Happy Christmas, fröhliche Weihnachten, joyeux Noël, buon Natale, feliz Natal, feliz Navidad, god jul, hyvää joulua, vrolijk Kerstfeest, glædelig jul, gleðileg jól, Nadolig llawen, bon Natale, с Рождеством Христовым. I look forward to seeing as many of you as I can in 2013!

A year gone by.......

Well where did 2010 go??

A flurry of snow then getting snowed under at work and hey presto! the real white stuff is falling again and we're in 2011.

Model wise 2010 was actually good for me, I've bolstered my collection quite dramatically with Porsches, Porsches and (yes you've guessed it) a few more Porsches. There have also been a few non-Porsche additions and I now have a whole selection of projects to undertake. 

The projects for2011 include:~ Citroen C4 WRC code 3, MG Metro 6R4 code 3 limited run, Lancia Delta "Zebra" code 3, Porsche 916 code 3 limited run, Volkswagen Golf GTi code 3 limited run, Porsche 911 code 3 limited run plus Volkswagen Beetle (old and new) code 3 models.

As always I'm trying to add to my Porsche collection as well as develop a range of interesing and acurate code 3 limited edition production runs. You can expect to see the first of these models after the royal wedding later this year.

Porsche 906/10

The Porsche 906/10 is commonly known as the 910 and was a development of the successful 906. Alterations to wheel size and wheel fitting (13" wheels with a single, central wheelnut) ensured that the Porsche 910 was purely a competition car, unlike the preceeding 906.

The 910 was both lighter and shorter than the 906 and used either the Type 901/21 2 litre fuel injected flat six engine or the 2.2 litre Type 771/0 fuel injected flat eight engine.

The competition career of the Porsche 910 started in 1966 with entries in European hillclimbs before it progressed into endurance races. Porsche did not campaign the 910 for an overly long time, indeed they only used it for around about a year before it was retired from works use and used singularly by privteers.The 910 gave Porsche their first real taste of overall succes in endurance racing  (finishing 1,2 and 3 at the 1000km Nurburgring in 1967) and paved the way greater and greater success as the Zuffenhausen marque became synonymous with endurance racing, Le Mans and victories.
There were only around 30 910s built; 19 of which were raced for the Porsche factory.
Lesney Matchbox made a nice version of the Porsche 910 in theirSuperfast series of 1970. Despite not being the tradional white and red colour scheme of the works cars the model remains very popular even today. Available in all white or a metallic red the Matchbox Superfast Porsche 910 has held its value well during the last 40 years with mint, boxed version reaching £60 or more at auction.
Pictured are a few of my collection including the two wheel versions that are available - thick or thin. I'm lucky enough to have boxed mint models of each Lesney Matchbox version and despite them only being 1:64 (approx) scale they remain an impressive little car!

Porsche 911 GT3 RS (NGT)

In 2005 and 2006 there were a select few Porsche 911 GT3 RS' being used for rallying, the Belgian importers were keen on running a championship for them (Porsche 911 GT3 Road Challenge) and thus promoted their rallying use. These rally versions of the GT3 RS were very similar in specification to the (dealer available) road car, being built to the strict FIA Group N rules.

Belgian rally legend Marc Duez had a prominent role in ensuring that the popularity of the Porsche 911 GT3 RS as a rally car increased as well as winning silverware along the way. There are now a large selection of Porsche 911 GT3 RS rally cars rallying throughout Europe and they continue to impress with their performance and awesome sound! The Road Challenge never really took off but as an alternative to more expensive World Rally Cars the Porsche GT3 RS offers an exciting, stimulating and enthralling choice  - outright rally performance is decidedly lower from the GT3  than a WRC but for smiles-per-stage the GT3 is much better value (both inside and outside of the car!!)

The model pictured above is a limited production run (1104 in total) made by Minichamps and is of the car which Marc Duez and Mario Langer took to a class win and seventh overall on the 2006 Ardenne Bleue Rallye in Belgium. As with all modern Minichamps models quality is excellent, the 1:43 scale model is a great reproduction of the class winning rally car. As a depiction of the car at the start of the event this model is tremendous but during the often snowy  rally Duez/Langer managed to remove the rear bumper from their car, the rear bumper on the Minichamps model remains firmly attached unless cutting equipment was to be used..... 

In all seriousness this is another quality model from Minichamps and offers collectors and enthusiasts of Porsche, motorsport and rallying models an excellent addition to their collections.

