Tag Archives: Ferrari

Mercedes-AMG

March 4, 2023 Mark Savage Leave a comment

Minichamps Mercedes-AMG Petronas W11:
Lewis Hamilton, 2020 Eifel GP Record 91 wins …

Another Formula 1 season starts this weekend and to mark the season’s launch it seems appropriate to review a Minichamps 1:43 scale model of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas driven by all-time F1 race winner Lewis Hamilton, when he set the record in 2020.

Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton is a seven-time F1 champion now as he enters his 17^th F1 season. His record is overwhelming with 103 wins, 103 poles, 61 fastest laps, and 191 podium finishes after starting with McLaren and then switching to Mercedes. He is the undisputed leader and winner in F1, although his seven world titles only tie Michael Schumacher in that category. Hamilton, a Brit, is also the first, and only, black driver in F1.

The History

Mercedes sought Hamilton for their team as Schumacher was retiring and the German automaker wanted the top-rated driver for its team leader. Hamilton quickly became the highest paid F1 driver ever and has remained so for much of his career.

Hamilton won his first Grand Prix in Canada in 2007 during his rookie season where he lost the title by one point to Kimi Räikkönen. But Hamilton won the title the following year, 2008, with a last-lap pass to cement his first crown. He won his other F1 titles in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020. He barely missed the title several other times.

This Mercedes racer celebrates his record breaking 91^st win that moved him past Schumacher on the all-time win list. During the 2020 season he won 11 of the 17 contests. While he has increased that total to 103, he failed to win a GP in 2022, the first time he didn’t visit the winner’s circle in a season. His hopes are high, along with teammate George Russell for 2023, but Red Bull, Ferrari and Aston Martin appear to be the other favorites.

The Mercedes W11 racer was designed by James Allison and John Owen and a team of technical experts at Mercedes race team. It was said to pack 1,025 horsepower from its 1.6-liter turbocharged V6, aided by an electric motor. It also included something Mercedes called Dual Axis Steering that allowed the driver to adjust the toe of the front wheels for better handling as race conditions changed.

Obviously the car was stout too as Hamilton’s win total attests, but his teammate Valtteri Bottas also won two races in 2020, so the car took victories in 13 of 17, an extremely dominant performance. The W11 also helped Mercedes win its seventh straight F1 Constructor’s title to set a record, besting Ferrari’s longtime mark.

The Model

First, I love how Minichamps packages its F1 racers in shallow 1.5-inch tall cases that measure 5 5/8 long and just under 3 inches deep for easy stacking if you want to collect a variety of F1 cars representing various teams and drivers. The acrylic cases protect the cars and make for easy display, that shallow height not wasting vertical space as some display cases do.

Minichamps is expert at creating wonderfully formed racers with near perfect markings and sponsorship decals for the various venues where F1 cars perform worldwide.

This one is the more recent black Mercedes livery with the cool white/silver Mercedes “peace sign” logo dotting the back half of the car’s engine cover. Trim is turquoise on the front wing, mirror tops, and rear spoiler where the bright color accentuates the Petronas name. By the way, Petronas is a Malaysian oil and gas company owned by the government there. It’s logo is the turquoise oil drop seen in several locations on the car.

Hamilton is No. 44 and that’s in white on the nose and on each side of the finned engine shroud.

Petronas, in off-white and trimmed in silver, is on each side pod , while also on the top of the front wings’ edges and Petronas Syntum is imprinted just in front of the cockpit on the nose. There’s a Pirelli badge near the nose’s front edge along with the typical Mercedes emblem.

Tiny IWC decals are on either side of the cockpit’s edge, with AMG just in front of the cockpit’s sides. The safety halo includes an End Racism sticker and AMD logo. Petronas Primax is on the tail just below the No. 44 and Epson and Crowdstrike are on the spoiler’s side plates.

Minichamps includes the dark red trim around the air intake just above Hamilton’s head, including the Ineos logo. That logo is also on the wing’s rear.

All the body aerodynamics are here from the multi-tiered front wings to those winglets and scoops by the front suspension, and beside the cockpit above the side pods and flat carbon fiber skirting. A tiny blue and white EQ Performance logo rides on the rear portion of the skirt.

