The Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster was in production between the years 1996-2000. Within this time frame, 466 Roadsters were made, with the final 30 being the Millenium Edition Roadsters. I personally prefer the design of the Diablos over the newer Murcielagos. Personally, i feel the styling of the Diablo ages better then the “trendier” looking Murcielagos. But that’s just my own opinion. I do think they got the design right on the Gallardo though.

Autoart Makes this 1:18 scale diecast model, and it was one of their earlier releases. But, this is a model that was well made and i think it’ll be a great addition to anyone’s collection. Especially when most of them can be found “on sale”.

Paint

The paint application on this car, being an Autoart is very good and very smooth. The car i have is in red with an orange hue. Paint matching between the metal and plastic parts are not too bad, but they could have been better. I personally feel red looks pretty good on this car, the car also comes in a choice of silver or yellow. The Lamborghini logos on the car look like decals, but they are very well applied and no sign of them peeling off anytime soon. Overall, nothing to complain about here. Slightly above average

Exterior

This model comes with a removeable hardtop which can either be placed on top of the engine cover or back on top of the cockpit. This is a very nice feature of the car. Being an older Autoart release, the lights up front do not pop-up. The fog lights up front are made up of seperate colored plastic lenses, as are the lights on the rear of the car. One thing to note though, is that the front turn signals are just painted on, and that the lower lights along the rear have very obvious mounting pegs visible.

Panel gaps on this car are average for an Autoart. Not the best yet, but again, its an old model. The air vents and air scoops on this car are all proper openings, no cheap use of painted plastic or stickers on this car. Doors require a little push of a button to get them opened, but they do not stay totally up on their own. Neither does the engine cover. This is one fault Autoart has yet to work-on even on their newer cars. The exhaust pipes are properly excavated and well made.

The stance of the car is pretty spot on. Exterior-wise, this car is pretty good with some minor faults probably due to the fact that this was one of Autoart’s earlier releases.

Interior

This Diablo’s interior is finished in tan / black leather. The plastics used in the seats are very hard but are moulded nicely as well as the door panels and the cockpit overall. There is some carpeting on the floor and the detailing is not too bad. Nowhere near the detailing of the newer Autoart releases, but it’s still good. Minor faults being the look of the harsh plastics used and sharp moulded lines appearing in the interior panels.

Wheels & brakes

At best, slightly above average. The details on the rims are not the the best seen out there, they looks very plasticky and honestly, the rims on the normal VT looks better. The disc are indepedent from the calipers and they spin with the wheels, but they lack definition and the extra fine details which we see in recent models. The calipers are branded “Brembos”, but the tires are brandless, which is a common Autoart fault. (Pobably due to licensing cost from the tyre manufacturers)

Summary

When this Autoart was released, it was probably one of the best models out there. But with recent improvements in newer models, it’s just not as good. The feel of the car is rather light as well, with more then neccesary use of plastics. On earlier production runs, the roof was not removable, this was fixed on the later cars. So make sure you do a check before putting down the $$$. To sum up, because this is an old car, they can be found for pretty good prices, which make them superb value for money. When you think of it in a “Detail / Money ratio”. You can’t go wrong with this car. Especially if you like Lamborghinis. Get it if you can find it for a good price. It’s not the best model out there anymore, but it will not look out of place among the best Autoart cars out there.

Overall: 7/10
( A model scoring in this range has more positives than it has flaws, however, the flaws should be made aware of)

*Rating system and review was written with reference to DiecastXchange’s review guidelines*

This entry was posted on Monday, September 5th, 2005 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Updates, 1:18 Reviews, Lamborghini. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.