to impossible to make this a serious, presentable model. Finally, the engine bay in general is vastly oversimplified, missing lots of parts that could be represented with simple castings.
Let's slam the lid on that engine. The taillights and exhaust look pretty good, so we'll accept that and turn our attention to the wheels and tires.
These tires are among Bburago's worst. OK, they're not the generic tires many later models come with, but they simply look bad. In addition, the wheels are brightly chromed, where they should look like brushed aluminum.
Small wonder one of the most popular wheel swaps is for F40 tires on a TR!
If you've read many of my reviews, you'll know that I often complain about the self-centering steering found on many Bburagos. Well, that's one problem that is thankfully absent in this model.
Finally, the underside: It has an oversimplified version of the engine, in light grey; a passable set of suspension components, and a too-plain belly pan. More annoying, it has a pair of projections that are intended to secure it on its display stand, in conjunction with the screws. When the car is on a flat surface, these almost touch the ground -- for no good reason.
All in all, this model has a lot of potential for detailing, but far more flaws than it should. Maybe Mattel's TR will be better.
To sum it up:
Strengths: Good shape, passable interior.
Weaknesses: Terrible engine, unpainted underside sheetmetal; ugly wheels and tires, troublesome doors.
Overall: Not one of Bburago's best -- this could, and should, be a lot better.
(Since the above was written, I have acquired one of Mattel's TRs, as well as spending considerable time detailing one of my Bburagos. A comparison will be forthcoming shortly, and detailing notes will follow.)
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