Slicks are the supersoft race tires with Pirelli P-Zero labels in red, the hub edges being a spiffy turquoise to match the car’s accents. Naturally front and rear suspensions are nicely detailed and the rear light bar extends from the tail as a warning for use in rain and during slow lapping situations.

Almost forgot about Lewis, the racer is in the cockpit with a purple and black helmet like he wore for the Eifel GP. You can see the safety belts holding him tightly in the cockpit and a flat-bottom and top race steering wheel in his grip.

This special release marking his record 91^st win also includes a replica of an orange Schumacher helmet that was presented to Hamilton after his victory, and a pit board that can be posed with the car. Atop it says Lewis in yellow with 91 wins and Danke Michael in turquoise below that. Classy!

Equally classy, the back plate art here is a picture of Hamilton with his name in all caps, so you won’t mistake who drove this car.

Note too that this car is available for other GPs run during the unusual 2020 season where fans were not permitted due to the worldwide Covid pandemic. And Minichamps makes models of virtually all F1 entrants each season, so if you have a favorite driver or team you likely can find a model of that car, possibly even one in markings from its best race of the season.

I’ve been dealing with Replicarz for years and they are a fast and reliable supplier of die-cast cars. But for Minichamps there are many sources, including eBay. I’ve listed Minichamps and Diecastlegends websites below too.

Got a favorite, just Google the driver’s name and 1/43 diecast and you’ll likely find exactly what you want.

Vital Stats: Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team: Lewis Hamilton record 91 F1 wins

Rightly the tire of choice is the supersoft red sidewall!

Maker: Minichamps
Scale: 1/43
Stock No.: P201144

MSRP: $79 (est.)

Link: Replicarz.com or diecastlegends.com or miniatures-minichamps.com/gb/

Fun Stuff

2022 Cars & Guitars Show

June 21, 2022 Mark Savage Leave a comment

Green Bay car show packs in everything from Vettes to Rovers …

This 1958 Chevy 310 Apache is as sharp, or sharper than the day it drove off the showroom floor.

Summer is car show season and it’s a short season in Wisconsin, so buddy and videographer Paul Daniel and I hit the Cars & Guitars show in Green Bay recently.

The awesome Automobile Gallery on Crooks Street in downtown Green Bay sponsors and organizes the show, which is limited to 400 cars, many by invitation. But the show includes everything from current Dodge Challengers and Chevy Corvettes to snazzy 1950s lead sleds and everything in between.

Old Rovers are the coolest Rovers as this 1969 model proves.

Ferrari? Yes there was one! Ancient Land Rover? Yes again.

Plus many, many Mustangs, Firebirds, Camaros and Vettes of all ages and descriptions. Paul will be doing a video of one special car soon. But we wanted to post up some of the unique cars, truck and images from the show. So here goes!

Enjoy, and next year mark your calendar for the Saturday of Father’s Day weekend. And thanks to The Automobile Gallery’s PR guru, executive director, and walking car encyclopedia, Darrel Burnett for showing us around. … and the Guitars? Oh, that’s the super music the show puts on stage behind the museum and that can be heard all the way to the far end of the outdoor show area!

Note too that there are about 90 cars and trucks displayed regularly at the museum, some pretty incredible and special stuff too, including an early Electric back when gas, electric and steam were all being tried out for propulsion. The cars rotate through as some are owned by the museum and others on loan, permanent and otherwise.

So a great day outing and you could even stop and see a big football stadium when in the neighborhood, OR take the kids to Bay Beach.

Watch for some special Car Spots coming soon from Paul. Oh, and which car or truck that you see here would YOU like to own?

Diecast cars, Fun Stuff

1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible

April 25, 2022 Mark Savage 2 Comments

Auto World launches its first Barbie Bel Air in 1:18 scale …

Turquoise and pink certainly team up to shout 1950s car fashion, but in this case they also scream Barbie dream car.

