Hasegawa Mazda Savanna Rx-7 (SA22C) Race Cars

In 2021 Hasegawa celebrated its 80th anniversary by releasing a large amount of new model kits.

Among the new kits was a pair of Rx-7 SA kits which were added to the Historic Car Series.
The brand-new tooling of the street version of the kit was based on laser scans of an actual Rx-7 and it shows: these are by far the most accurate and best detailed Rx-7 SA kits yet.
The way the model is divided into separate parts allows for different versions to be added later.

In 2021 a '1978 Limited' street version and a kit of the 1979 Daytona winning race car were released.

Kit Nr. HC-46, Mazda Savanna Rx-7 (SA22C) '1979 Daytona GTU Class Winner'

released in Dec 2021

The car that was raced in the 1979 Daytona race appears no longer to exist, at least not in a state that accurately reflects the car as it was during the 1979 Daytona race.
Two replicas of this car exist (one in the Mazda Museum in Hiroshima and another one in the collection of Mazda North America) but either one is about 80% correct at best, so Hasegawa had to base this kit on info and images of the actual race.

Despite being a kerbside model, this kit contains an impressive 187 parts, of which 60 are not used (these include useful spares such as badges, door mirrors, brakes, exhaust system and dashboard).
Interestingly even the new S-parts tree contains some unused parts, so there might be some more racing versions to come.
This kit reveals why the interior tub has so many small details molded in: these make it look perfect as a bare race car interior.
Compared to the street version, two new parts trees were added:

• New clear AD parts offer lenses for the high-beam lights and an identification light for the roof,
  
• New S parts offer all race car parts such as a 7-piece roll cage, fender flares, rear spoiler, front air dam, SSR Mk.III wheels, high-beam lights, fuel cell, seat, dashboard and small details.
  

A 0.4mm diameter steel rod is provided for recreating the antenna on the roof and a piece of plastic mesh is included for the safety netting in the lefthand door window.

The rear of the body was modified by adding cutouts for the refueling receptacles, however the stock wheel arches still need to be cut to clear the larger wheels and the stock fuel lid needs to be removed.

The floorpan is identical to the street version and comes with lots of small details molded in, separate parts add fully detailed suspension, down to the Watts linkage for the rear axle (part B4).
New race car parts add rear disk brakes, a big-bore racing exhaust and a fuel cell.

The cabin interior consists of a well detailed bare tub with separate side panels, a set of pedals, steering column and 4-spoke steering wheel.
The race car parts add a new dashboard, a racing bucket seat, a new shift boot with separate shifter, a 7-part roll cage and the upper half of the fuel cell.

The body comes with separate lower rear quarter panels.
The detailed head lights are fitted on hinge pins and can be posed opened or closed.
The race car parts add a front air dam, high-beam lights with separate clear lenses, fender flares, a 4-piece rear spoiler, netting for the lefthand side window opening and small details such as bonnet locks, new windshield wipers, roof light and antenna, fuel filler caps and an emergency cut-off switch.

Clear parts are provided for head-, tail- and indicator lights.
Door windows are separate, the rear window and rear side 'sail panel' windows are molded as a single part, the windshield is separate and comes with sun visors molded on.

As with the street car the decal sheet is very well detailed, the color scheme of the nr.7 car is covered by no less than 73 separate decals. Decals are also provided for the checker pattern of the seat and for all dashboard instruments.
A set of self-adhesive paint masks is provided for the rear hatch and sail panel windows.

Body parts are molded in white, chassis and interior parts are molded in dark gray and the X-parts are brightly plated. The slick tires are made out of soft TPE plastic.

The instruction sheet offers several 1/24 scale detail drawings to help with aligning parts, placing decals and painting details.

Some notes:

• Painting. The body color was not a pure white but a more cream-like color like Tamiya TS-7 Racing White.
  
• Window Net. The safety netting for the side window on the real car had a black fabric border lining its edges.
  
• Front Bumper. The front bumper should be fitted with a slight upward tilt, this was done on purpose for better aerodynamics.
  
• Construction. The sides of the body need to be spread over the floorpan, this may cause the fender flares to pop loose.
  
• Head lights. During the night of the race, the head lights of the nr.7 car were kept lowered and all four high-beam lights were lit.
  
• Decals.
  • The 'Winston' marks are missing from the blank rectangles of decals nrs.51 for the doors (due to a ban on tobacco advertisements in some countries).
    The original Monogram Rx-7 CAFE racer kit came with accurate decals for these Winston logos (link to 300dpi scan of decal sheet), as do the Aoshima kits.
    
