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Grinbergs' little red italian cars...

50K views 333 replies 45 participants last post by  grinbergs 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Well... new here, and as a start I thought I'd show some of my "old" cars, these are mostly the cars I had bought some time ago, before a long break in my collection for ten years or so. I have recently started to collect some more so I will try to update in a somewhat chronological order... First the Ferraris...


At first I bought only Ferrari models in all kinds of scales, this was in the late 80's, in the early 90's I continued to buy some in mainly 1:43.















 
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#2 ·
To start off the presentation of some of the more recent cars in my collection, I thought I'd begin with the actual car that was the spark that ignited my interest for models after some 10 years of absence from collecting.

It was this spring when I was standing in line, waiting for my turn at the cash desk at a local supermarket, when I saw a couple of small red toy cars from Hot wheels. I picked them up and suddenly remembered that I hadn't bought a model for ages... Later at home I went into the garage and looked for the boxes in which all my previous models where kept, took them out... went to IKEA and bought a small cabinet for them to have a dedicated place in my study. This was in January last winter...

It was this little car that restarted the whole thing at the local supermarket...



A Ferrari 458 from Hot wheels....

Now this scale, 1:64, proved to be ideal to (re)begin collecting - first of all, they are fairly cheap (!), secondly - they don't take up much space in a cabinet, and thirdly - I find them quite nice anyway.
They of course leave much to be desired if looking at the finish, accuracy and attention to detail in an objective way - but they compensate that by being charming in a rustic, simplistic and naivistic way... I like them and keep looking for new ones... They are indeed not scale models but toys - but still collectible.... Here are some more of my Hot wheels ferraris (I will post some of other italian cars in 1:43 later on...):


The 360 Modena


This is a nice interpretation of the 156 F1 racer, the tires are of course way to low in profile and wide... but still this is what I meant with "charm" above...


More racing Ferraris, - the 512 M, and the 333 SP, and below the P4




Another classic - the 250 GTO. The beauty of the original's lines hasn't been lost in this miniature version - and how many collectible diecasts can be bought in your local supermarket for around 2 dollars?


The 430 spider, here with the classic 308 GTS - and who doesn't remember Magnum P.I. driving around one of those, and how cool his car was when I was growing up, looking at TV...



A triplet of Ferrari Enzo... These are all three Hot wheels but from different series, the one on the left is the so called "toon"- series with highly exaggerated wheels and proportions, yet again I fall for the childish charm of this one..., the one in the middle is their slightly more exclusive "Speed Machines" series, and the one one right is their "standard" issue


The Daytona... and below a more modern version of the concept...


The Ferrari 599...
 
#3 ·
That's a formidible sea of red diecast grinbergs....
very impressive, thanks for sharing...
 
#4 ·
Thank you mairandeddy!


Now it is time to turn to the "non-Ferrari" italian makers... and now we are looking at models in 1:43 for a while...


.... and what better way to start than with Ferraris old rival...? and what better than the Countach, which may not be the prettiest of them all, but oh what an iconic design and dream car for us that grew up in the eighties...


This one is from Del Prado


The Countach's predecessor was a much more beautiful and clean design, the Miura. This one is from IXO.




... and the Jarama... it was made in the beginning of the seventies and in modest numbers, it had a 3.9 liters V12 so it was a fairly potent car this one too....This one is from Minichamps, and have a rear window that need adjustment I can see now from the picture...

And over to Lancia... soon to be more of them I hope, the Stratos for example...

This one may be a less extreme sport coupé than the above Ferraris and Lamborghinis.... this is a rare car on the streets, most of them I guess became brown powder of rust on som parking lot some years ago... The Lancia 2000 HF coupé, -71. It was interesting from two points of view - because it had a 2 litre boxer engine, and also because it shared its dashboard with Ferrari 365 GT

 
#5 ·
Some more cars that aren't that extreme.... Fiat has made a lot of nice cars, most of them in my view in the sixties and seventies... My first car was a Fiat...


I have two cars that are from the Fiat/Abarth collaboration. First off is the Fiat Abarth OTS 1000, from 1965

This beautiful mini-car is mostly seen in traffic as Fiat 850 coupé with a smaller engine, the Abarth 1000 version was a high-performance version that had 75 hp - which would be sufficient to get oneself into trouble and some hectic moments since the car is rear engined and had oversteering potential...


The second Abarth car in collection is the 750 Monza 1958:

This is truly a miniature even in scale 1:1, it was based on Fiat 600 and was rear engined this one too...