Porsche Panamericana

The Porsche Panamericana was a stunning two-seater concept study, shown to the public for the first time at the 1989 IAA (Frankfurt motor show). The Porsche Panamericana stole the show, its blend of stunning style and innovative design impressing both the general public and car industry.
Using exotic materials (for the time) which included body panels made from carbon fibre and plastic the Panamericana was created in 6 months by designer Harm Lagaay under the supervision of Ulrich Betz (project technical director) at Porsche’s Weissach R&D centre. As well as using advanced materials and production methods the Panamericana had interesting styling features (some of which made their way onto production Porsches of the 1990s and later). These includes smoother flowing lines, a new wide and deeper 'Targa' style roof (the Panamericana used a pink zip to seal a waterproof membrane over the open Targa style roof – even now Porsche has eschewed any use of pink zips on production cars...) as well as features yet to be seen on any production Porsche like the Porsche emblem in the tyre treads or the ability to accept a multitude of wheel and tyre combinations under the wheel arches; including full off road M&S tyres fitted to heavy duty off road wheels.The stunning Porsche Panamericana was in actual fact a gift from the car company Porsche to Dr. Ferry Porsche to celebrate his 80th birthday. Today the Porsche Panamericana resides in the equally impressive Porsche museum in Stuttgart, testimony to the team that built a concept car that still looks modern 20 years after it first stunned the IAA!

The model pictured is/was made by Provence Moulage and is a resin kit with metal details. Very good quality this kit has sat on shelf for many years challenging me to make it. I have all the correct paint codes to build it as close to the genuine article's colours as possible. Perhaps 2010 will see me finally build this wonderful little model of an equally interesting and impressive real car.

I'm interested in purchasing any other Porsche Panamericana models, including Provence Moulage kits. Contact me with what you have to offer!!

Subaru Impreza 555

The 1995 World Rally Championship saw a change in fortunes for Subaru and Prodrive. Having spent a couple of years developing the Group A Impreza the '95 car was finally to prove successful, culminating in Scottish rally legend Colin McRae winning the Driver's title.

The Monte Carlo was the traditional season opener for the WRC and 1995 was no different. Three works teams entered the event along ensuring this was to be one of the hardest fought Monte Carlo Rallies. Ironically the rally developed into a battle between the works (Prodrive) Subaru Impreza 555 of Carlos Sainz / Luis Moya and the privately run R.A.S Ford Escort Cosworth of Francois Delecour / Catherine Francois. Special stage 18 (from a total of 21) was the deciding one as suspension damage saw Delecour limp out of the stage allowing Sainz to claim an impressive and hard fought victory.

Pictured above is a CM's 1:64 scale model of the victorious Carlos Sainz / Luis Moya Group A Impreza 555. An excellent small scale model the detailing is doubly impressive when you consider this model is the size of a matchbox..... Imported from Hong Kong there aren't many of these models in Europe which adds to the attraction!

As with all my non-Porsche models this is for sale / swap; priced around £6.00 Contact me for more details.

Meyers Manx Buggy

The Meyers Manx buggy originated in the early 1960s when Bruce Meyers produced the first of a selection of fibreglass bodies that used VW drive train and suspension to produce a fun, lightweight and cheap on and off-road capable vehicle. The dune buggy and derivatives was born!

Hotwheels have honoured Bruce's creation in 1:64 scale diecast by producing their version of the Meyers Manx buggy. For reasons know to no-one in particular I now have a 'mere' 25 of these models residing in my collection.

Whilst not as rare as a Matchbox buggy these little diecast models are both pleasing to the eye and reasonably accurate in detailing.As with most modern Hotwheels models the Meyers Manx buggy features plenty of 'bling' to keep modern children interested yet this doesn't detract from the overall model as most real world 1:1 Meyers Manx buggies (or copies thereof) have more than their fair share of chrome and polished metal.

With such a surplus of buggies I'm happy to part with some for around £1 each, contact me and we can haggle over the price - the more you take the lower it gets! The buggy pictured above is my son's slightly worn toy.

Der Trüffel-Jäger von Zuffenhausen

The 1971 24 Heures du Mans saw the famous "Trüffel-Jäger von Zuffenhausen {truffel hunter from Zuffenhausen} or Pink Pig or Cochon Rose" Porsche 917/20 make its debut. Designed to be the synergy of all 917s it drew its fame from the colour it was painted rather than its race results. The 917/20 had a unique aerodynamic body that combined the handling of the short-tail 917K with the high speed stability of the long-tail 917L ensuring it was as stable as any 917 through corners whilst being the fastest of all 917s down the Mulsanne straight in 1971.

Reinhold Joest and Willi Kauhsen were entrusted with the car for the race andwere running 3rd overall when Joest crashed into the barriers and retirement. Despite originally being blamed on driver error the retirement was actually down to brake failure and not Joest's fault. With the 917/20 running faster than any other 917 brake wear was correspondingly high, unfortunately Porsche hadn't factored this into its race stratergy so the car crashed before having it's brakes replaced.....

Why was it pink and painted with various pork cuts? Less to do with the motorpsort division of Porsche and more to do with the marketing department. Having been called a styling 'pig' a few times in the German press it was decided by a marketing bod that painting the 917/20 up as a butchers drawing would be a great idea. The rest as they say is history, very pink and very unusual but history none the less!

The Pink Pig only raced once during it's Le Mans career so models of it are, unsurprisingly, less common than those of the 917K and other 917s. Pictured is one of two Pink Pig models I currently have in my collection. This one is the less than inspiring DEA version, although it remains very true to the 1971 race car by having Ripple rather than Rippe (as seen on the restored version) on the tail section.