A unique scale model of a unique car, the Tailor Made Ferrari 812 Competizione, has fetched an astonishing $90K at Ferrari North America’s auction for charity in New York City
       
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Bristol, UK, 20th of October 2023
Alongside the auction of the real car that fetched $5.1 million, a unique scale model of the car, handcrafted and donated by the Bristol UK company Amalgam Collection, has raised $90,000 for the Ferrari Foundation at auction. The Ferrari Gala Dinner and Auction was held in The Shed at Hudson Yards in New York City earlier this week. All proceeds of the auction at the heart of this exclusive event, celebrating the world’s most loved car brand, will be used to fund the education support projects that are the focus of the New York based Ferrari Foundation’s charitable activities.
At the event Ferrari F1 drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were to be seen deeply observing and admiring the model.
The unique 1:8 scale model measures over 58 centimetres (23 inches) long and was crafted and assembled in the workshops of Amalgam Collection from 651 handmade parts. Using original CAD data supplied by Ferrari Centro Stile, Amalgam’s artisans were able to perfectly recreate every refined detail of the unique Tailor Made 812 Competizione. The car itself was also auctioned and fetched an extraordinary $5 million. For the Amalgam Collection model, original automotive paints were precisely mixed to accurately match the real car’s matte Giallo Tristrato exterior, the final exquisite touch being the application of meticulously scaled down artwork in matte Nero DS Sketch. The model’s doors open to reveal an interior that precisely recreates the art inside the real car, including the new-generation Alcantara® covering the cockpit and the black trilobal Superfabric® used for the carpet and rear wall. Many hours of skilled work have been spent capturing the art from the car and applying every detail and nuance accurately onto the one-off model, which only received the approval of Chief Design Officer Flavio Manzoni and his design team once they were fully satisfied with its accuracy of representation.
Sandy Copeman, Director of Brand at Amalgam, said: “While our models are often described as works of art, and are indeed artistic in their creation, in truth, since they deliver the essence of the cars they represent, the ultimate beauty of the model is fully dependent on the beauty of the car. In this case, the car is not only a work of finely engineered and sculpted art, but in addition the painting of the car is a complementary work of fine art that tells the story of the design process.”
The real car itself is a celebration of the passion and artistry of Ferrari Centro Stile. Inspired by the concept of a blank sheet, which is how the Ferrari Styling Centre starts its creative research for every new model, the Tailor Made 812 Competizione is one of just 999 Ferrari 812 Competizione cars built, a limited and extremely exclusive series intended for collectors and enthusiasts of the world's most exciting twelve cylinder. Commissioned by Ferrari North America specifically for the Ferrari Foundation Gala Dinner and Auction, the car has been imagined as one of the now iconic yellow cards on which Maranello designers transfer their first ideas, insights and notes from mind to paper. The design perfectly captures the balance between the flawless technical realization and artistic craftsmanship that originate from Flavio Manzoni’s drawings.
Copeman continued: “The subject of the model is rich with a celebration of the designer’s passion and artistry, and we believe we have done this very special car justice with our perfectly detailed and painted model, that took many hundreds of skilled hours to execute.”
Amalgam’s astonishingly realistic and deeply detailed large-scale models are already widely recognised by Ferrari owners worldwide, and this unique Tailor Made 812 Competizione model extends the close cooperation between Ferrari and Amalgam that has flourished since 1998. “The passion and artistry that Ferrari bring to creating the most exciting cars in the world, ignites an equal passion in the team at Amalgam to create models that deserve their place alongside the beautiful works of engineered art emerging from Maranello,” Copeman adds: “When Amalgam were invited to get involved and bring along a unique model to be auctioned alongside a very special Ferrari 812 Competizione, with the aim of generating significant funds for the Ferrari Foundation, it was our pleasure and honour to come to the party with something very special too.”
The full Amalgam Collection catalogue can be found at www.amalgamcollection.com.
Flavio Manzoni the Chief Design Officer who leads the Centro Stile design team at Ferrari who designed the livery is seen here capturing the model with his phone camera
The doors of the model open to reveal the beautifully detailed interior of the model
It's hard to believe this is not the real car. Every detail of the driver’s environment is perfectly reproduced
The model measures around 2 feet in length (0.6 metres)
Every detail of the art designed by Ferrari’s Centro Stile has been captured perfectly by Amalgam
The model is a unique one-of-one capturing the Tailor Made 812 Competizione
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High resolution images can be found here >
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Director of Brand and Business Development: Sandy Copeman sandy.copeman@amalgam.com
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ABOUT AMALGAM COLLECTION AND THEIR HISTORY
- Amalgam are recognised worldwide as makers of the finest hand-made large-scale models. Their work is unique in its attention to detail, with a focus on creating models that truly capture the style and spirit of each car. They have dedicated all their skill and passion to achieving a level of excellence that raises the impact and value of each finished piece to a level far above anything previously created.
- For owners of cars they have already modelled at 1:8 in a limited edition, for which the tooling already exists, they offer a tailormade service, customising a model to perfectly match the specification of the real car.
