Working to resolve issues with special characters! Sebring 1957 and Le Mans 1961 fully updared.

The winter update season is underway! The sections for Le Mans 1988 and 1958 are now fully revised!

U P D A T E S     E V E R Y W H E R E

I have compiled a dedicated feature page to the white-bodied cars of the works-run Porsche System Engineering era from 1966 thru 1969.

There is now a dedicated page to the 1958-1961 FIA era. It was a wonderfully messy transition from front to rear-engined cars...

I continue to be fascinated by the 1973 racing season, which saw the debut of the race-ready Porsche Carrera RSR and the BMW CSL 3.0. There are Nixon-era site additions all over.

Just so you all know, the site is updated with new stuff almost every day... I'm adding dedicated team pages slowly, and there is even an Early 70's touring car section.

Inspired by a recent purchase of a beautiful 340 Mexico Vignale, I'm bringing some much-needed clarity to the early years of the 1950's SCCA and USAC page. All of the factual errors in the manufacturers catalog desciptions are properly flagged and corrected...

Among the hundreds of updates and additions that have been made over the past few months, a blurb about the Ferrari 250 LWB 'Tour de France' race has been created. While we bask in the glory of the current GT3 era, it is good to remember one of the first race-ready GT cars...

Also, sharp-eyed readers will see that over the past few weeks I have established a dedicated page to Ferrari's North American Racing Team.

I have split out the GT3 cars onto their own dedicated page and continue to update the many, many models. Also, the 1986 World Endurance Championship race has been revised.

Total rework of the 1976 Nurburgring World Sportscar Championship race, including cleaned-up images of several cars.

I have been going through the 1962-1965 sections of the F.I.A. World Sportscar Championship race by race, and adding all sorts of new entries.

Box Model 8448 - Ferrari P2 1965 Nurburgring Winner

Despite it being from the late 1980's, this Ferrari P2 by 'Box Model' is surprisingly crisp. It represents the car that (current F1 champion) John Surtees and Ludovico Scarfiotti used to cruise to a dominant victory at the Nurburgring in the spring of 1965. At that point, Maserati were all but gone and Porsche were content with racking up wins in the two-liter class. The only real competition was from Ford, who had begun to transition the control of their GT40 program to Carroll Shelby's group after lackluster results in 1964.

Sharp-eyed readers will notice that this year marked the first time that Ferrari had abandoned the classic Borrani wire wheels for the Campagnolo magnesium-alloy ('Mag') style. Engine torque output had increased to the point that the wires would bend during a sudden acceleration.

Loads of updates in the 1960's section, and I'm adding improved images of 'Universal Hobbies' models, plus an overal focus on the 'white era' Porsche prototypes of 1966-1969. Latest count is that 221 cars that are updated to the latest database spec.

Watching Le Mans and adding images to the 1950's pages. I'm cleaning up pictures and upgrading the older database entries. So far I have 75 cars that are now using the latest spec...

Updates abound... 2002 Le Mans...1955 Mille Miglia... Early 1950's...

Ferrari 275 GTB/4 Marathon de la Route 1966 (Available as Best 9280)

I did whole reboot of the seminal the 1966 World Sportscar Championship season. For now I have the section stripped down with few photos, just highlighting my own collection.

While doing my research I came across an Ecurie-Francorchamps Ferrari 275 GTB/4 that was listed as being from the N�rburgring, but didn't match any of the results. After some digging I found that it was from an event called the "Marathon de la Route", which was an 84 hour enduro run at the Nordschleife. Running for 24 hours is bad enough, but racing for three and a half days is truly fucking insane.... Doing it without a helmet like this driver is plain suicide...

The 1971 Daytona 24 Hours event is now updated...

The fateful Buenos Aires 1971 event is now updated...

Art Model 034 - Ferrari Dino 246 SP 1962 Nurburgring winner Hill/Gendebien

The success of this rear-engined car finally proved to Enzo that the world had changed, and the time of the majestic barchettas had passed. While this car represents the N�rburgring winner, that event also contained a shocking display of speed by Jim Clark in the debut of the Lotus 23. Clark was leading by a wide margin (and continuing to pull away) before a mechanical failure put it out of the race. The savage fear experienced by the European sports car establishment probably contributed to the 1962 Lotus Le Mans debacle...

This model is included the early portion of the 1962-1965 GT Era Page with several other updates.

Quatzo Porsche 962C - Le Mans 1990

Excellent value-for-the-money Quartzo, from the peak (in my opinion) of the group C era. Also, the 1964 World Sportscar Championship is undergoing its upgrade cycle.

More work on the 1970-71 "Golden Age"; Monza 1971 is now updated with the revised "Brumm" units...

The weather finally went to hell, so I'm starting on the winter update blitz. Sebring 1963, Targa Florio 1963, and Nurburgring 1971 are all updated.

They're the acoustic guitars of the racing world... And now they have their own Porsche Cup Page

A set of dedeicated pages for Spark regional releases are forming, and you can see the Germany page now.

A deluge of Spark regional releases from both Germany and Belgium are falling into the end of the FIA GT Page. The 24 Hour races at the Nurburgring and Spa is where all of the 1:43 'action' seems to be these days...

I am continuing to be both optomistic and supportive of the new United SportsCar Racing, as they have wisely parked themselves at imsa.com.

The recent FIA GT Page has been updated. After focusing so hard on the 1950's, it seemed like a good idea to start in the present and work backwards for a while...

Bang 7232 - Ferrari 250 SWB 1961 Goodwood Tourist Trophy winner Stirling Moss

When you think of the "FIA GT", you probably either picture the McLaren F1 GTR's of 1997, or the more recent explosion of GT3 machines. But the first series to be called such was the FIA GT Cup that started way back in 1960. At the time, Gran Turismo racing was experiencing a sudden surge in interest, mostly due to the simultaneous arrival of the Ferrari 250 SWB and Aston Martin DB4GT cars.

GT racing effectively "took over" the World Sportscar Championship for 1962, as the Prototype-class cars did not score manufacturers points.

This particular model (#7232) by the Italian 'Bang' brand is part of the first casting of models, but it features the upgraded photo-etch (Borrani) wheels of later products. The 'Number 7' is properly on a grey background, although some race-day photos show it as a bit more bluish.

Bang did come out with a revised SWB casting (Beginning with #7269 and later), which eliminated the window pillars and had somewhat sharper body styling

There are many updates all over the site, namely the 1960-61 sections of the F.I.A. World Sportscar Championship. Oddly, 1960 is a year for which I have not a single diecast car.

Best Jaguar E-Type - Le Mans 1963

Enzo himself said that the Jaguar E-Type was the most beautiful car he had ever seen. This early model by Bess has nice wheels, but the triple-blade windshield wiper spoils the fun a bit...

This car also shows the "proper" use of the national racing colors of the USA, which consist of the classic double blue stripes on a white body.

I'm beginning to get a better handle on the Spark 956/962 non-Le Mans special edition variants on the Group C era Page.

Just to be random, I updated the 1980 section of the Group 5 era Page. I was amazed to discover that the winner of that year's Watkins Glen six hours was a Lancia Beta Montecarlo. I was there, but we may have left early due to a huge thunderstorm.

