senglema
08-11-2005, 11:51 AM
When I was a young lad, I had a fairly large collection of die-cast cars (Hot Wheels, Matchbox), but had never thought about buying a die-cast for the past 30 years, until I just happened to pick up a copy of Die-Cast X while waiting in line at a grocery store. I saw the review of Carousel1's A.J Foyt 1977 #14 Indy-winning Coyote, and memories came flooding back. So I've picked up where I left off 30 years ago, and started buying die-cast cars again (as well as all of the back issues of Die Cast X :) )
My favorite scale now seems to be 1:18, and my favorites are cars from 1955-1975. For me, it was all happening then: the chaotic transition from front-engine roadsters to rear-engine cars was happening at Indy; you had McLarens, Ferraris and Ford GT40's in Formula 1 (and Indy); you had muscle cars on the streets and hot rods, funny cars, and dragsters on the drag strips. There was no computer simulation, and car design was done by seat-of-the-pants engineering. By the late 70's, our knowledge had increased to the point where we could make cars safer, faster, and less polluting--but somehow not quite as interesting to me.
I'm particularly interested in the cars of Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt. For me, a must-have is Dan Gurney's #36 Belgium Grand Prix winning Eagle from 1967 (the "Titanium Car"). I picked up the Carousel1 1:18 of this last month; not a bad die-cast --but boy would I like to have been able to afford the $1500 for the GMP/Real Art Replica 1:8 museum-quality model of this car (shown in the most recent issue of Die Cast X). A beautiful car, and it even has a symmetric suspension (unlike the Indy Eagles of the period, which were set up for the "4 left turns"). In my opinion, one of the top 5 "most-attractive" race cars of all time!
My favorite scale now seems to be 1:18, and my favorites are cars from 1955-1975. For me, it was all happening then: the chaotic transition from front-engine roadsters to rear-engine cars was happening at Indy; you had McLarens, Ferraris and Ford GT40's in Formula 1 (and Indy); you had muscle cars on the streets and hot rods, funny cars, and dragsters on the drag strips. There was no computer simulation, and car design was done by seat-of-the-pants engineering. By the late 70's, our knowledge had increased to the point where we could make cars safer, faster, and less polluting--but somehow not quite as interesting to me.
I'm particularly interested in the cars of Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt. For me, a must-have is Dan Gurney's #36 Belgium Grand Prix winning Eagle from 1967 (the "Titanium Car"). I picked up the Carousel1 1:18 of this last month; not a bad die-cast --but boy would I like to have been able to afford the $1500 for the GMP/Real Art Replica 1:8 museum-quality model of this car (shown in the most recent issue of Die Cast X). A beautiful car, and it even has a symmetric suspension (unlike the Indy Eagles of the period, which were set up for the "4 left turns"). In my opinion, one of the top 5 "most-attractive" race cars of all time!