I’m no Barbie expert (no sisters), but I do know that the bosomy blonde doll has been partial to brightly colored cars through the years, from Corvettes to Campers. And although the iconic toy doll debuted in 1959, it took until 1988 before maker Mattel slipped her behind the wheel of a 1950s American classic, a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible.

This was the original plastic Mattel Barbie Bel Air.

Well, that classic was plastic, and not very detailed. Now comes an eye-popping die-cast metal version from Auto World, which makes dozens of 1950s-1970s muscle cars and other vintage automotive icons. The same quality and attention to detail as in its other cars and trucks is present in this Barbie special, being marketed under its Silver Screen Machines category as the “Coolest car in town!”

Indeed, Barbie has driven a lot of cars from an Austin Healey early on to Ferraris and the ’57 Chevy. All have been various shades of pink, with other bright colors mixed in. But mostly Barbie is seems a girly girl, so pink drives her world.

Auto World knows that, so it will offer two 1:18 Bel Air convertibles, the first out being a turquoise and chrome stunner with a Pepto pink interior. Trust me, this one will stand out in any die-cast collection. Later (as if this isn’t eye-melting enough) Auto World plans to release a bright pink version. I’d stick with turquoise, which was a popular Chevy color back in the day.

Here’s what you get.

The Model

Like all Auto World die-cast models there is plenty of functionality here, with opening doors, hood and steerable front wheels. The trunk here is sealed.

In addition to the stunning paint scheme, there’s enough chrome to create a worldwide chrome shortage. That’s a good thing, right?

The massive front and rear bumpers are chrome, as are the head and taillight surrounds, the rocker panel trim, the side accent line trim and fins, plus door handles, wiper arms and windshield frame. Plus the two hood sights and vent window frames are chrome too.

Hub caps are chrome with chrome center wheel nuts with red centers and tiny Chevy bowtie logos. I might have gone with pink centers, to go full-on Barbie here.

Those big protruding bumper guards on the front that look like, well, you know. Those are black-tipped, as they would have been on an original ’57 Chevy.

On the lower fin trim in back is Bel Air in copper script while just in front of the doors are the patented crossed Chevy flag logos with Fuel Injection printed beneath.

Under the hood is the Chevy red engine block with silver air filter and fuel injection system, a black battery and radiator with black horn on the front left. Big hood hinges allow the hood to be easily posed in the up position.

The Barbie car’s interior is what you’ll likely notice first, and if you’re a Barbie fan and collector this is what will light your fuse. The seats are bright pink with white (or is that pale pink) inserts with Barbie in cursive on the driver’s seat back. The pink tonneau includes a white silhouette of a pony-tailed young woman at its center and tiny painted silver snap heads all about the tonneau’s edge, ostensibly to keep the tonneau in place.

Door handles and window cranks are chrome or painted silver and there’s a pink dash with chrome trim on its face, plus three nicely detailed instrument panel dials. A radio face graces that chrome dash trim and Barbie is again in script on the passenger’s side dash top. Overhead? Pink sun visors, of course. Heck, even the steering wheels is pink, with a chromed horn ring.

As with other Auto World cars there’s a detailed undercarriage with dual exhausts.

Finally, under the trunk’s golden chevron and Chevy script is the 1957 California license plate you may already expect. It reads … Barbie.

Final Word

Could there be more Barbie cars in the future? Well, a quick look around the internet found there are others to choose from to be sure, including racer Collete Davis’ version of a Nissan Z car. Hmmmm!

How about this hot rod (Collete’s Z car) in 1:18 scale?

Vital Stats: 1957 Chevy Bel Air Convertible

Maker: Auto World
Scale: 1/18
Stock No.: AWSS135
MSRP: $131.99

Link: Autoworldstore.com

Car Spots, Fun Stuff

Car Spotting: A rare Ferrari

January 8, 2022 Paul Daniel Leave a comment

California Dreaming in Wisconsin …

What normal car person doesn’t turn their head when they see a Ferrari? I had one drive right up to me this past summer while working at Ironwood Golf Course in Wisconsin. My duties at bag drop for a charity golf outing were put on hold as I grabbed my phone to take these pictures. All my co-workers know what a car geek I am and laughed as I started drooling. I mean first, it was a Ferrari and second, a California.