As part of the addition of the RSR last week, I redid the 1975 section of the Early 1970's FIA Section. While we all love the Porsche/Ferrari struggle, 1975 was all about Alfa Romeo vs. Renault. The Alfa tipo 33 program was on its last legs at the end of 1974, and German racer Willy Kausen swooped in to provide leadership and susage-and-booze funding for a 1975 campaign.

Meanwhile, the French were bravely developing their turbo program in public. Everybody always seems to hate Renault, but you gotta give them credit for having the courage to pursue an ambitious technology on the World Championship trail.

Universal Hobbies Porsche Carrera 3.0 - 1000km N�rburgring 1975

It's easy to forget that the 911 was not Porsche's first choice for racing. The first attempt to create a racer out of the wonky rear-engined car resulted in the odd, plastic-bodied 911R of 1967. This lightweight concept never took off, and the next attempt by the factory was the 911 T/R the following year.

The real action started in 1970, when the new Group 4 regulations allowed a much greater set of performance improvements. Porsche offered a series of upgrade parts, including wider fenders and wheels that transformed the mundane flat-sided �ber-Beetle into a macho 70's classic. These cars could be bought race-ready from the factory as the 911 S/T.

This concept evolved into the 2.7 liter Carerra RS of 1973. Despite the energy crisis, the car was a huge seller and there were enough on the road to qualify for Group 4. This time, Porsche had a true off-the-shelf GT racer that could be ordered through any dealership. The 2.8 Carrera RSR would rule the IMSA, German, and World racing scene throughout 1973. An upgrade to a full 3.0 liter engine and the apperance of the whale-tale spoiler in 1974 took the 911 concept to its high-water mark.

This brings us to the model at hand. With the J�germeister livery and N�rburgring heritage this model goes straight into the umlaut stratosphere...

Quatzo Jaguar D-Type - Le Mans Winner 1955

Yeah, I know. I promised that I would get out of the 50's but my long-awaited D-Type finally came in on the slow boat from Portugal. Anyway, this is the car that took what must have been the strangest-feeling victory at Le Mans in 1955, as the bodies from the crash were still being cleared away...

Another thing to note is that this was the last year that the single-seat ("monoposto") bodystyles were allowed. The following year would require an open cockpit, full windscreen, and larger doors.

As far as models go, you can't go wrong with this Quartzo, or the equivalent Ixo version. See this featured on the revised Le Mans 1955 section on my Front-Engine era Page.

I'm breaking out of the 50's rut... So I plowed into the 1974 Le Mans list on my 1970's Le Mans page.

My nice, green Aston Martin is now proudly surrounded by blank spaces on the revised guide to the 1959 World Sportscar Championship on my Front-Engine era Page. Final cleanup of the 1960 and 1961 is in progress, mostly due to the crappy weather here in the Northeastern USA...

As part of my year-long obsession with 50's barchettas, I have created a brand-new guide to the entire 1958 F.I.A. World Sportscar Championship season (including Le Mans, of course...) on my Front-Engine era Page. We-Hava-Lotsa-Testa-Rossas!!!

Best - Ferrari 860 Monza - Mille Miglia 1956 - Peter Collins

This is the natural companion piece to the Mille Miglia winning Ferrari 290 MM, the 2nd-place 860 Monza driven by Englishman Peter Collins (hence the green nose). Perhaps more importantly was the co-driver Louis Klemantaski, who is considered to be one of the greatest racing protographers of all time.

Art Model ART091 Ferrari 500 TRC - Bridgehampton 1958

Now that peace has broken out between the ALMS and Grand-Am, it's easy to forget the first big split in U.S. road racing happened in 1958. The rift that occurred was between the "country-clubby" SCCA east-coast faction and the gearhead west-coast set that wanted to race for cash.

Best - Ferrari 750 Monza - Le Mans 1955 - Masten Gregory

Before the carnage of the Levegh crash, a young Masten Gregory enjoyed a brief run at Le Mans in 1955 in this 3-liter Ferrari. This car is from the same casting as earlier 750 Monzas but features vastly-improved wire wheels.

New listings and a brand-new photo added to the Le Mans 1955 section of the Front-Engine era Page.

Art Model ART019 Ferrari 500 TRC - Le Mans 1957

There is a long tradition of having classes for smaller-displacement prototypes, and historically the 2.0 liter size cars have been the "middleweights". (This continues to this day with the modern LMP2 class) In 1954 Ferrari created the 4-cylinder 500 Testa Rossa for this class. When the F.I.A. "Appendix C" regulations changed to require a full two-seat cockpit (and actual doors), the 500TRC was introduced in 1956. This is shown on my Front-Engine era Page.

Bang - Maserati 450S - Riverside 1957 - Carroll Shelby

In the late 1950's the European races were dominated by factory-run teams, but the US scene had an array of well-prepared privateers. The John Edgar team always had the latest-model Ferrari and Maserati machines, and for 1957 Carroll Shelby himself campaigned this 450S.

When the Riverside track held its inagural race in June, Shelby crashed this car heavily in practice. The car was repaired for the SCCA National Championsip in September, and Shelby came back from a two lap defecit to win. This race had a huge turnout from the Southern California area, and the following year this would be sponsored by the L.A. Times. Over the next few years this event would grow and eventually become a cornerstone of the legendary Can-Am series.

Best #9070 Ferrari 290 MM - Mille Miglia 1956

The bloody decadence of the 1955-1957 years was unparalleled, and no event was more wild than the Mille Miglia. In 1956 Eugenio Castellotti avenged the previous year's Anglo-German victory by taking off at 5:48 in the morning and raging through 1000 miles of Italian countryside.

This car is featured on my newly-created Front-Engine era Page. So far I am concentrating on my own (teensy) personal collection, which is centered around World Championship event winners.

Spark - Lotus 30 - Goodwood Tourist Trophy 1964 -Jim Clark

Yes, yes, yes. This is what we want. When the Lotus 23 was booted from Le Mans for total bullshit reasons in 1962, part of the fallout was that Chapman focused even more energy on the 'Sports Racers'.

At the time, Formula One was in the middle of the lame-assed 1.5 liter era. The World Sportscar Championship also had very restricive design rules, and was politically dominated by Ferrari. So there was much interest in the UK and USA for large-engined two-seater racing cars. There were many annual fan-friendly races that ran to a 200 mile length and featured only one driver per car. These started off as independent events that featured high prize money. In the US, these races would go on to be the legendary Can-Am series.

The Lotus 23 was a nimble masterpiece of a car, and was wildly sucessful in small-displacement classes of racing in both the US and UK. The Type 30 was outfitted with the Ford 289 (4.7 l) engine that also powered the Shelby Cobras and Ford GT, so a larger engine bay was needed. Instead of simply making a evolution of the 23, Champan designed the 30 with an odd wishbone-style chassis. This concentrated the torsion on one point, making the car notoriously flexible and ruining any performance that the suspension would provide.

While Jim Clark scored several minor victories in the UK, the Type 30 was considered a dismal failure. Had the car been more capable, it would probably have had a place in history similar to the Lola T-70 spider.

