Diecast Delights isn’t everybody’s favourite Hooniverse series, but with the season of expenditure upon us, I thought it worth chiming in with another episode. You see, this is the time of year that many parents consider giving a young hoon their first proper model car, and none of the 1:18s featured in Diecast Delights so far will fail to please.
However – this Porsche 911 Carrera RS, by Welly, comes particularly highly recommended, not least because you can find it at very reasonably prices. Firstly – it depicts one of the very most important Porsches in history, and one that every junior car enthusiast needs to know about. Secondly – it looks fantastic.


This, again, is one of those models that favours ‘rightness’ over absolute detail. There have been some truly dreadful 1:18 911s over the years, and there have been some surprisingly good ones. The Anson 964, for example, is dreadful in its proportions and shape (and they even did a huge 1:14 version – it had a working fabric roof, but worse panel fit than Barbie and Kens’s plastic version), while the Bburago ’89 Speedster isn’t at all bad for a budget model. By today’s standards, this Welly is a budget model, and it captures the essence of the first-gen 911 in some style.

The proportions, I’d say, are exactly right. Where model makers really seem to struggle with the 911 is the height of and distance between the headlamps, as well as getting the line of the front wings right. Welly has got it spot on, in my opinion. There are four opening features, too – engine cover, side doors and ‘frunk’. The latter, annoyingly, springs open slightly unless you apply pressure (you’ll notice a gap at its leading edge in these images). I plan to dismantle the model soon and see if I can remedy that fault at some point. The only other fault is that the wing-top mounted fuel door is so vaguely represented it might as well not be there at all.

Elsewhere, rather than AUTOart levels of detail everywhere, the less expensive Welly is less exact, but impresses where you might not expect it to. While the rear lights and front indicator lights are rather simplistic, the headlights are excellent. There are lovely photo-etched ‘2.7’ badges on the engine cover, as well as glazed windows attached to the doors. All glazed areas are accurately outlined with brightwork too. The Fuchs wheels, meanwhile, are nicely moulded, though lacking the silver finish you might expect to see, and the tyres are bereft of sidewall markings but wear a tread that seems convincing.

There isn’t much to be seen under the ‘frunk’ lid, just a shallow storage area with a black plastic floor, but the engine bay has more to interest the eyes. No doubt the Porsche expert would be able to pick it apart, but the characteristic scavenge fan and top-mounted single coil are clearly picked out, while the rest of the flat-six is concealed beneath a big intake duct and manifold. It looks like the engine bay of a 911, and that’s probably enough for most collectors.

The interior is well observed, too. The bucket seats and their belts are rather simplistic, part of the same moulding as the floor and denying any tilt movement for rear seat access. They seem a little far forward, too – the 1:18 driver of this Carrera RS must have been rather petite. The ugly first-gen 911 steering wheel is present and correct, though, and the dials are accurately inset, with remarkably clear markings. Again, detail seems to have been added only in those places that define the car. I say Welly made a good call there.

So, all in all a very sound model. The diehard enthusiast who wants a handily sized replica of the car in his garage might want to look for the AUTOart offering, but that’s very much more expensive. The Welly still looks fine even when placed among far more expensive models, though, and its opening features give it far enhanced fiddle-appeal over the increasingly expensive sealed resin alternatives. Rather than being a toy, it’s enough of a ‘model for grown-ups’, that a lucky gift recipient will cherish it, rather than ramming it into skirting boards and furniture like they might a Matchbox.
(All images copyright 2017 Chris Haining / Hooniverse)