- For owners of unique very high value cars, Amalgam Collection offer an even bigger 1:5 or 1:4 ‘one-off’ model build from their UK workshops in Bristol, England. They will digitally scan the car wherever it is in the world and take up to a thousand pictures of every detail, allowing them to perfectly and accurately replicate everything at scale. Given the significant number of hours required to develop a unique model the costs are high, so the model is built at a very large scale to maximise the impact and detail, and to deliver the ultimate finished piece.
Amalgam Collection’s design, management and development heart is in England, with extraordinarily skilled and dedicated teams producing the bigger editions in Hungary and China. They are a multinational, multicultural team of crafts-men and women, dedicated to creating the world’s most precise, beautiful and exclusive models. Inspired by the F1 teams and iconic luxury car marques of England and Italy that they serve and partner with, they take huge pride in their mission to perfectly capture the designs, and honour the designers, drivers and creators of the automotive art they love.
Originally a partnership of four talented model-makers formed in 1985, from the start Amalgam created finely tuned models for the most important UK and German designers and architects. Working closely with Norman Foster’s team on the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank and on the Hong Kong Airport project was a fast, steep learning curve which quickly opened their eyes to subtle aesthetics and refined engineering. Working with such gifted architects their passion and desire to model the very best designs was ignited, which in due course led them to Williams F1 and Adrian Newey who were dominating the F1 championship in 1995, then on to Maranello and to the massively important design heritage of Enzo Ferrari in 1999, and latterly to the works of Pininfarina and Ettore Bugatti.
The seminal performance and luxury car designers of the early to mid-20th century were obsessed with achieving ever higher speeds, lighter and more powerful engines, more streamlined bodies, an impassioned quest that inevitably resulted in elegant and beautiful solutions as a consequence of stretching the supreme excellence of the craftsmanship and engineering to the very limits of what could be achieved at the time.
The companies that today bear these iconic names continue to be inspired, and their creativity is still fuelled, by the extraordinary passion and genius of their founders. Amalgam Collection too find inspiration in the creations of the founders and their companies who continue to design and create automotive artworks.
Recognising the beauty and importance of these designs Amalgam Collection have utterly dedicated their energy and passion to modelling these cars to a level of accuracy, precision and excellence that raises the finished replica to a level far beyond anything previously created. Amalgam have chosen to work at a scale of 1:8 which is widely acknowledged to be the most satisfying scale to comprehend the entirety of a car’s design at a glance, whilst in addition showing the most minute details.
To create perfect scale replicas of modern cars they use original CAD data supplied by the manufacturer and work closely with the design team to perfect their rendition of the interior and exterior finishes.
With regard to classics, in their quest for supreme accuracy and authenticity Amalgam’s team goes to great lengths to locate the best examples of original cars and digitally scans them to capture the precise shape and proportions of every part of the car including the chassis, engine and drive train. In addition, 600 to 800 photographs of every aspect and detail of each car are shot, to ensure a complete understanding of the finishes and detailing. The resulting models beautifully and precisely capture the entirety of the original and are impossible to discern from a real car in photographs.
Amalgam is the only maker of model cars in the world that can be considered alongside a maker of luxury watches like Richard Mille or Hublot. In fact, Richard Mille is an Amalgam patron who recognising a shared passion for engineering detail and perfection has commissioned from Amalgam Collection many unique models of his own cars and those he sponsors.
HOW THE MODELS ARE CREATED
- The patterns are created using original CAD from the manufacturer, or extraordinarily accurate digital scans and hundreds of photographs of an original classic car.
- The patterns are used to create silicon rubber moulds that capture every detail.
- Prototyping resin is used to cast the parts from the silicon moulds. Around 20 to 30 parts can be cast from each mould and then a new one must be made.
- Each model is built from thousands of parts: castings, photo-etchings and CNC machined metal components.
- Genuine car paints and manufacturer or archive colour references are used to spray the bodywork.
- It takes between 2,500 and 4,500 hours to develop the tooling for each model.
- It takes between 250 and 450 hours to cast, fit, fettle, paint and build each model.
Every Amalgam Fine Model Car is made entirely by hand from thousands of parts. Detailed original CAD data is supplied by the car's manufacturer or the race team of the car to be modelled. The process of developing each model and creating the master patterns takes between 2,500 and 4,500 hours of skilled work depending on the complexity of the car, with classic cars taking the longest.
In the case of the classic cars an extremely accurate digital scan is made of the car, and hundreds of photographs of all the details of a carefully selected original car are taken, to ensure complete accuracy and adherence to the authentic finishes and materials. Many parts of the model are machined from metal with the major components hand cast from prototyping resin. Each model is individually assembled by a small team of highly skilled model-makers. In total the time taken to machine, cast, hand fettle, paint, polish and assemble each model is between 250 and 450 hours of highly skilled work depending on the complexity of the car.
The finished model is a very precise scale replica of the original car with every detail perfectly and authentically represented at an 8th of the original size. This is modelling elevated to such a high level that it becomes an art form.
Since 1995 Amalgam have been admired and hugely respected by leading designers and engineers in the European automotive industry, as well as F1 designers, drivers and team principals. Amalgam's models appear on the desks of CEOs and presidents of the world's most important car companies. Due to the extreme accuracy and authenticity of Amalgam's creations, made in small limited editions, they are also much sought after by devoted collectors of fine handmade objects across Europe and in the USA.
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