Best Ferrari 250LM #9054 - Nurburgring 1965

Booze. Women. Fistfights. Sports Cars. Pipe Smoking. Muttonchop facial hair. International travel. Green Ferraris...

David Piper lived the motherfucking life in the 1960's.

Ferrari's master plan for 1964 was to have the 250LM replace the 250GTO for GT-class racing. When the CSI rejected the homologation, the 250LM had to race in prototype class.

This BEST model has the usual shitty wheels, but the overall shape is good. The image below shows the car at the previous weekend's race at Spa:

Ferrari 250LM - Spa 1965

HighSpeed - Porsche 904 - Daytona 1964

This model represents one of the first race appearances of the Porsche 904, at Daytona in 1964. While Minichamps list their 1:18 version (and long-delayed 1:43) as being from the 'Daytona Continental' and co-driven by Chuck Cassel and Augie Pabst that is not entirely correct.

The first Daytona Continental in 1962 was very inclusive, and allowed rear-engined sports-racers that would have been ineligible for Le Mans. When Dan Gurney won in a Lotus, it was far ahead of the Ferrari prototypes. So beginning in 1963 the main race was limited to GT cars that had met the Group 3 prduction minimum of 100 cars.

While Porsche had been building cars at a rapid pace, the 904 had not yet received homologation. It was not eligable for the '64 World Championship race on Sunday, so Cassel drove it alone in a Saturday support race for Sports-Racers that was called the "American Challenge Cup".

While this race was part of the many independent events that would become the Can-Am, the field was somewhat weak compared to the autumn races at Riverside and Laguna Seca.

Part of the confusion stems from the fact that Cassel and Pabst did run a 356B-based Porsche Abarth in the Sunday race. This car was also #50 with a silver body and similar blue-and-white striping.

The 904 would be granted GT homologation prior to Sebring, and would go on to achieve an overall win the Targa Florio.

Incidentally the Ferrari 250 LM was in a similar situation. Pedro Rodriguez ran his new rear-engined Berlinetta in this race, probably thinking it as a test-run for later in the season. At the time Ferrari was arguing that the car was simply an 'evolution' of the front-engined 250 GT series, and that the 100 car minimum was already met. In a rare move, the CSI told Enzo that this was not acceptable. The 250 LM was never accepted as a GT car and had to run as Prototype.

So I have corrected my website to properly include this model on my "Racing Cars!" page that is dedicated to American-sanctioned events from 1960 to 1965.

Follow me on Twitter - @diecastspcrisis...

Best Porsche 908/2 #9065 - Watkins Glen 1972

In 1972, Tony Dean had the audacity to run his 908/2 in the six-hour on Saturday, and face down the mighty Can-Am field on Sunday. I was sitting in the concrete Red-White-Blue Grandstands, which were erected in 1969 and demolished last week...

Minichamps 430 706712 - Porsche 917 - Interserie 1970

Great livery on this 917, which almost makes up for the awful windshield wiper.

This car is featured on my newly-updated Interserie Page, which also has a new section devoted to hillclimbs...

Minichamps McLaren F1 GTR Longtail 530 174339 - Le Mans 1997

The Le Mans 1997 Page has been completely renovated.

Quartzo 3054 - Porsche 956 - Le Mans 1983

Here's another 956 with a great color combo.

Over the Thanksgiving break I've done a big push on the Le Mans 2010-2011 Page.

I recently was MORTIFIED to learn that this website looked absolutley horrible on certain browsers. The new formatting is now up and stable, and I have optimized for a width of 1024 pixels. (This is the default width of the iPad2, which seemed a good benchmark...) In the same vein, I have completely revamped the Le Mans 2003 Page using an new version of the database, new images, and updated formatting. The challenge now is to refresh the rest of the site (especially the 2000's) to this new spec. This has been over 40 hours of work, so I hope it is worth it...

Trofeu Joest Porsche WSC - Le Mans Winner 1996

With all of the time I've been spending on perfecting my protographs, it seemed like the size of the usual thumbnails wasn't doing justice to my work. So the Le Mans 1995-1996 Page has 'supersized' images that highlight my personal collection.

Ixo FER016 - Ferrari 512 BB LM - Le Mans 1982

While the Porsche 956's were looping the field at Le Mans in 1982, this Ferrari was closing the door on one of the all-time great sportscar teams. Luigi Chinetti's North American Race Team or NART was aguably the most preferred of its customer teams, as they had scored a surprise win for Enzo with the 250 LM at Le Mans in 1965 after the works P2's failed. This tremendous IXO product is now dominating my display case. It's subtle curves are are a welcome relief from the too-familiar and brutish 935 Kremer K3's that trounced it on the track. The rosso-corsa livery, with the quiet blue-white US national-colors accent strip was seen on cars that raced as far back as the 1950's.

This car has re-invigorated my desire to obtain even more NART entrants. I just wish that Kyosho had chosen to do the 1962 Sebring 250 GTO as one of the variants in its recent line. It would have been a logical choice, as it was the debut race for the type, and it finished 2nd overall only to a Ferrari prototype.

The Porsche 934 was launched for the re-organization of 1976. The first series of these turbo-charged cars featured the famous "whale-tale" of the 1974 3.0 litre RSR's. Both Minichamps and Universal Hobbies produce solid versions of these cars. While the 1970's were a particularly ugly period, the liveries are quite attractive.

So it goes without saying that I was rather pissed when I discovered that not only was my Brumos Daytona car incorrect, but that there were others from Universal Hobbies with the same reference number on the market that were proper. The factory must have realized the error and corrected it on later production runs.

My (literally) wrong-'assed' model...	Properly-'assed' model

Box 8402 - Ferrari 250 GTO - Le Mans 1962

Here is my latest purchase: yet another craptastic Ferrari 250 GTO by 'Box Model'. I've been snatching them up fairly regularly this year, almost as a protest against the outrageous prices that new-release models are commanding these days...

This car has quite a bit going for it, with the whole mint-green thing and the fact that it was driven by Masten Gregory and Innes Ireland. Those two undoubtedly got totally shitfaced after they dropped out of the race, if not before...

Best - Lola T-70 - Brands Hatch 1968

When the 3-litre limit on prototypes bounced the big Ferraris out of endurance racing, Jo Bonnier ended up in a good position with a semi-works Lola deal. The T-70 and the Mark I GT40's were somewhat grandfathered in for the 1968 season, and they were up against the new Porsche and Alfa teams...

This Best Lola is sloppy and crude, and the decals look like they came out of a gumball machine.

Minichamps 430 781102 - Renault-Alpine A442B - Le Mans winner 1978

Note to Minichamps regarding the Renault model pictured here: Radio antennas are not made out of fucking 1-inch-thick pipe...

In less angry news, I have begun work on a dedicated 60's Japan Page. History demands it.

IXO GTM069 - Ferrari F430 - FIA GT Monza 2007

When the inevitable implosion of the GT1 World Championship happens, The once-great FIA GT brand will have been shit upon yet again. In late 1997 I stood at the corkscrew at Laguna Seca and stared at the display of awesomeness rumbling past my lawnchair. At the time it seemed like the power and beauty of the original FIA GT would return sportscars back to the glory days of the 60's...