Introduced in 2008, it’s powered by a front-mid-mounted 4.3-liter V8. Later models were powered by a twin-turbo 3.9-liter V8. I have to be honest with you, I’m not sure what year this was. Forgot to ask. This car incorporates a bunch of Ferrari firsts:

First front-engined Ferrari with a V8
First to feature a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission
First hardtop convertible with a folding metal roof
First with a multi-link rear suspension
First with direct fuel injection

As far as I could find there were not a lot of these built each year, less than 1,500, which makes them rare, even rarer for one to have made its way to Wisconsin.

Have a great weekend and come back next Friday for another Wisconsin car spot.

Diecast cars

Die-Cast: Autoart’s 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT HellCat widebody

May 25, 2021 Mark Savage Leave a comment

In any scale a Hellcat Widebody bulges with muscles …

As retro racy as Dodge’s Challenger has been in its latest iteration, the Widebody version is the most muscular looking and the Hellcat flexes the greatest amount of muscle under the hood.

Sinamon Stick or Destroyer Gray? I gotta go with the brighter Hellcat!

Combine the two, as Autoart has on four new models, and the Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody oozes with muscle car goodness that could easily be the star of any 1/18 scale collection, depending on color. I say that because three of these are bright and fun, the other a low-key Destroyer Gray.

I scored, receiving both the bad boy gray one, and the stunning Sinamon Stick, a metallic copper, for review. Both feature dual Gunmetal Gray center stripes and black chin and trunk spoilers. Awesome!

The History

I test drove a Hellcat at Wisconsin’s Road America a couple years ago, both in Challenger and Charger iterations and you can believe that their 717-horsepower 6.2-liter supercharged Hemi V8s can push these rear-drive muscle cars to 130 mph, and more, in short order, sounding great all the while.

A Hellcat Widebody makes another 10 horsepower as it adds an additional hood air intake and if you were to “need” more power, there’s an SRT Hellcat Redeye with a blood-vessel bursting 797 horses capable of hitting 203 mph with a 0-to-60 mph run in 3.4 seconds. Take that Ferrari!

See Mark’s review and video of the 1:1 Challenger Scat Pack Widebody: 2020 Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack Widebody | Savage On Wheels

Putting that power down requires massive 20-inch tires and, naturally, superior braking power via giant discs to whoa a Hellcat. All that is detailed here on the 1:18 scale model.

The gray Hellcat feature red Brembo calipers and check out that Hellcat logo on the fender too!

Price on the real deal is high, but not as high as the supercars, say Lamborghini, Bugatti and Ferrari. A Hellcat Widebody starts at $73,240 and the Redeye at $75,000, but then you’d be ready for competition while also being street legal. Oh, and now there’s an SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody that trips the cash register at $80,765 and a Super Stock model at nearly $83 grand, uh, but it also makes 807 hp. Autoart’s versions are much more affordable at $230, and visually they’re nearly as thrilling.

The Model

I’ll chat up the Sinamon Stick version as that’s my favorite visually and I could find only one eyeball-catching difference between it and its gray muscle beast buddy. The gray model features red Brembo brake calipers as opposed to black on the Sinamon version.

First, nose to tail the lines are crisp and dead-on 1:18 replicas of the street machines. The hood is beautifully shaped with the center air scoop featuring black mesh grillwork and the hood’s two side air vents also feature black grilles. Mesh grillwork fills all the nose’s split grille openings too and the quad headlights are beautifully reproduced, including the inner running lights with their outer light ring.

Widebody fender flares look spectacular and the front ones include slightly curved side marker lenses that fit neatly into those flares. Awesome etched metal Hellcat logos accent each front fender and there are SRT markings on the black gas cap and four black Devin’s Rim wheels that grace all Widebody models.

Everything opens on Autoart’s Challenger Hellcat.

In back the wide flat slit taillights look realistic, the black surround setting off those lights and the black spoiler looks great too. The trunk will open via handsome struts and there’s black flocking finishing off the trunk’s interior. Dual chrome-tipped exhausts are flush with the black lower bumper and Dodge is spelled out with photo-etched letters on the black trunk face. A Dodge license also hangs on the back.

