The Renault Alpine A442 is a racing sports car, designed and built by Alpine, but funded and powered by Alpine's owners Renault, specifically to contest the 24 hours of Le Mans race. Variants were entered for the event in 1976, 1977 and 1978. An A442B finally won the race on the third occasion, in the hands of Didier Pironi and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud. Also entered in 1978 was the updated Renault Alpine A443 model; essentially an A442 chassis, but powered by a new 2138 cc engine. Following this all-French victory in the premier French motorsport event, Renault withdrew from sports car racing to concentrate their efforts in F1.
Minichamps' 1/43 scale version depicts the winner of the 1978 Le Mans edition, the #2 car driven by Pironi and Jaussaud. The scale model is well represented in scale with all the details in place. The yellow paint is of mediocre quality having some issues here and there but not on to visible places. The decals look good on the car as well as the head lamps and tail lights. One downside to this model is the antenna which is too thick. On my model I took that off as, in my opinion, it makes the car look uglier. I'm happy that I've got this car so I can pair it with it's arch-rival, the Porsche 936.
Overall the build quality is neat and the model looks good as it's not a new model from Minichamps.
Minichamps' 1/43 scale version depicts the winner of the 1978 Le Mans edition, the #2 car driven by Pironi and Jaussaud. The scale model is well represented in scale with all the details in place. The yellow paint is of mediocre quality having some issues here and there but not on to visible places. The decals look good on the car as well as the head lamps and tail lights. One downside to this model is the antenna which is too thick. On my model I took that off as, in my opinion, it makes the car look uglier. I'm happy that I've got this car so I can pair it with it's arch-rival, the Porsche 936.
Overall the build quality is neat and the model looks good as it's not a new model from Minichamps.