...but it was not to be.

Anyway, this Ferrari F430 is part of a long tradition of racing berlinettas dating back to the 250LM of 1964. IXO's tremendous version shown here displays very nicely, and it is a shame that more variations were not issued.

Vitesse VCC99063 - Porsche 904 Le Mans 1964

Just before the original Vitesse brand was absorbed into IXO in 2001, they put out an excellent line of Porsche 904's. This Scuderia Filipinetti entrant is especially attractive in its Swiss-national color scheme...

This model features a removable rear section, and the panel fit is excellent. The overall fine detail is very good, especially the wiper and the headlights. The wheels are not very attractive, but accurate.

This car and two new Corvette Grand Sports, are now proudly featured on the 1962-1965 GT Era Page.

I have the cleared the crap-demons from the Porsche GT2 below with an awesome, mint Vitesse 904. And Scuderia Filipinetti to boot...

Q-Model QMC-007 - Toyota 7 Twin Turbo 1970

The Japanese were a solid three years ahead of the racing world in 1970 when they demonstrated this turbo monster. Unfortunately, a string of fatal testing accidents caused the entire program to be cancelled...

Q-Model is a quiet Japanese diecast brand that occasionally puts out cars with little fanfare.

Vitesse L152F - Porsche GT2 Monza 1995

Fuck fuck fuckety fuck... I bought this on eBay, and the auction had a shitty picture. I opened up the box and the decals are all messed up. Shit.

Bizarre BZ196 -Rondeau M482 Le Mans 1985

This swoopy, French-built Group C car is all good and fine, but it begs the question:

Who the fuck is this guy...?

Quartzo 3066 - Porsche 956 Mosport 1984

At the beginning of IMSA GTP era, the Porsche 956 was excluded due to the driver pedals being in front of the front axle. This meant that Daytona and Sebring had none of the big European teams that traditionally might have attended the early-season Enduros.

The Canadians always have "an eye toward Europe", and when the opportunity arose a full Group C event was held at Mosport. The advanced ground-effect design of the 956 allowed for lap times that the then-primitive IMSA GTP's could not match.

That said, the fuel consumption formula encouraged conservative racing. So the IMSA races were slower but probably more fun...

Anyway. This older Quartzo is still a good model, and features full tobacco livery. "Skoal Bandits" were widely criticized for being "Chewing Tobacco with training wheels" and were often a gateway product for rural teenagers to get into smokeless tobacco. I remember that kids would take them in and out of their mouths...

Quartzo 3006 - Le Mans 1979

I know you guys are all into Group 5 cars, but I gotta say sorting out DRM entries is a big pain in the ass... Check out the Late 1970's Group 5/DRM page.

Minichamps 430 716703 - Porsche 917 Sebring Winner 1971

Well Sebring had a huge entry, excellent competition, and a nice privateer winner. For all of the bitching about the TV coverage, I had good luck with the internet broadcast. Considering that the rest of the planet is at war or destroyed, I had an enjoyable enough time watching the race...

Onyx XLM032 - Panoz LMP-1 - Le Mans 1999

Remember how insane Le Mans was in 1999? With the Mercedes flip and all that? Good times, Good times...

Well the usual site cleaning is going on, and the 1994 Le Mans section is much improved...

Detail Cars ART155 - Ferrari F40

This Ferrari F40 is from the Italian GT Championship in 1994. This racing series was at the core of the "Supercar Revolution" in Europe that appeared after the implosion of the World Championship in the early 1990's. This eventually led to the creation of the FIA GT series.

Bang 7105 - Ferrari 412P - Le Mans 1967

The Le Mans 1967 section has been upgraded to 'epic' status, and the entire field is listed. Also, extra entries from the early 1990's Italian GT series have been added, along with the usual cleanup...

Best #9035 - Jaguar E-Type Goodwood 1962

This Jaguar (Chassis S850006) was originally steel bodied, but eventualy became the first of the famous "Lightweight E-Types" that the factory developed. The car was fitted with an aluminum body and engine block, and a different cylinder head.

This model by BEST represents the car as Roy Salvadori raced it at the Goodwood Tourist Trophy in 1962. He finished 4th behind three Ferrari 250 GTO's, and for being the highest-placed Jaguar netted a whopping 3 points toward the World Manufacturers Championship.

I'm planning a new page devoted to Jaguar E-Types. These cars never quite matched the Ferrari 250 GTO's success, despite their larger displacement. But the Jag's win points with me because unlike the GTO, an E-type was a moderately priced and obtainable car. While it wasn't exacly the best car to get groceries and take the kids to soccer, a single guy with with decent income could get one and use it as a daily driver...

IXO LMC013 - Matra MS670B - Le Mans Winner 1974

Even though the year 1974 could not have been any more 'meh', this car manages to squeak by. Matra had very little in the way of competition, as Ferrari and Alfa Romeo abandoned sports-prototypes.

There are big updates all over the site, especially 1967, 1962, and 2005...

Ebbro #43269 - Zytek 04S Spa 2005

This car started out life in 2004 as a Reynard 02S, and was greatly re-engineered by Zytek. After a run at Le Mans it was modified again, and came to the USA where it was run in the ALMS as a Creation CA06/H.

I've been at home for the past few days so there are small updates all over the site..

Minichamps #400 056480 Porsche 911 GT3-RSR - Le Mans 2005

Now this is how it's done...

I am fleshing out the 2006 section of the 2006-2010 Le Mans Page. With this latest revision to the layout style, I am listing the entire grid first in italics, and then adding details to cars as they are released. This saves me some cleanup, and also gives a list of the unreleased cars, which have been thankfully few in the past several years. I also am listing cars grouped by class finishing order (not just overall) because it makes more sense to see a car with its 'peers'...

I am also cleaning up photos by cropping and scaling proper thumbnails. The O-so-important profanities will be added as the mood strikes...

Minichamps #400_046990 Porsche 911 GT3-RSR - Le Mans 2004

This car has the ugliest livery in my collection. The graphic designer that created it should just hang his shit up. They start off with a horrific color combination, and then add a cartoonish interpretation of a lightning bolt that looks more like a weed growing on the sides. Then they add fucking pawprints?

And for what its worth, the last time I was in Las Vegas, the "Westward-Ho" Casino was the dirtiest shithole imaginable...

I have put some time into the 2004-2005 Le Mans Page and the 2006-2010 Le Mans Page...

Quartzo #QLM046 - Rondeau M397B- Le Mans 1980

Here's an under-appreciated car from Quartzo, the Rondeau M397B with full tobacco sponsorship. What strikes me the most is how distinctively French the proportions and styling are, especially in the rear fenders and fins. Really, could you see this car ever coming from Germany or Italy?

I'm still fleshing out the 1964 section of the 1962-1965 GT Page...

Max Model #1005 Sauber-Maercedes C9/88 - Le Mans 1988

Here's another Group C car. While the 'Darth Vader' paint scheme is cool, the AEG sponsorship always reminds of the model BM85 ModBus multiplexers that I once installed in a food additive factory...