Here’s a close-up look at the under-hood detailing on the giant supercharged HEMI.

Under the opening hood, which features both scissor hinges and struts to hold it in place, is that massive V8, and yes, it says HEMI on it. A bit of wiring and plumbing is visible, but the engine and supercharger and hoses, plus cooling and liquids containers make for a tight engine bay. Detailing is strong, and impressive if you like to pose your models with the hood up.

All windows are trimmed in black and there are big black wipers for the windshield and a shark fin antenna atop the roof. Side mirrors included true mirrored surfaces and are body colored. The flush door handles look great too, but make opening the doors a bit of an effort.

Sharp detailing on the Hellcat interior here, particularly the stack and gauges.

Seeing inside is worth the effort though. Seating is Gunmetal gray with well-shaped racy looking buckets up front and door panels are handsomely crafted, including power window buttons and such on the armrests.

There’s a T-handled shifter on the wide silver-topped console with two cup holders and buttons at the console’s front edge. Dash screens and air vents are well shaped and look realistic with glossy gauge faces and the steering wheel is nicely detailed with silver lower spokes and flat-edged bottom.

I know many of us don’t display such gorgeous models with doors open, but if you allow visitors to look inside your models they’ll be impressed with this one.

Tires are thick beautifully treaded numbers with Pirelli PZero labeling in flat black so they don’t scream for attention. They wrap neatly around the gloss black Devil’s Rim wheels and the Brembo calipers are easily spied in front of the massive front and rear discs. Front wheels also are poseable.

If neither of these colors would lay rubber in your driveway, the Widebody also is available in Yellow Jacket with a satin black hood or Octane Red (looks deep purple) with no stripes and selling for $20 less, so it’s the bargain buy of the foursome.

I’m all in for Sinamon Stick!

Want more realism? You’ll need to buy a 1:1 Hellcat.

Vital Stats: Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody (2)

Maker: Autoart
Scale: 1/18
Stock No.: 71736 (Sinamon Stick) and 71738 (Destroyer Gray)
MSRP: $230 each

Link: Autoartmodels.com

See more detail photos below.

Sharp lights, black mesh grille and a fine SRT and Hellcat logo up front too.

Rear window defroster looks good as does that shark fin antenna atop the Challenger!

Fine-looking hood air scoops and vents with black mesh grillwork make for a great hood!

Diecast cars

Die-Cast Autoart Pagani Huayra Roadster

April 10, 2021 Mark Savage 1 Comment

Rockin’ Huayra Roadster is packed with detail …

Think of an Italian supercar and likely you’ll conjure up images of a Ferrari or Lamborghini in all its red or yellow sleekness that translates into sexy, exotic, and fast.

But now there’s Pagani, another Italian make out of Modena (Ferrari’s birthplace), and its sleek mistresses of speed, Zonda and Huayra. I don’t think of a Pagani dominated by one color either, so it’s fine that the Autoart 1:18 scale sample is in a blue tricolor carbon fiber finish. It’s an eyeball blistering look that will leap out amid any die-cast collection.

The History

First, you may want to know how to pronounce Huayra. Say waira!

The mid-engine supercar replaced the Zonda and packs a Mercedes-AMG 6.0-liter twin-turbo V12 to propel it from 0 to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds. Horsepower is 720 coupe, 754 roadster. Torque is 738 lb.-ft. Top speed is 238 mph. So, faster than snot!

The car, designed by Argentinian Horacio Pagani who founded his namesake in 1992, debuted in 2012; the roadster launching in 2017. Weight is at a premium, just 2,822 lbs. overall for the roadster, about 150 lbs. less than the coupe. The 22-lb. exhaust system alone is specially made of titanium to reduce weight.

Cool features? Well there are four automatically operated flaps, two front and two rear to optimize aerodynamics, minimizing drag and maximizing downforce.

The front flaps also cut body roll in corners while the rear flaps also serve as air brakes. That becomes much more important at 200+ mph than on city streets or interstates.

