Bristol, UK, Friday the 12th of November 2021
The artisans at Amalgam Collection today released the details of the most recent addition to their exclusive Race Weathered collection of models, the Ferrari 250 GTO at 1:18 scale. This new edition is based on chassis 3705GT, as raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on the 23rd and 24th of June 1962 by Pierre Noblet and Jean Guichet. The #19 car’s triumph sealed class victory for Ferrari in that season’s International Championship of Manufacturer after five consecutive victories for the marque in just five races.
The special edition is limited to just 250 pieces and each model has been meticulously hand-painted and detailed by the artists in the company’s Bristol workshop to show every detail of the race dirt as seen during one of the car’s final pit stops. The team at Amalgam referred to archival imagery to ensure the completed model is a faithful replica of the real car raced in 1962. Every order will be accompanied by an archive quality A2 square Giclée print of the car during its pit stop, selected by Amalgam from the Motorsport Images collection. The base model was developed using data supplied after scanning an original Series 1 250 GTO, and Ferrari Classiche scrutinised the resulting prototype to ensure complete accuracy of the model. The 1:18 model’s development took over 800 hours and only concluded once the experts at Ferrari Classiche were fully satisfied with the accuracy of representation.
The first batch of 100 models is currently in progress and collectors now can secure one a model from the first week of December by ordering from the Amalgam website. Founder of Amalgam Collection, Sandy Copeman said “our distinctive race-weathered and race-damaged models are handcrafted in very limited numbers. The artistry applied to these scale replicas is driven by our commitment to creating beautiful hand-made pieces which fully capture both the spirit and precise appearance of iconic race cars. The Ferrari 250 GTO has a place in the heart of motorsport enthusiasts, car collectors and model collectors because it was the perfect blend of beauty and performance. We’re proud to have the opportunity to capture this significant motorsport moment.”
Noblet and Guichet won the GT class at Le Mans comfortably, a huge twelve laps ahead of their closest rival, another 250 GTO run by Equipe Nationale Belge, and sixteen laps ahead of the nearest rival manufacturer. In fact, the #19 car finished second on the overall podium, only five laps behind the outright winners, Olivier Gendebien and Phil Hill in a Ferrari 330 TRI/LM.
The 250 GTO joins the burgeoning Race Weathered Collection and is the third 1:18 scale model to be race weathered by Amalgam, after the 1970 Daytona 24 Hours-winning Porsche 917 and 1966 Le Mans-competing Ferrari 330 P4. The Bristol-based company also has weathered models in its flagship 1:8 scale range, including classic racers such as Sir Stirling Moss’ Mercedes-Benz W196 Monoposto and, most recently, the 1971 Le Mans-winning Porsche 917.
Ben Street, CEO of Amalgam Collection said “our race weathered models have proved incredibly popular, showing the collector market for pieces of automotive history remains strong. The love for the iconic 250 GTO in particular is powerful – the non-weathered edition is one of our most popular pieces – and the additional race weathered detail and limited nature of this special edition will only make it even more precious to our collectors.”
The Amalgam Collection Race Weathered Ferrari 250 GTO at 1:18 is available from www.amalgamcollection.com.
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High resolution images available here >
EDITORS' NOTES:
CONTACTS
Director of Brand and Business Development: Sandy Copeman sandy.copeman@amalgam.com
PR & Media Enquiries: pressandmedia@amalgam.com
Business and Sales Enquiries: enquiries@amalgam.com
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.