Quartzo #3050 - Porsche 956 - Winner Le Mans 1982

I have a strange relationship with Group C cars. We Yanks never really saw them race, but I was a huge IMSA GTP fan back in the day. I collect them anyway, but these cars are somehow not my scene...

The 1962-1965 GT Page has been updated yet again...

Box Model #8449 Ferrari 365 P2 - Le Mans 1965

The Ferrari P2 was an evolution of the very successful 250 P. It was produced for the 1965 season and was offered in two cofigurations. The FIA Group 6 version shown with the high windshield and full roll hoop was raced by the Scuderia at Le Mans and World Championship events. The 'Group 7' trim had a short windshield and single roll roop. It was intended for privateers who ran in the British Sports Car Championship and other "Can-Am"-style sprint races.

The car is often considered a disappointment because of its poor showing at Le Mans in 1965. It was replaced by the P3 in 1966, but a P2 was converted by NART into a one-off "elefante blanco" coupe for Le Mans in 1966.

The ancient Box/Best models are still the only versions available.

The Racing Cars! Page is progressing...

The Racing Cars Page has been created. Still not quite there yet...

I hit Mosport for the ALMS race this weekend. I fucking love that track...

My plan is to clean-up the Can-Am page, and split off the pre-1966 race section. There will be a proper "roots of Can-Am page" to highlight the USAC and USRRC races in proper context. The more I research these early 60's races, the more I realize that they are are my true collecting interest.

Minichamps #400 081307 - Aston Martin DBRS9 - Sebring 2008

I post this picture as a tribute to Jonny MUTHERFUCKING Cocker. He drove like a fucking DEMON today for an awesome last-lap win at Road America, passing Brabham and Guy Smith...

Fabbri Alfa Romeo Sport - Alfa Romeo 33/2 'Fleron' - Sebring 1967

This site is 12 years old! To celebrate I have created a dedicated page for Late 1960's SCCA diecast.

Minichamps #430 716743 - Porsche 917K Watkins Glen 1971

When I was a baby in my crib in 1971, I sat up and said:

"Mommy, can you take me to Watkins Glen this weekend for the Six Hours and the Can-Am? The hippies are going to get high and light shit on fire. And my diaper is full"

So they took me, and before me was the green Porsche 917K Piper Watkins Glen car you se modeled here. If the house caught on fire I would grab it before the wedding video...

Ebbro #43637 - Porsche Carrera 6 (906) - Targa Florio 1966

Work with me here. The famous Porsche we all know as the 906 is actually called the 'Carerra 6' due to the same stupid Peugeot trademark of three-digit car types with '0' in the middle. (The Porsche 911 was originally called a '901' but was similarly changed)

The Ebbro here is probably the best example for collectors, as they had the taste to make the Targa Florio winner. There are several other cool versions they could do with the same mould, but so far they only have a who-gives-a-shit-who-gives-a-fuck version from the Japan GP.

Eagle's Race #2005 - Corvette Grand Sport Sebring 1966

These Eagle's Grand Sports came out in about 1999, and they represent one of the great FAIL moments in sports car history. The car had horrible handling problems, and was routinely trounced by GT-class Shelby Cobras. The biggest flaw being a horrible front-rear balance, and it was even possible to do a "wheelie" and lift the front. The high chopped nose created lift that made the problem even worse. There were only five built, which is probably for the better...

Fabbri Alfa Romeo Sport - Alfa Romeo T33/3 - Sebring 1971

Even though the Audi team avoided Sebring, the race was still pretty good. Here is an excellent new Fabbri car. I just don't have anything profane to say at this time, but I don't want to force it. Maybe I'm losing my touch...

Photo Standard - Get it right!

You have two choices, You can just sit there, or you can actually help...

Seriously. If you want to try your hand at making images to my specifications, I am all for it and will post credit if desired. The lighting quality must be good, with not too much glare. And the angles of perspective are crucial. The overall size I want is at least 1000 pixels wide, and the width to height ratio must be 2:1 exactly. No compromises whatsoever.

Those who fail to meet my arbitrary, drunken standards will be ridiculed mercilessly...

Box Model 8403 - Ferrari 250 GTO - Tourist Trophy 1963

Happy St. Patrick's day, be-yotches! Shown here is an appropriately colored Ferrari from the decidedly non-Irish David Piper. Along with Innes Ireland and Masten Gregory, David really did live the life in the 1960's. He was a favorite customer of Enzo, and had the audacity to paint his Italian sports cars a demure British green...

The 1962-1965 GT Page has been greatly expanded. And yeah, it is mostly a cleanup of the old Box/Bang/Best model lists. Those websites are poorly maintained and not very accurate, so somebody needed to step up and do it...

One striking obeservation is there is only one Minichamps model from this entire era.

For now I am not including pictures, as I am kind of digging the feel of the page with only my "best-practice" images.

Best #9074 - Alfa Romeo TZ1- Tour de France 1964

When I started this whole thing, I originally intended to collect models from the 1966 thru 1971 seasons. That idea obviously went out the window years ago. When I reorganized my collection last year, I found that I had an filled an entire container with pre-1966 models. (Including the completely unremarkable Alfa shown here...)

So out of a desire for a page with "perfect" photography, the 1962-1965 GT Page has been launched. But for now it only contains models from my personal collection.

Minichamps 430 145600 - Oldsmobile Aurora - (Launch Version) Daytona 1996

The Oldsmobile Aurora GTS is one of the strangest sports-racing cars of all time. This was part of the last ditch effort by GM to re-make the Oldsmobile image, and there was talk that the whole brand name would change to 'Aurora'. The last version of the Olds logo was an seen by many as an interim step toward this goal

The fact that Minichamps put out such a well-executed version of it makes the situation that much weirder. PMA was trying to expand the American market in 1996, and did versions of many IMSA cars. Most of these were variations of existing moulds that had been developed for Le Mans or other European race cars. But the Olds Aurora model was a the first to be custom-designed for an exclusively American subject.

The model shown here is the 'presentation' version, which implies that at some point there was a photo shoot or press conference to promote the car. I can't imagine that there were more than a handful of people there...

Brumm #271 - Porsche 917 - Watkins Glen 1970

Shown here is a Brumm 'hippie' 917, all painted up in its wrong-assed lavender. (The actual car being a dark purple) The marginally better Minichamps car has been shown on their website as coming soon, but I lost interest long ago...

Fujimi 15220-2 - Porsche 935 K3 - Le Mans 1980

While there have never been any Porsche models under the IXO label, this new series of "Fujimi" Kremer K3 models are the closest thing so far. The overall quality control and detail level is good. The only downside is that Fujimi has a completely fucking useless website...

Fabbri Ferrari Collection #23 - Ferrari 512S- Le Mans 1970

When the first Altaya models came out in 2004, it was generally assumed that most of these would be followed by full Ixo releases. The David Piper 250LM was an early example of this. The Ixo has some extra detailing, such as the black paint behind the headlights.

For collectors, this was an interesting development, as many of these items had never been done, and they filled long standing gaps. Even though these cars were intended as low-priced items for new and casual collectors, the overall quality was good.