The roadster features a removable roof panel, a redesigned engine cover, and most obvious, doors that open conventionally. The coupe features gull-wing doors. Also unique to the roadster is its carbon triax fiberglass body mixed with carbon fiber bands, again keeping the car as light as possible.

Here’s the Pagani with its black roof panel in place.

There’s a price to pay, if you are among the car’s 100 buyers, or can snag a used one. New, the Huayra went for about $1.1 million. That makes the $330 price for Autoart’s 1:18 model seems a super deal by comparison.

The Model

Already a top-tier die-cast car maker, Autoart’s models just keep getting better and better. This Pagani is gorgeous and as detailed as some models costing $500, or more. Another plus, Autoart creates more modern machines than most other high-end model makers who tend toward the classics.

This one is spectacular.

The body’s finish is perfect with the textured blue carbon fiber look meticulously reproduced. You can feel the slightly ribbed texture with a finger, and a bonus, you won’t leave a fingerprint as you might on a glossy finish.

The four nose and tail flaps, as mentioned above, can be posed up or down. There’s a Pagani medallion on the black hood insert just at the windshield’s base. One giant wiper appears to sweep the windshield.

Love the quad exhaust grouping on the tail!

Black carbon fiber-like trim wraps the windshield and bulkhead bulges behind the seats where the separate roof can lay on top. Similar black carbon fiber graces the chin spoiler, the aero skirt along the side that blends into the rocker panel before the rear tires and then much of the rear-end, including the huge diffuser.

That spreads out just below the four exhaust tips that exit together out the top tunnels that run from those headrest bulges back to the tail. Wow!

Up front are eight individual light lenses, grouped in twos, and horizontal light bars on the nose, just above the chin spoiler. The fine black mesh metal grille work on the nose is dainty and precise.

There are cooling vents on the front fenders over the wheel wells with distinctive chrome dividers and likewise Pagani-labeled chrome accents over the vents built into the doors, again just behind the front wheels.

Chrome Huayra script logos grace the rear quarter panels before the rear wheels and another is on the lower right of that black carbon fiber rear panel above the diffuser. Again, more delicate black wire mesh is on either side of the quad exhausts and another Pagani logo just below that. Rear taillights, all six of them, look realistic with matte chrome surrounds.

The entire rear deck features more curves than on stage at a beauty pageant with the tunnels leading to the exhaust displaying more mesh in the elongated oval vents. An arrow-tip clear plastic insert is just over that AMG V12 so you can see its black, silver and yellow goodness, even with the bonnet closed. Flip up the big rear deck and there’s a full suspension, springs, detailed engine, bracing, and such to entertain a viewer.

There’s a ton of detail under the rear bonnet.

With that open a couple luggage compartments, one on each side, will open to reveal tan luggage pieces that match the car’s interior. Great detail and a bonus for folks who like to pose their models with all opening features fully revealed.

Doors open, naturally and with the roof off the interior view is unimpeded. Detail here is tremendous too. The interior is two-tone tan and black with oodles of silver or chrome accents. The doors have giant round chrome and black speaker/door release features that are a bit over the top, but then at a million bucks, you expect some of that.

Seats are racing types with major side bolsters, cloth shoulder belts and textured seat cushions.

The tan interior is chock full of gauges, air vents and detail.

This dash and steering column-mounted instrument panel looks like something from a starship, or at least an aircraft. The wheel is a tan and black flat-bottom racing style while the gauges on the column are mostly chrome and black and readable. Four round air vents protrude prominently from the dash and the center stack is fully detailed with screen and buttons, plus a red-balled control near the top that I must admit I have no idea what its function is.

A silver gear shift lever is between the front seats and you can see carbon fiber firewalls in the foot wells and under the dash, plus giant speakers with chrome surrounds. It’s all pretty spectacular and much more visually interesting if you leave off the roof that can be placed on top for a closed-top roadster.

Cool that you can pose the car with its matching luggage!

If you’re into serious rubber, the Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires are so-labeled and as wide as a hot dog eating champs’ butt. Nice tread pattern too.