  • There should be a white rectangle underneath each drivers name (nr.53), see this picture
    
  • The white circles of the door numbers (nrs.26) are slightly translucent, causing the green stripes to show through
    
  • Unfortunately there is an error in the decal for the rear of the spoiler (nr.49), which reads 'Powered by ROTALY' instead of 'ROTARY', see this picture and note below.
    
• Tire decals. Tires used during race and qualifying were either unmarked or faintly marked in white only.
  Should you want to apply decals to the tires anyway, the Bridgestone decals for the tires (nrs.65) are provided as waterslide decals rather than the special tire decals that Hasegawa provided before. Avoid using decal solvents as these might damage the TPE plastic of the tires, better use some acrylic varnish instead.
  

Note: When I was watching a build-review of this kit on YouTube channel Ken's Scalemodel Works, I noticed that Hasegawa already has corrected the 'Powered by ROTALY' typo: decal nr.49 on the replacement decal sheet shown in this video now correctly reads 'Powered by ROTARY'.
Both the original decal sheet and the replacement sheet are marked 2021 12 OFS in the lower righthand corner, so the replacement sheet was also printed in December 2021, a big thanks to Hasegawa for correcting this so quickly !

Detail pictures of the Rx-7s during the 1979 Daytona race can be found on a separate page.

Kit Nr. 20587, Mazda Savanna Rx-7 (SA22C) '1979 Daytona Car No.77'

released in Sep 2022

This is a limited release of the Rx-7 '1979 Daytona GTU Class Winner' kit with a new set of decals for the red/white Nr.77 car that was driven by Walt Bohren, Jim Downing and Roger Mandeville and finished 2nd in GTU Class, 6th overall.

Apart from the large decal sheet, the contents of the kit are identical to the regular release.
The decal sheet itself is a variation on the sheet of the Nr.7 car, with new colors for the stripes, new race numbers and new driver names. Most items have the same numbers on both sheets.
Again a set of self-adhesive paint masks is provided for the rear hatch and sail panel windows.

Body parts are molded in white, chassis and interior parts are molded in dark gray and the X-parts are brightly plated. The slick tires are made out of soft TPE plastic.

The instruction sheet offers several 1/24 scale detail drawings to help with aligning parts, placing decals and painting details.

Some notes:

• Painting. The body color was not a pure white but a more cream-like color like Tamiya TS-7 Racing White.
  
• Window Net. The safety netting for the side window on the real car had a black fabric border lining its edges.
  
• Construction. The sides of the body need to be spread over the floorpan, this may cause the fender flares to pop loose.
  
• Head lights. During the night of the race, the head lights of the nr.77 car were raised and lit, the head lights differ from the stock versions in the kit in that no black bezels were fitted and the light units appear to be slightly larger than stock.
  
• Decals.
  • The 'Winston' marks are missing from the rectangles of decals nrs.51 for the doors (due to a ban on tobacco advertisements in some countries).
    
  • There should be a white rectangle underneath each drivers name (nr.53)
    
• Tire decals. Tires used during race and qualifying were either unmarked or faintly marked in white only.
  Should you want to apply decals to the tires anyway, the Bridgestone decals for the tires (nrs.65) are provided as waterslide decals rather than the special tire decals that Hasegawa used to provide before. Avoid using decal solvents as these might damage the TPE plastic of the tires, better use some acrylic varnish instead.
  

Detail pictures of the Rx-7s during the 1979 Daytona race can be found on a separate page.

Kit Nr. 20661, Mazda Savanna Rx-7 (SA22C) '1979 Portland Car No.77'

released in Oct 2023

This is a limited release of the Rx-7 '1979 Daytona GTU Class Winner' kit with a new set of decals for the green/white car, now with race nr.77 as it was driven by Yoshimi Katayama at the 1979 GTU race at Portland International Raceway.
At Portland, Katayama finished 2nd and set the fasted lap of the race with a time of 1min14.170 in the 6th lap.

Apart from the large decal sheet, the contents of the kit are identical to the regular release, although several parts are not used for this version.
The decal sheet itself is a variation on the sheet of the Nr.7 car, with new race numbers, new sponsor decals and different text for the driver names. Most items have the same numbers on both sheets.
Again a set of self-adhesive paint masks is provided for the rear hatch and sail panel windows.

Body parts are molded in white, chassis and interior parts are molded in dark gray and the X-parts are brightly plated. The slick tires are made out of soft TPE plastic.