One complication was that there were many far-east eBay sellers with unpackaged factory rejects. So it became unclear what the actual quality level really was. Many were illegally repackaged with Ixo boxes, which eventually led to the holograms that now identify their official items.

The Ferrari 512S shown is a prime example of this situation. This legendary car had only been done crudely by Brumm, and never in the longtail ('coda lunga') bodystyle. Even in the Fabbri-collection the paint and wheels are very good, and the decals are sharply-printed and well-applied. The only shortcoming is the headlights, which are underdetailed.

I purchased this in late 2008 when it became apparent that an Ixo would never be released. With Ferrari (and Porsche) licensing being what it is, these cars have become the best thing available in many cases, and resale prices are beginning to creep up.

Bizarre #BZ08 - Sigma MC75 Toyota - Le Mans 1975

Like Kinison said...CIGATETTES! MARLBORO! SMOKEY SMOKEY!...

Old poopy image	Nice clean image

These two images show what a little technique can do. The one on the left was one of the first cars I bought, and one of the first images that I ever posted.

A a result, the 1997/1998 FIA GT Page has been vastly improved...

Spark #S0183 - Lotus Elise GT1 - FIA GT 1997

This is more like it. I finally have a good light-grey background for white cars, and I have figured out a reliable technique for correcting colors. My camera tends to give too much blue, but I now can properly fix it by using the RGB histograms. This is major progress.

And how fantastic is the subject matter? This Lotus is an amazingly beautiful car, and the 'Thai' sponsorship livery is subtle and sophisticated.

The improved images continue to filter into the various pages, but there is much more to come. I'm doing my general page cleaning as I go along, and am fixing the inaccuracies as I go.

The Viper pictured here is a true challenge, as the day-glo yellow is a true PITA to capture. This is a one of the earliest Le Mans models issued by Minichamps, coming from the 1994 race. It is packaged in one of the silver boxes, which was changed to the black version the following year.

Raw Image	Properly Resized Image

With all of the improved image quality comes the need to properly resize. These two versions of the same base show how the quality dips on many browsers if the image is not pre-rendered to size by photo software. I am using the Paint.net package that comes with Windows 2000, and it seems to properly soften areas of high contast.

Dull and shitty image no more...but the review needs to be updated.

I still continue to improve my photography lighting with each session. At the rate I'm going the whole collection will be up by the end of the winter. I'm on an FIA GT kick, so here is the "Cat in the Hat" car...

For some reason, the Ferrari 333SP Directory Page had disappeared, but it has now returned. Too bad it features a dull and shitty main image...

Behold! Maisto's Tampo-print masterpiece... If you ever see one of these for $5 on eBay, just fucking buy it. It's that good.

I saw this car race at the FIA GT event at Laguna Seca in 1998. It was a much simpler time...

Something has been bugging me. Around this time, it seemed that sportscars were having more and more intersting race liveries. And for the past few years things have seemed quite dull, as if graphic design has actually regressed.

I'm making good use of the Italian 'Manfrotto' photography tripod that my dad bought in the 1980's. I borrowed it almost a year ago, and I finally went to the hardware store last week and found the bolt that I needed to attach my digital camera. It is amazing how much it helps to have a high-performance piece of equipment.

As a tribute to Italian design, I am doing an update to the Ferrari 250 GTO Directory Page.

Even with the numerous excellent releases by Spark this year, this Ixo is my favorite model from 2009. There have been many Ford GT's by several manufacturers throughout the years, but this Ixo has the best overall feel. Of the eight car colors from this race, I think the dark-blue looks the best. And while this particular car did not finish the race, it does have the attraction of being an Andretti car.

Here is the start of the Ferrari 250 GTO Directory Page.

The 1:43 Ferrari market still continues to be an odd place. It has been about twenty years since true diecast 250 GTO cars were produced by "Box Model". The model shown is item #8401, which is a generic "launch" version and is the first car issued by that brand. The "Box Model" comany would later split into "Bang" and "Best", with Bang re-issuing some of the 250 GTO cars under the "400" series. The Bang brand went out of business a few years ago, so no new GTO's have been issued in a long time.

More recently, there were some cars issued in IXO/Altaya/Fabbri budget series, and for a while it seemed that there would be a full IXO release. With IXO losing its Ferrari license, this never came to be. Lately there have been many grey-market Altaya-quality items with incomplete packaging on eBay from far-east sellers, but these are of mediocre and inconsistent quality.

For those of you out there still interested in craptastic old French diecast cars, I have done an upgrade to the Solido Directory Page.

There is still much confusion and mystery out there regarding late 1960's Japanese sports prototype racing. There was an annual "Japanese Grand Prix" that was generally for World Championship cars. This was a middle-distance race, and sometimes had multiple drivers per car.

In 1968 and 1969 there was also a dedicated Group 7 race that did feature several American Can-Am regulars.

The usual web sites have very incomplete results lists for these races. While Ebbro has made many of these cars, they often lack driver names or finishing order.

In 1970, the Japanese Auto Federation shifted focus toward single-seat Formula racing. While there were still some prototype races, the level of competition dropped sharply with little foreign interest.

I am still working on my retrospective of the Porsche 911 GT2. Like the guy in Star Wars says "...Almost there...Almost there...

I spent some time trying some new techniques with my digital camera, and I am finally getting decent homemade images. One problem is that using a flash creates glare, so I am using a 1000W worklight in my basement. I am getting very good color, but the brightness is still a little low.

Sebring was quite the race, wasn't it? The early buzz is essentially saying that Franck Montagny "drove like a pussy" at the end, losing time when he should have been pushing. I'm not exactly sure where I stand, but I can't help feeling that Sebastian Bourdais would have played it a bit more agressively...

I have updated the Porsche RS Spyders and other cars from recent seasons on the American Le Mans Series Page.

Out of a sense of completion, I have fixed up the 2001 season on the American Le Mans Series Page.

While I have no special affinity for American GTS-class cars from the 2001 season, I must admit they have been showing show up at my door recently. That said, these two recent eBay finds fill a large void in my collection.

The first is the 2001 Sebring GTS-class-winning Saleen S7R by IXO. Lately I have been shifting focus toward my beloved American Le Mans Series, as I was inspired by the 2008 season. I had had no Saleen in my collection, so when I saw this item I jumped on it quickly. I bought this diectly from Saleen Speedlab, who must be cleaning house as they have quite a few newly-listed items on eBay. The best part is that the packing tape they use has the Saleen logo printed on it.

IXO did a nice job on this, and the contrast of the blue stripes against the white body is the strongest feature. If I had to nitpick, I would say the brake discs and calipers are a bit sloppy.

The next car is the famous "Dale Earnhardt" Corvette C5R. While the Grand-Am series is persistently on my shitlist, this car is from the more reasonable era when they had common GT classes with the rest of the world. I like it because it has a distinctly "American" feel that balances the many European items in my collection. I can also now create a Corvette "generational" display along with my 1966 Grand Sport and 1971 Grieder Le Mans Stingray.

The highlight of this car is the complex hood vents that are shraply cast. On the down side, the door handles are fuzzy and seem too large. One minor problem with Minichamps Corvettes is that they all have a rear wing that was designed to represent the year 2000 car. They did not change it as the wing evolved over the years. It was still accurate for this particular car as far as I can tell from actual race photos.

