Maisto Porsche 550RS
And now, the other 550 in my collection: Maisto's model of Porsche's 550RS.
Back in the 1950s, when Chevrolet was gearing up to build Corvettes for the first time, a tiny German company founded by a former Panzer designer was producing a few very special cars. The designer was Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, and the cars were the first Porsches.
Most people, when they think of the early Porsches, think of the 356 series: the Coupe, Cabriolet, Speedster, and Super 90. These were little more than rebodied hotrod Volkswagens, but they were the forefathers of the mighty 911. But there was another Porsche line, mid-engined rather than rear-engined, that gained brief notoriety when a promising young actor killed himself in one. The actor, of course, was James Dean, and the car was Porsche's 550.
The 550s were without question better cars than the 356s. The mid-mounted engine, one of the first in a sports car anywhere, gave them better balance and lightning-quick responses. Their lines were prettier to the eye as well as to the wind. Cut-down windshields and an overall smooth shape (by standards of the '50s) gave them good areodynamics for the time. That, combined with a very light weight, allowed the small four-cylinder engines to propel them to very respectable speeds. They were more racers than street cars.
For years I thought the 550's demise was unwarranted, though probably hastened by that of James Dean. The basic idea resurfaced in 1972 as a collaboration with VW, the Type 914, which in turn reached its apex with the formidable 914-6 and the super-rare 916. But the 914s were rather ugly, and difficult to service (I speak from experience here), and lasted only a few years before being replaced by another VW-Porsche hybrid, the water-cooled, front-engined, and totally unrelated 924. The mid-engined Porsche was nonexistent until the arrival of the celebrated Boxster, which brought the design cycle full circle as a modern incarnation of the original 550.
(The above abbreviated history skips a number of notable but extremely limited-production mid-engine models: the 904, 908, 917, etc.; none of which became significant as regular road cars -- no matter how distinguished their racing careers.)
Which in turn brings me full circle, back to the 550 model at hand. The RS was not the prettiest of the series, nor the fastest, nor the first -- which kind of makes me wonder about Maisto's selection. Still, it's a good representative of the breed, and one can clearly see both the Porsche bloodline, and the more direct relation to the Boxster.
The 550 is smaller than its modern descendant in every dimension -- narrower body and tires, shorter in both wheelbase and overall length, and the cockpit looks cramped by comparison. Where the Boxster is sleek and refined, the 550 is crude and simple, but in a form-follows-function sort of way. To my mind this is perhaps best exemplified by the exposed lateral beam that crosses the cockpit floor in front of the seats: strength, light weight, and function. Damn the luxuries, full speed ahead. The seats are spartan, but nicely rendered: you can see the perforations in the seating area, and the ripples in the leather of the side bolsters. If I had a complaint about them it would be that they're identical, down to the previously mentioned ripples. If I were doing this car I'd have them make two different masters, just so they didn't look so perfect.
The cut-down windshield lacks a center rearview mirror and wipers; I know the original 550s at least had wipers. There is a mirror mounted on the driver's door; it's tiny, but it's right.
My main complaint about the cockpit is that the steering wheel has a number of distinct warps, or deviations from the plane of its circle. I've tried gently pressing it into shape; it resists, and I'm afraid it might break if I try harder.
The steering itself is smooth, has a reasonable range, and stays where you put it.
The doors are tiny, and have a high stepover, both probably due to the crossmember mentioned earlier. They open smoothly enough, and if they lack external handles, so did the original 550.
The lights look good, front and rear, but it's hard not to notice how primitive they seem by today's standards.
The front trunklid is highlighted by a chromed racing-style fuel filler cap that projects through a cutout in its center. If you open the lid (not easy to do, but it wedges open nicely) you can see that most of the space is occupied by the fuel tank. Forward of the tank is the battery, mounted in a little recess that's almost at the extreme front (Porsche did this to put more weight on the front tires), and it's beautiful. A decal on its surface shows Bosch's name and logo, and it looks just right there. Every model car should have a battery this good; there's no excuse not to.
The engine lid at the back is huge for a car of this size; it's hinged at the trailing edge, and opens up all the sheetmetal from the cockpit to the bumper, allowing fast and easy access. It sports two raised scoops, opening toward the rear, that feed air to the dual carburetors. There is a little spring detent to give a positive closing action, a nice touch. There is a prop rod, rather thick in scale, but it's not necessary; the hood is nicely balanced and wedges open easily. The engine itself looks good: dual carburetors on an air-cooled flat four. It looks a lot like a Bug engine, but it's not: the 550s had a special twin-cam, four-bearing Porsche mill, and the 160 hp that moves a modern car briskly made these lightweight little cars fly.
Looking further aft we see the spare tire in its unlikely home: mounted (almost) flat behind the engine. The wheel on the spare is exquisitely accurate, as are the other four -- it makes you almost want to get out a tiny lug wrench and change them, just for fun. At first glance the spare seems to be identical with the others. But a close look reveals a strange flaw: instead of making room for it, as Porsche's engineers obviously did on the full-scale car, Maisto actually cut parts of the tire away so it would fit in place. This makes it seem like kind of an afterthought.
Another complaint about this little car comes back to my usual gripes about Maisto's painting: the undersides of the sheetmetal sport only a scattered overspray, and the paint shows rough edges in several places -- perhaps most noticeably the open trailing edges of the air intakes. The 550's silver color minimizes the impact of the incomplete paint job, but it wouldn't be hard to paint the parts before assembly.
Turning the car over shows us what I consider to be a half-finished undercarriage: from the engine backwards we are treated to a view of a simple exhaust system, and we can see the underside of the engine itself. The single tailpipe lacks depth, having a heavily chromed conical depression. The forward half of the car is notably lacking in underside detail, but it's still the best underside I've seen yet on a Maisto.
One more note: Maisto generally uses spring suspensions, which tend to give their models a more lifelike resilience when you set them down. Usually though, when you push down directly on a Maisto, the spring action of the suspension is rough, not much better than an unsprung suspension.
You can see what I mean if you press on the front of the 550RS -- there is little "give," and what there is isn't smooth.
Now put a couple fingers on the back of the RS and press. Wow! You feel the smooth, progressive travel of the springs, almost like a real car -- it feels great. I find myself reaching over and pressing it now and then, and grinning like an idiot. What fun!
They got the suspension just right on the 550's rear. Granted, the front suspension is more complex, but if they could just duplicate that feel on the rears of their other cars...
Push; boing. Push; boing. Hee hee hee!
To sum it up:
Strengths: Excellent seats, battery, extra cool rear suspension. Distinguished pedigree, nice shape, fun to compare to a Boxster. Push; boing. Did I mention the rear suspension?
Weaknesses: Warped steering wheel, cutaway spare tire, Maisto's usual half-hearted paint.
Overall: This one is a lot of fun, and won't take up too much shelf space. Better than Maisto's average, and that's pretty good.
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