Sports Car Digest is taking a break for the holidays, but we will be back in the New Year with the latest and greatest from the classic car world, including previews of Arizona Auction Week, a profile of the 1971 24 Hours of Daytona by Louis Galanos and much more. In the interim, we will update the site each day next week with stories that--for whatever reason--were not published in a timelier manner earlier … [Read more...]
Reviews of books, model cars and automobilia, plus stories and information about other automotive collectibles.
1952 Charly 1005 by Schuco – Model Car Profile
By Will Silk In 1952, Schuco Toys of Nuremburg, Germany released a tin toy motorcycle powered by a wind-up clock spring that was known as Charly 1005. Fifty-eight years later, Schuco is re-releasing this classic tin motorcycle in a limited batch of 2000 pieces. Schuco gained fame throughout the 1930s when the company began producing scale cars made out of tin that were powered by a clock spring. After the … [Read more...]
Sports Car Digest Holiday Gift Guide 2010
By Will Silk It's that time of year again when the sound of unrestricted race engines at full song begins to grow faint as yet another year in the collector car hobby and vintage racing scene draws to a close. With it comes the holiday season, which is why we have compiled the 2010 Holiday Gift Guide to assist readers in getting a head start on the next great race, the shopping race that continues through December … [Read more...]
AACA Hershey Annual Fall Classic 2010 – Report
Report and photos by Will Silk The Antique Automobile Club of America held its annual Eastern Fall Swap Meet and Collector Car Corral from October 6-9, 2010 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Hershey is known as the sweetest place on earth due to the chocolate bars that are made there; but every October, Hershey becomes the mecca for collector car enthusiasts with a four-day extravaganza of classic automobiles, parts, and … [Read more...]
Porsche 935K3 by True Scale Miniatures – Model Car Profile
By Will Silk True Scale Miniatures is a relatively new company to the world of scale sports car models, having been founded five years ago in Chino, California. It wasn’t until recently that the company began to venture into making 1:43 and 1:18 scale replicas of sports and racing cars after a few years of producing scale models of Snap-On Tools. Their first attempt is featured here, a 1:18 scale Porsche 935K3 … [Read more...]
2011 Vintage Car Racing Calendars For Sale
Well in advance of the holidays, Sports Car Digest and Senior Photographer Dennis Gray have produced a pair of vintage racing calendars for 2011, one with images taken at the Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival and another created from Monterey Motorsports Reunion pictures. Ferrari, Bugatti, Shelby, Scarab, Porsche, Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo, Lola and more are featured in our calendars, a high-quality piece … [Read more...]
Success for Automobilia Monterey 2010
By Will Silk One of the many highlights for enthusiasts attending the Monterey Week is the annual Automobilia Monterey event, held August 10-11, 2010 at the Embassy Suites in Seaside, California. Celebrating its 8th anniversary this year, the focus of Automobilia Monterey has always been to present a place where car collectors can immerse themselves in genuine automobilia, the rare artifacts that manufacturers … [Read more...]
Griffith 200 by Automodello – Model Car Profile
By Will Silk A new diecast company has joined the world of sports car replication in scale. Automodello of Buffalo Grove, Illinois, USA has emerged with the debut of a 1:43 scale replica of perhaps the most feared 1960s sports car ever to turn a wheel on public roads, the Griffith 200. The story of the Griffith is one of sports car manufacturing’s wilder ones. The early 1960s was a splendid time to be a … [Read more...]
Collecting Toy Cars: A Healthy Addiction
By Paul Chenard, Racing History Collector and Illustrator I've been collecting vintage toys since 1982. I started slowly and methodically, partly for lack of information, mostly for lack of finances.I used to collect any metal transportation toy that I found interesting, anything that caught my eye (and that I could afford). In the late 80s, a Canadian-made Chime tin wind-up race car toy from about 1935 came into … [Read more...]
Automobilia Monterey
The 6th annual Automobilia Monterey again showed why it is a "must-attend" Monterey Week event. In fact, for serious collectors of original, vintage automotive collectibles, it is the event in the United States. Held August 12-13 at the Embassy Suites in Monterey, CA, the 2008 Automobilia Monterey featured more vendors (43) than ever, which is saying something for what was already the largest automobilia show in … [Read more...]
Roger Blanchard – Artist Profile
When Sports Car Digest stumbled upon Roger Blanchard's automotive paintings at this spring's Euros at the Fair, we were struck by Blanchard's detailed comprehension of a wide variety of subject matter, as his art ranges from a Maserati 250F to a Bonneville streamliner to a Porsche 917. And of course, we were also struck by the fact that his art work was very good. … [Read more...]
Ferrari 312 T2 – Model Car Profile
Model: 1975 Ferrari 312 T2 Formula 1 Go Kart Drivetrain: Ducati single cylinder 2 stroke motor Colors: Red/Black Other Information: According to the seller, after Niki Lauda won the 1975 F1 Championship in a Ferrari 312 T2, Ferrari commissioned Italy Cars to build a scaled down replica of the championship winning car to be sold through Ferrari dealerships worldwide. Approximately 100 of these cars were to be … [Read more...]