As a follow-up to my adulation of the Minichamps 911 GT3-RSR discussed below I did an experiment. In my display case I have layed all of my beloved American-entered Minichamps 911-series cars. There is the Flying Lizard car, the 1973 Brumos Porsche Carerra RSR, and the Champion Racing 911 GT2.

The Brumos car was issued a few years ago, and it does look a bit plain compared to the Flying Lizard. But the Champion GT2 car really shows the progress Minichamps has made over the years. The wheels, headlights and decals of the Champion car look almost silly next to the Lizard. I hope that the eBay buyers that pay over $150 for the GT2 cars realize they are investing in a very obsolete piece. It is not unlikely that Spark Model could issue these in a superior form.

There is a deep abyss that is the Porsche 911. Because this basic design has had so many iterations and subtypes over the years, it can be extemely difficult to understand how an individual car fits into the overall history of the model line.

I have only a few of these cars in my collection. While I am by no means a Porsche expert, I do have a solid understanding of the fundamentals that allows me to choose the proper pieces that satisfy my interests

The car shown is from Le Mans 2005, run by the California-based Flying Lizard team. Officially, it is called a 911 GT3-RSR, but most Porsche owners and enthusiasts refer to it as a "996", as this was the common type number of the generation of cars that were made from 1998 to 2005. The 996 cars were the first liquid-cooled cars in the history of the 911 series, and also had a distinctly non-round headlight design. These details angered some Porsche enthusiasts.

When the 'GT3' designation was created by Porsche at the end of 1997, there were GT1 and GT2 classes for FIA and Le Mans. Both of these were for highly modified "supercars" that were quite removed from normal road cars. The idea was that there would be a new GT3 class that would provide a place for cars that were closer to production units.

The problem with this was that the GT1 class strayed from its supercar philosopy and became a place for all-out prototypes. Costs escalated, and Mercedes won ten-out-of-ten races in the FIA GT series in 1998. So in 1999, the GT1 class was abandoned, the GT2 class was renamed "GTS", and the class that was to be "GT3" became simply "GT" for Le Mans and "N-GT" for other FIA races. So the GT3 name never really fit.

The first cars of this 996 generation were raced in this new GT class at Le Mans in 1999, and were called the 911 GT3-R. In 2001 an improved version of the car called the 911 GT3-RS was produced. To confuse things there was also a road-legal car called the 911 GT3 RS (WITHOUT a hyphen!). In 2004 the final race version of this '996' generation was made, and it was the 911 GT3-RSR. (Luckily, the 997 generation came along soon thereafter, because at the rate they were going we would be watching cars called "911 GT3-RSRSRS" by now...)

So that brings us to the model at hand. I am notorious for giving Minichamps shit on message boards about their erratic quality and detail, but I cannot say enough about how much I love this car. The red paint looks fantastic, and the decal printing and application is flawless. The interior detail is also excellent. This model shows what Minichamps are capable of, and it has helped re-establish my trust in their brand.

I picked this up super-cheap on eBay the other day. I always find myself enjoying IXO models, as I forget how nice of a job they actually do with the paint. This car is a nice counter-point to the Lotus mentioned below, and displayed together they show the trasition from front to rear engine placement...

This is also the first time I have broken the 1960 barrier with my collection...

I did wach some of the Daytona 24. It has such a strange feeling to it, doesn't it? There is such an "elephant in the room" attitude about the slowness, ugliness, and overall second-fiddle status of this race during the coverage. The arial shots of the infield showed it to be about 60% full...

Obsession of the day: Figuring out the real difference between the Porsche 911 GT2 and Porsche 911 GT2 Evo. These twin-turbo cars had a brief heydey in the late 1990's in the FIA GT2 class. (Hence the name). Shortly thereafter this class was renamed GTS, and eventually became the modern GT1 class. There were many Minichamps and Vitesse versions of these cars, and now Sun Star is re-issuing the Vitesse items.

I keep trying to improve the way I explain the various Le Mans classes, and have deveoped this chart. Moving left to right is the "practicality" level of the base car that the racing car is supposedly derive from. This has traditionally gone hand in hand with homologation production requirements. Moving up and down are the various levels of modification from the road going base car.

Obviously, prototypes have no production base car so there are no sublevels. I have lumped the various GT categories over the years into three sublevels, but the lines have often been blurry.

I would call today's GT situation as three-tiered, with GT1, GT2, and GT3 conveniently filling the slots as they do have somewhat distinct philosophies. The modern GT3 class is for the "Cup" cars that are component-upgraded versions of high-end road cars. These cars are actually rarely seen at Le Mans, as the rules usually are designed for higher performance cars.

The existing GT2 class has purpose-built cars that are quite visually similar to their road car derivatives, but have been very highly upgraded. The wide tires, performance-designed engines, and suspensions would not be suitable for road use. Historically, this type of car can be traced to the FIA 'Group 4' GT cars of the early 1970's, with the 2.8 Porsche Carerra RSR being the classic example. The current crop of GT2 cars from Porsche, Ferrari, and BMW are of the same quality.

The existing GT1 class is somewhat like the silhouette cars of the 70's. They are almost completely re-engineered versions of GT base cars, in both chassis and engine. But the GT1 class also has the 'supercars' like the Maserati MC12 and Saleen S7R. In this case, the racers are more of an upgrade to the road cars rather than a wholesale redesign.

Anyway, I am pulling this into a feature article. Thoughts???

The Lotus mentioned below came in yesterday, and I can't get over how tiny the thing is. One model I always keep in the display case is my Minichamps SAAB 900, which is also my daily driver. It helps maintain a sense of proportion as the true sizes of some race cars are difficult to concieve. Next to the SAAB, the Lotus seems more like a large go-kart rather than a "Sports Racing Prototype"...

Here is something that is on the way to my collection, a Lotus 19 driven by Sterling Moss to a commanding victory at Laguna Seca in 1961. This was the first rear-engined Lotus Sports-Racer, and I see the beginnings of the Can-Am movement in cars like this...

The real story here is that I paid only $23 for it on eBay, and I am seeing other Spark & Minichamps items sell for this price. Is the global economy hitting the 1:43 market? There also seem to more listings from collectors that are liquidating their Porsche models...

In other news, I did huge cleanup and reorganization of my collection. I re-did my office display case and am curently showing 15 Can-Am cars.

I am still updating the damn Late 1970's Group 5/DRM page. I wish that there was as many IMSA cars available from the same era. I want to get through it so I can get back to the Alfa Romeo 33 series.

If you ever have the chance to maintain a web site for ten continuous years, you will be shocked to find that you have written some embarrassingly incorrect shit. That said, there has been more work on the Late 1970's Group 5 page. The BMW Procar items are gone for the moment, and will re-emerge with their own dedicated page that will have more enrties and less factual errors.

Merry Christmas! Here is the start of a Solido Directory Page. Lots of classic items on this list.

I am working on a new page dedicated to the Vitesse Porsche 956. The recent Spark releases have inspired me to compile this list.