Front wheels are steerable, with the steering wheel connected, so not just poseable. Wheels themselves are multi-spoked star designs in matte silver and behind those are monster drilled disc brakes with blue Pagani-branded calipers, the rears being somewhat different from the front calipers.

Details, details, details. That’s what Autoart is into big time and this Pagani epitomizes that attention. This is one of the most beautiful and fully detailed models I’ve ever reviewed. Winner!

Vital Stats: Pagani Huayra Roadster

Maker: Autoart
Scale: 1/18
Stock No.: 78286
MSRP: $330

Link: Autoartmodels.com

Diecast cars

Die-cast: Autoart’s 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic

March 16, 2021 Mark Savage Leave a comment

Gorgeous classic Bugatti a tiny jewel in 1:43 scale …

Oh, be still my swoopy car design-loving heart. Autoart has created a 1:43 gem of a classic Bugatti that may be the most beautiful car ever.

That may sound overhyped, but it is not. The 1938 Bugatti 57SC Atlantic is drop-dead gorgeous now, just as it was in the midst of car designers’ art deco styling period. It’s rounded, slinky, sexy and as beautiful as any machine ever created by man, or woman!

You can call it teardrop shaped, ellipsoidal or just curvy as all get-out, but the key word is beautiful.

Now Autoart, which mostly makes fantastic 1:18 scale die-cast car models, downsizes in a most impressive way.

The model has opening doors, hood and trunk/tire cover.

But first, consider this gorgeous French blue-bathed car’s history. Continue reading Die-cast: Autoart’s 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic →

Car Reviews

2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Coupe

October 8, 2020 Mark Savage 3 Comments

Chevy’s mid-engine Vette thumbs its nose at the Supercars …

The old and new, a Piper Cub rests behind the 2020 mid-engine Vette at Hartford’s municipal airport.

Chevy’s new Corvette is kryptonite to the ever-growing bevy of Supercars.

For more than 65 years Chevrolet’s everyman’s dream car has put its throbbing V8 power in front of the driver, but with the eighth generation that all changes. Supercars beware!

Now the Vette’s 6.2-liter V8 moves behind the driver in a mid-engine arrangement that seems new and exciting even though supercar makers, plus Ford with its GT, have been milking this layout for years.

While new and exciting looking there’s a familiarity too with the new Corvette. Stand in front and you’ll see the family resemblance, the pointed nose, the long headlights, the rounded front wheel wells. There’s even a tall flat rear shoulder that exudes Corvette styling. Continue reading 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Coupe →

Car Reviews

2020 BMW M8 Competition Convertible

October 1, 2020 Mark Savage 2 Comments

M8 drop-top an elegant refined rocket, near supercar …

Two questions: How much did you pay for your house? How much would you pay for a supercar, or near supercar?

The first may vary wildly depending on how long ago you bought your home, but if you’re thinking Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bugatti, or McLaren for the supercar, you’re likely imagining a price tag north of $1 million.

Relax, this new 2020 BMW M8 Competition Convertible is much cheaper. But at $180,245 it’s nearly double what we paid for the 1950s Savage ranch (home) about 30 years ago, and the darned M8 doesn’t even have a bathroom. Continue reading 2020 BMW M8 Competition Convertible →

Diecast cars

Die-cast: NEO’s 1959 Chevrolet Corvette XP-700

December 23, 2019 Mark Savage Leave a comment

Long-nosed Corvette XP-700 concept a mixed bag of styling …

General Motors was big into concept cars in the 1950s, many having fighter jet and missile styling, be it the nose, tail or just the model and engine names, such as the Oldsmobile’s Rocket 88 in Pontiac’s Starfire.

So, naming an experimental or concept car the XP-700 seems natural enough, and that’s what Chevrolet did with its body styling experiment for Corvette on the 1959 auto show circuit. The XP featured a wide-mouthed, low-slung Ferrari-style nose protruding from the already recognizable quad headlights in rounded fenders that Corvette introduced in its 1958 model. Continue reading Die-cast: NEO’s 1959 Chevrolet Corvette XP-700 →

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Honest car reviews both big and small