Another topper is on tap by Amalgam. New and limited in the 1:8 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder SWB 1960. Amalgam does provide images of the available Red and Blue, each delicious in their own light… The model does look the part but lacking attention to opening doors and rear cargo. At well north of $15,000 US each this is a must!
About the Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder SWB… “Considered to be one of the most beautiful cars to ever emerge from the fabled workshop of Ferrari, the Ferrari 250GT California Spyder has been hailed over and over as perhaps the finest motoring experience imaginable, epitomizing ‘la dolce vita’, the sweet life. With its stunning bodywork designed by Pininfarina and masterfully executed by Scaglietti, the car was a collaboration of the very best. It was borne out of an idea cooked up in the late fifties by US Ferrari dealers Luigi Chinetti and John von Neumann to cater to the burgeoning market in North America. Realizing that a convertible would satisfy the currently mutually exclusive combination of the Tour de France performance and a yearning for the excitement and glamour of an open-top Ferrari, Chinetti and von Neumann took their concept to Maranello, and the Spyder variant of the 250GT Berlinetta Tour de France was born.
The Italian stable threw top-drawer styling at the concept, enlisting Pininfarina and Scaglietti with the brief to create an open-top design with space for two people and their luggage within the racing bred performance of the Tour de France. The first Spyders were built on the original 2600mm wheelbase, known as the long-wheelbase (LWB), before Ferrari introduced a shorter wheelbase version (SWB) of the 250 GT Berlinetta at 2400mm in 1959. Scaglietti revealed the 250 GT California Spyder SWB at the 1960 Geneva Motor Show, its body pulled more tautly over this updated chassis. Like the Berlinetta on which it was based, the revised Spyder also received disc brakes and a 276 hp (280 PS) version of the 2,953cc Colombo Tipo 125 V12 engine. Just 56 examples of the GT short-wheelbase Spyders were built and were to be mainly spotted in the period on the French Riviera and in Hollywood, in the hands of famed actors such as Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, and James Coburn. The race car on which the whole concept was based represented the most remarkable competition success for the prancing horse, with N.A.R.T. (the North American Racing Team) achieving fifth place overall at the 1959 edition of Le Mans. Driven by Bob Grossman and Fernand Tavano, the car averaged a speed of over 165 miles per hour across the full 24 hours, including pit stops, and was beaten only by two Aston Martin sports racing cars and two Ferrari competition coupes.”
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US$15,000+ for effectively a sealed model!? That’s just plain lazy and shows complete contempt for collectors. Nice looking as it may be, and clearly there’s a limited market willing to pay this much for a model, but seriously…….
The fact is for that kind of money you can buy some very very decent new or used car. And they all come with full 360° access. Just saying.
First, i totally get this point, and myself i think this is way overpriced for what it seems, plus being this scale it’s really too niche, and just not that exciting, than, say, CMC model which you can get for way less, and have less problems with storage etc.
But, my actual point is – i’m really getting tired of argument “you can get decent used car for this”. That argument always appears when someone mentions his passion for diecast collection, and lately especially with simracing equipment. Yes, you can get a decent used car instead of big and detailed Ferrari model, or instead of a good simracing gear. But for what purpose? If you wanted a super detailed Ferrari model, or a simracing rig in the first place. I guess when someone came to conclusion that they wanna spend this amount of money into something like this, the “why” is well-thought by this point. Ok, so you’re buying a good used car instead. So it has a completely different purpose, and also with buying this car for this amount of money, you’re buying a long-term subscription for spending same amount of money a year/two for the repairs and maintaince. In case of simracing gear – you’re either buying a gear that’ll be in your home for years, with unlimited track time available at your will, even if it’s in a virtual form, or spending this money on a track car and 1 track day. And after each track day there comes huge bill for repairs and upgrades. And this is the best case scenario, i.e. if you don’t run out of talent and crash your track car.
Sorry for a long rant, but comparing those is just like comparing apples with oranges once again.
Having said that, still this model kinda sucks for me. And I’m not really sure if it’ll hold the resell value, being so niche, i wouldn’t “invest” in those either.
Of course there was a bit of a joke in my words. I don’t even dare to make a raw sum of all the money I spent in models and compare to what my real car cost. My only excuse being I’d probably recoup more money from selling my models over a period of time then from selling my real car. And of course since Amalgam are still in business they obviously do have a customer base that consider their models good value enough to buy them. Although me too I’m inclined to have doubts about the resale values of such models, but then again, what do I know?
And since you write about CMC, well when I see such models by Amalgam going for such chunks of money, I can’t resist and think how many beautiful models I would rather buy instead of that single Amalgam. And yes, I’m yet again comparing apples with oranges, but, you know, they’re both pretty much round-ish fruits ;D
Heh yep, i’ve also imagined that i’ll get all my wishlist models instead of this one. But having said all that, it’s still an impressive model and work of art, and for some it’ll be very valuable for sure.
It seems to me that the size of the wheels is not the correct. They look very small