Italeri 1/24 Mercedes Benz 230G Paris-Dakar Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

In 1979, Mercedes Benz, in partnership with Austrian Stayer Puch, started development of the G-series off-road family of vehicles. Designed to compete with the Land Rover/Range Rover family of the UK, these four-wheel drive combined the best off-road performance with passenger comfort.

The 230G was one of the models that came off the Mercedes Benz drawing boards. This model was powered by an in-line four-cylinder engine rated at 90 horsepower. One of these model 230G vehicles won the Paris-Dakar race in 1982.

Here is an interesting addition to Italeri's automotive line-up - the winner of the 1982 Paris-Dakar race. This kit is designed as a simple build as we'll cover here. The kit is presented on four parts trees. One tree is molded in white styrene, plus the car body also molded in white. Two trees containing the interior and chassis are molded in black. The final tree is molded in clear for the windshield and windows.

The project starts off with the chassis frame which carry the front and rear differentials. The suspension detail is molded as part of the chassis frame but details can be brought out with a little paint and weathering.

One interesting twist is the front end - the kit has steerable wheels. This consists of hinged front axles and a steering arm. There is no mechanism to the steering wheel.

The chassis mounts to the lower body panel which also has an engine and transmission molded as part of the panel. Despite the lack of engine, the rest of the details from the exhaust system, skid plate, fuel tank, even mud flaps, do much to busy up the underside of the kit.

The interior begins with the roll cage and fire extinguisher installations. Next comes the dash board and the various gauges and faces are provided as decals.

The driver and passenger seats have no backs (hollow rear) and would be worth a little sheet plastic to fix. The interior does include door/side panels as well a huge gas tank in the rear.

The body has almost all of the details molded into place. The hood is molded closed. The only additions are the front, side and rear windows, front grille, and the various light lenses. The rear passenger and cargo compartment windows were painted out in the actual car and in the kit, the clear windows are replaced by white plastic parts.

Assembly is completed with the installation of the front and rear bumpers as well as the custom front grille guard.

You could almost display this model without any paint - almost. The body is overall white with some black details. The interior was black and white as well. All of the various colors on the body are taken care of with these decals.

This is a nice looking kit and should be a rather quick build since you're not needing to deal with the details under the hood. This will look nice on your shelf with other competition and/or off-road vehicles.

My sincere thanks to Testors for this review sample!