For you big-fender fans out there, I have done a solid revamping of the Late 1970's Group 5 page I finally found some decent images of the old Quartzo BMW 320i Group 5 models. However, the real trick was doing the research, as much of what is out there is completely wrong.

Fixing up the 1989 Le Mans section of the 1986-1990 Le Mans page on this fine, drunken Thanksgiving. Which begs the question, "Why didn't the fucking pilgrims plan their journey so as to land in America in the early summer?" Then they could have spent the summer building shelter and hunting deer, and by the time winter came along they would have been fairly established. Instead, they showed up in late November, which is the absolute shittiest time of year... I'm just sayin'...

More progess, but yet still far to go on the 1986-1994 Le Mans Section. I can't believe I split it at 1994, as the 1991-1993 3.5 litre 'Atmos' era is such a more logical grouping.

Finally got around to updating the 1986-1994 Le Mans Section. There are a lot of missing items, but I have the tables completely updated to the new system.

I came across this slice of brilliance from Rio Models (#4229) a while back. And if I do say, this may be the most perfect object in the entire universe. How awesome is a model that honors a somewhat disturbed holy man. Pio of Pietrelcina was famous for his expression of stigmata, and had a host of other truly odd behaviors like being able to spontaneously smell of flowers. He was also accused of fucking in the confessional, fraud, and pretty much making up the whole bleeding hands thing.

A rock star without the music... definitely worthy of a diecast car...

In less interesting news, the real challenge of the night is to fix up the 1970's FIA Section.

Teensy update to the 1973 Le Mans Section.

More updates to the 1968 part of the 1966-1969 FIA Championship Section. And also I redid the 2005 portion of the American Le Mans Series page.

I have both updated and split the 1966-1971 FIA Championship Sections, and have re-established my "contact" page. Let's see what you have to say...

I am cleaning up my 1966 and 1967 sections, and came up with a Ferrari 330 P3/412P page. The next effort is to update the race-centered pages with these entries.

Well how totally gangsta was Petit Le Mans this year? Audi and Pugeout finish 4 seconds apart after ten hours...what more do you want?

Ten years ago the first Petit Le Mans was run, and we've been dealing with the ridiculous split ever since. Let's reflect upon the state of racing in the United States, a decade later...

Call me a fag or whatever, but I do NOT want to watch ugly cars race. Sorry.

As far as models go, I hope Spark does the Lola test version. The BP colors on the black body is sick.

Anyway, I am doing some fill-in work over in the 90's IMSA section. I have some updates to the pre-split 1994-1997 page in honor of the Kyosho Nissan winners...

A brand-new Gulf Diecast page is now available...

I went to Mosport for the ALMS this weekend, and it was twelve kinds of awesome. The only bummer was the insane prices for diecast cars. The new list seems to be $55 for everything, so I left empty handed.

I have the 1000km Nurburgring LMS race streaming on the other terminal, and am passing the boredom... So some cleaned-up versions of the old pages are now avalable in the Reviews section.

I am pissed.

Why in the hell are these Spark Models B-K motorsports Mazda Lolas from the ALMS not available in the US? (The bottom two cars) Really, this is where these cars actually race, and you'd think we would be able to buy models from our "own" series. I blame Spark, the distributors, the team and the ALMS for this insult...

I am developing a whole new style update to have the pages blend better with the frames. I redid the Can-Am page as a test.

The links on the "Reviews" page are now working

Here is a timeline of the FIA Classes from 1966 to 1981. The interesting part is the evolution of the term Group 5. In 1966, it was a touring car designation used for highly modified cars. It then refered to the "sportscars" of the classic Porsche 917/Ferrari 512 era of 1970-1971.

In 1972, Group 5 was for the 3-litre prototypes that had been in Group 6. Finally, in 1976 the final Group 5 designation was for the sihlouette formula cars like the Porsche 935.

The links on the "Reviews" page are now working

Well I have the new Ebbro Porsche 917 from Le Mans 1969, and in honor of the new purchase I redid the late 60's Le Mans page

Welcome to 2007. I'm going to do a major update in the next few weeks. The links from this new site will re-appear as the pages are updated. If you want to hit the old site, go to http://www.diecastsportscar.com/index_old.html.

I once owned a Brumm Ferrari 512M, and sold it as it was truly awful. But along comes this item. They are advertising it as a "special" model, and I wonder if the quality is any better than their normal products. I really like the livery, it has as great 70's West Germany feel.

As if the Minichamps, Brumm, Solido, Auto Art and Minichamps (again) versions of the 1970 Porsche 917K LM winner were not enough, IXO has started pre-production of their units, as evidenced by this model's eBay appearance. The tell-tale "mint without box" means they are probably aiming for a fall release of the proper model. This also shows that IXO is moving in on the Porsche market again, which they seemed to have abandoned when the company changed hands. As far as this model goes, I'd have to see it in person before "upgrading" my collection. I would guess it is far better than the Brumm, and may even have better detailing than the Minichamps. If anything, the decals on this line may end up being more accurate, as the level of historical research seems to be improving industry-wide.

Give me your opinion at: webmaster@diecastsportscar.com

Ebbro is showing their new Porsche 908/2, which in both the Targa Florio 1969 winner and Japan GP versions. While I applaud the effort, I question their marketing stretegy a bit. The Targa winner is probably the most desireable variation possible, and it would have seemed wiser to issue a different model for the "mould launch" and then delay the "must-have" version for a few months.

Anyway, the real payoff will be when someone does a side-by-side with the old BEST version. I'm sure the wheels and engine detail will be a huge leap forward.

Enough emo crap. I've started compiling a Nissan Prototype page. Let me know if you have a list of the various IXO, Ebbro, and Q-model units out there so I can save time cross-referencing. Contact me at webmaster@diecastsportscar.com

To really understand me, you have to realize I currently have an entire room of my house dedicated to Gran Turismo 4. I have the excellent Logitec wheel, and the purpose-designed racing seat by Playseats. Now this gives me an actual feeling (at least in a relative sense) of the cars that I am driving. Recently I experienced the (virtual) thrill of blasting a Nissan Group C car down a chicane-less Mulsanne straight, and was amazed at the incredible braking power, not to mention the suprizing bumpiness of the course.

This was all well and good until I went on to the next race section, where I was to enter a 427 Shelby Cobra. Now like you, I have read what a legendary car this is countless times, and how it beat Ferrari, and how cool these guys looked in their team jackets, etc... Anyway, it turns out that this car actually drives like shit, and has such undersized brakes that most of the 7-litre man-muscle is wasted while you stand on the brake pedal and pray for the damn thing to actually make it through the braking zone. The front-engine layout also contributes to the truck-like handling, and it is no wonder the Shelby team embraced the GT40 design.

So it goes without saying that because of a video game, I will no longer dream of having a Shelby kit-car in my outer garage. And while the odds of me actually owning even a crappy Cobra replica were remote at best, it is more than a little bit sad that I am no longer attracted to them...

Wonders never cease. I do a full update to the 1967 Le Mans Page, and not ten minutes later I learn that Bizzarre are going to do a Mirage M1.

In keeping with the idea of marque-themed pages, there is now a Ferrari 330P4 Prototype Page.