It is often frustrating when two manufacturers release versions of the same kit at the same time. This seemed like another such case until one realises that in fact the two kits are very different. The Marsh kit is of the early season Lola T220 as driven by Peter Revson at Mosport in 1970 and the Kaiser kit is the later car driven by Peter Revson at Riverside in 1970. So why are they different you may ask?

The early car had a very short 88inch wheelbase and while very fast in the straight line did not handle at all well. The original 88" car was destroyed in a huge accident at Road Atlanta and by the next meeting at Donnybrook a new car appeared with the front wheels moved 10 inches forward. Peter Revson felt there was an immediate improvement in the cars handling and promptly put it on pole. He was not however to win the race, a stuck throttle caused a pit stop and an eventual 3rd. The best results in the season were a second at Mid Ohio for the 88" car and the 98" car had another third at Laguna Seca. In its three races the longer car had a pole and two 3rd place starts and had they started with this configuration who knows how the season would have gone.

The kits

The Marsh kit has only the body and tyres in resin the remaining parts being metal, either cast white metal (these parts seem crisper than some from earlier days), photo etch or turned. The Kaiser kit is perhaps of more traditional construction with resin castings for body, chassis, seat, dash and wing. The remaining parts are metal; either cast white metal or photo etch and four "rubber tyres". Some of the metal cast parts look superb in particular the gearbox and drive shafts but the cast intakes look as if they will require considerable work or I will probably scrap them and replace them with Marsh cast bases and turned trumpets.

Both kits look as if they will build nice models, The Kaiser kit is the nicer looking car, the short wheelbase version looks wrong. The Marsh kit I know will build superbly, (they nearly all do) I like the resin tyres that are the right dimension and will not split. The Marsh decals by Zanchetti look excellent. The Kaiser kit is let down by some small points, the already mentioned intakes, the decals have a much more pronounced carrier edge but mostly the tyres which are very poor. The 1970 season was not a season of slicks but the grooves in the Kaiser tyres are more like current F1 tyres and also they have considerable flash. They will be replaced from the bits box.

Marsh Models Lola T220

Kaiser Lola T220

Summing up...

In conclusion I think both kits can be highly recommended with the small reservations of the Kaiser kit. I hope to build the two models for the next issue of Amazing43 and will report on the final results then.