This remote control BMW M8 model is a great gift for car lovers

My father-in-law works at a BMW shop near my home and one evening he stopped by on the way home with this 1:18 scale BMW M8 GTE race car kit. “We sold so many of them,” he said, laughing. I don’t need to twist my arm to play with a model, so I ripped open the box and started building as soon as he left. I had a lot of fun with it and found it to be a nice mix of intricacy and simplicity, making it a great gift for both nerds and casual car enthusiasts.

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I built the model over several nights, only carrying out a few steps at a time. It was captivating enough that I couldn’t watch TV while putting it together, which to me signals a good level of attention-worthiness. It’s not difficult; I like to go through models like this methodically because small parts easily break or get lost in the carpet. And why beat the thing up? My kitchen table is not factory, and this model contains many small details that are fun to look at and appreciate as you work through the kit.

(Note: This BMW M8 model is currently sold out on Amazon, but RASTAR has a Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini and F1 car that looks similar.)

Another factor that concerned me a little was the search for a pilot. When fully assembled, it is a remote-controlled car, which means it would move. That would look pretty strange with no one in the driver’s seat, right? I don’t collect humanoid figures and the kit didn’t come with a mini racer, so I had to go shopping among the odds and ends of the house to improvise.

First I found this African penguin – oddly enough, it fit the car well, but it wasn’t quite the right shape to attach to the seat. Then my wife gave birth to this strange little rubber monkey. It fit perfectly, so I designed a few seatbelt concepts. I tried wrapping cables, twisting a sandwich bag, and using a paper clip, but in the end a double piece of electrical tape had the right combination of functionality and form. It looks a little like a seatbelt, right?

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Strap in, Mr. Monkey, you just qualified for the “Let my family dogs chase you around the house” round!

For simplicity, I added the driver before assembling the rest of the car, but in the finished model the doors open. Speaking of completion, I only had two assembly issues throughout the entire process. The final step of connecting the chassis and body was a bit tedious (aligning the pins took a second), and getting the steering to work required some backtracking.

Steering is done by a motor that moves a small knob that acts as a rack. However, during installation it is easy to misalign the knob and motor as they are plugged together blindly. If you get this model running and it won’t steer, take the front apart again and pull the steering motor and steering housing apart to double check that the nub on the bottom actually fits into the steering motor moving element . (This makes sense to anyone involved in troubleshooting).

Applying the stickers requires a steady hand, but they are forgiving as long as you don’t press them hard until you’re happy with the alignment. Using tweezers is a must – the BMW emblem for the steering wheel was incredibly small. I hope the little rubber monkey driver appreciates the precision with which I applied it. As for adhesives on the model itself, there are none. One of the biggest advantages of this particular model is that it can be put together without glue. This is great because modeling glue smells bad and can stick to your fingers for days – not having to deal with it is huge.

Once assembled, the performance of this M8 as an RC car is…acceptable. I think it’s just the minimum of what it needs to be to be worth your time. It can glide across a smooth floor and move at high speeds over a low-pile carpet, but it’s quite slow and doesn’t look like it’ll last long outdoors. It would be perfectly fine to hover around your kitchen, office, or desk. You could set up a small obstacle course on your floor and launch a time attack with your roommates. You could place a cigarette on the piano and transport it across a table to someone. But it’s not the kind of thing you’ll enjoy playing with or spend more time modifying and racing like you can with high-end RCs.

That’s fine, I think the real fun here is the setup. And it will look silly sitting static on a shelf. I say I “finished” it, but I haven’t done most of the exterior decals yet. I think I will. Ultimately.

Annoyingly, between writing and publishing this story, I notice that the RASTAR M8 is no longer in stock on Amazon and on BMW’s accessories page (it has a BMW part number: 80 44 5 A62 7A0). However, you may be able to find one on a shelf at a BMW dealer’s parts counter, and a cursory search will reveal a few on smaller retail websites, with at least one still left. If a seller was this hot last month, I bet the supplier will be trying to get another batch out in time for the holiday gift-giving season so you can keep an eye on these retail links.

However, if you want to take advantage of the Black Friday deals or don’t want to wait, the same RASTAR brand has a Ferrari, a Porsche, a Lamborghini and even an F1 car kit in stock (and currently around 20% off). $50). Based on my experience with this model, I am optimistic that the other models will be just as fun to build.

Do you know of any other good model kits that can be assembled without glue? Contact the author at [email protected].