Motorsport History In Minature

[Roger Dowding]

Growing up in New Zealand in the 1950's Diecast or indeed any models were hard to come by.
Shipments of mainly " Dinky " Toys and " Matchbox " Toys came in as import licences permitted.
Corgi, Triang - Spot On, and others were seen at times.

My go to shop was " Martins " in Custom Street, just along from where my father worked at Briscoe and Company, and when I first started work for ANZ bank in January 1966, it was in the Customs Street - just along from Martins, how convenient ..

I had been gathering Dinky and Matchbox for many years and " Micro Models " - made by Lincoln Industries, too.
Micro Models were made under licence from the Australian " Micro Models " Company

Came across these images recently and they are something I have never seen before.

- " Matchbox " Toys made by the same Lincoln Industries, in New Zealand. - the serial numbers on the boxes are very
different to Matchbox UK which were originally number " 1 to 75 " for the " regular " series.





Does anyone know much about them ??.

On the post there was a link to a Robert Newsom in the UK .. who had some details of " Matchbox Toys Downunder ".

" http://www.robertnewson.co.uk/articl...nMatchbox.html ".

One of my " winter " jobs this year will be to finish a Matchbox scale Diorama with a little bit of Model railway in it and also to repaint / repair and make this " Matchbox E - Type Jaguar #32 " as the Scott Wiseman now Kent Larsen winged E-Type.



Will need input from " Chaindrive " about the huge wing !!

Note ; details on the top photo - it is, of course a Landrover not a GP " Jeep "

[Roger Dowding]

Tom Colby is an Austin Healey guy I met at the AH Snowmass Colorado USA, 30th Anniversary event in July 1982.
Tom now runs the " Speedwell " business in the USA specialising in modified Austin Healey Sprites.

He also likes Slot Cars it would seem..



Good to see the Lola T70 and a Bill Thomas Cheetah in the pits.
Have both in 1;43 scale The Cheetah by Spark and the Lola is it #30 by " Best " - described as the Bardahl Special with a 305 ci Ford - built by Gurney Weslake - Dan Gurney, at Bridgehampton 1966 the other version I have in Blue is #98 also by " Best " but with the same stripes and roll bar, as driven by Parnelli Jones at Riverside 1966.

[Roger Dowding]

Got this in Australia - standard " Hotwheels " at AUD 2.00 [ usually NZD 3.50 here at home.
Didn't think much about until I looked at the Number Plate -
It is the Original Coombs Mk1 Jaguar 3.4 litre - as raced by John Coombs and currently with Grant Williams.
HW should market it as a Series model.



Another version of the Model with Roy Salvadori as the driver - a Kitset



Looking for images of the Real Car racing in period - 1959 - 60

[Milan Fistonic]

I took this photo of the car at Goodwood in 2019.

[ERC]

And in 2000, 2018 and 2021... Always a crowd favourite.

[Roger Dowding]

Milan and ERC, thanks for those. have " borrowed " with appropriate note as to the " owner / photographer ". Cheers Guys, Roger

[Roger Dowding]

Appreciated the photos from Milan and ERC [ Ray ] of BUY1.
Have opened the bubble and the car has some details, the louvres on the bonnet are an example.

a few images.
- a bit like the " Dull Mens Club " but in miniature.



The Driver came from a set of the BRE Team Datsun / Nissan in the USA - full face helmet.







The BRE Team, looks like the / A " Manager " with his arms folded, Driver holding his helmet and the two [ of Four people ] mechanics are waiting.

[Milan Fistonic]

Another one from 2019 showing some of the cars it was racing against.

[Roger Dowding]

The " BUY1 " Jaguar Mk1 - Coombs modified 1959 model.
Have just had a look at a couple websites and the Hotwheels model is for sale at Euro 6.99 up to NZ$26.00.
- [ NZD 21 to 26 on an NZ site.]

[tonttu]

Above shows the 1/43rd diecasts of Paddon & Kennard most/all of which are still available and which you'll have all seen. The Evo though I completely forgot about and found one on Ebay in Russia of all places. This turned out to be just before the World went into lockdown in 2020. Ebay tracker showed it in a distribution centre in Moscow and there it seemed to stay until about 6 weeks after we came out of lockdown it suddenly arrived but still showed it was in the Moscow distribution centre and remained so for some months afterwards...

But you may not have seen these ....



The Fiesta S200 from the ERC Ypres Rally in 2013; the first rally (I think) with his new co-driver Seb Marshall Estonia 2018 (the white i20); then perhaps his 2nd most important car, the Subaru in which he and Kennard won the world championship with and last in the group their 2023 ERC winning Hyundai. I have the decal set for their 2024 championship car along with decal sets for 2 Skoda's they competed in so those will be for the coming year. All these 1/43rd decal sets are still available I think so give it a try! There are also a 1/24th Skoda and Fiesta which I have but yet to complete. And yep that is the DDB Needham Sierra bodyshell in the background.

More Escorts


Alan Carter. What happened to him, anyone know? I understand he was competing in Nth America in the early 1980's. Anyway the above shows the 1/43rd diecast of his Escort from the RAC in 1977 and the class winning KFC car from 1979. This was one of a small batch by a small English company, whose name now escapes me, again from back in the 1980's. And lastly the world's most famous Escort? (https://dirtfish.com/rally/the-world...us-mk2-escort/)) Well Dirtfish think so. This is Ostberg from the Otago Classic Rally 2017 but still requires conversion to left hand drive and the roof vent to be installed. A decal set is also available for when Marko Martin drove it. A French company also produced a nice diecast of the car representing Auriol's 2014 drive but it's no longer available. And my interest in the car? The owner and I started our first rally together in the 1974 Canterbury Rally in a Cooper and then competed in the Canterbury Rally in 2024 in the Escort to celebrate 50 years of competing. Kris Meeke had won the Otago Classic Rally a few months before so the car was capable but two 70+ yr olds were just out to have fun!

And more!


Lastly in this batch are the Woolmark Escorts from The Heatway of 1973, 1st and 2nd. These decals were scaled down from sets produced specifically for the ESCI 1/24th Escort and fit quite well. I know there is an error with the Marshall bonnet black patch as it should go below the “Ford” letters but if I didn’t tell you you probably wouldn’t have picked it!