...on the race tracks in Europe it was a competitor for the Porsche 356 but it was never produced in high numbers since it was considerably more expensive to buy than for example the Porsches
 
#6 ·
Moving on... to my favourite marque of the italian makers... Alfa Romeo. I have never owned one myselft, but I was close att two times to buy one. First a Alfa GTV6 and later a Alfa 75 3.0V6 - at both times I was thrilled with the handling and music from the engine... at both times the cars were pretty new but already showed big problems with quality... So I bought some BMW's 3-series instead - not as much charm, but more reliable...


Alfa Romeo Guilia T.I Super 1963




Alfa Romeo Guilia TZ2 1965


Alfa Romeo 147, 3,2 V6 in a racecup-version


The classic Bertone coupé, Alfa GTA 1600 1965...


the Alfetta GT, which is one of my all time favorite designs. If I remember this right I think it is Giorgetto Giugiaro that is responsible for it and it is indeed a design that has proven to be timeless. I will try to get another one in a clean "non-racing" mode later - but here it is in a rallye version:

Alfa's racing cars are of course something I will search more for, but below is another favorite of mine I found recently on swedish ebay


This is an Alfa Tipo 33.2 from 1967



 
#7 ·
Alfa 75 turbo Evoluzione. It is in my view a great design, but I know that many people think otherwise about the Alfa 75... Nevertheless it was the last Alfa to have rear wheel drive and therefore in many's view the "last real Alfa"...


I have built a little "mini-studio" out of a black box and a sheet of glass... I think it works rather well, still experimenting with it...



The car is in 1:43 and is from some "no-name" chinese maker...


One last shot from outdoors too...
 
#9 ·
Thank you for your kind comment - indeed the 75 is a favourite for me, glad you liked it too.


I will try to buy som 1:18 in the future - then I hope to reach another level of "realism" also in the photos. It is almost the other half of the fun in this hobby... experimenting and trying to take decent photos of the cars. :)
 
#10 ·
And now some fresh arrivals from two days ago...


A Maserati Merak in 1:43 from DeAgostini. This car featured a V6 engine which it shared with the odd Citroen SM. Now the Merak never had especially much power (often below 200hp) and was a little bit on the heavy side... but it is stunningly beautiful in it's clean 70´s midengine sportcar shape.


The next car is the Lancia Stratos - 74 from Edison Giocattoli in 1:43. This car also shared its V6 with another car - it was borrowed by Lancia from the Ferrari 246 Dino... If I remember correctly, Top Gear nominated this car to be their "all time" favorite of all cars....
 
#12 · (Edited by Moderator)
Thank you Norms! And the sea keeps expanding.. :)

New additions:

Firstly a model that I think is kind of ugly really...
... but it is a welcome addition to represent the "modern front-wheel drive Alfa Romeos" which I am not all that fond of anyway. But I do like these "budget" models too in their simple but honest execution. This is an Alfa 156 Hatchback in 1:43 from a no-name chinese maker. I found it in a shop on my way home from work.



Next up is a Simca Abarth 2000 GT 1963...

... but what is this now?... you might think...
has he gone crazy?... Simca is a FRENCH car, isn't it. How does that fit into the italian collection?

Well this car was indeed based on Simca parts, but the car was designed and manufactured by italian company Abarth in Italy. This car had with its 200 hp the ability to keep up and sometimes beat the contemporary rivals, like the Porsche 904 and even Ferrari GTO - the top speed was an impressive 270 km/h, for instance.



... and it is quite stunning too... this model is in 1:43 from Hachette/Metro


Rear-engined...

Next car is a model I've been looking for a long time. It is a car that I had the privilege and pleasure of getting to ride in as a passenger on a swedish race track a beautiful day in the 90's. An experience hard to forget - and the sound from the engine, the Italian V8..


The car in question is the Maserati Bora:


It replaced the front engined Ghibli in 1971 when Maserati realized that the customers for future sports cars wanted mid engines - like the Lamborghini Miura had released earlier....



... The Bora was a less extreme sports car though, and more of a gran turismo in the mold of the contemporary modern. These car had a 4,9 litre V8 with about 300+ hp. This model is from IXO and in 1:43
 
#13 · (Edited by Moderator)
Today the postman was at my door - "you have another package today...", and maybe the postman wished that he could just deliver small envelopes and not all these weird little packages from HongKong, Germany or USA...


This day the package contained a Ferrari I have been looking forward to receiving... and a somewhat odd Lancia

The Ferrari is the 250 GT SWB


In my view, this is the most gorgeous of all front engined Ferraris, even more so than the GTO and Daytona for instance...


This one is from Hot Wheels Elite, and in 1:43

The next car is perhaps not as fast and ridiculously beautiful, but eqally interesting from some aspects... The Lancia Fulvia Sport 1.3 from the late sixties is a truly interesting design from one of the most characteristic designers in Italy - Zagato. I like the slightly mad about everything from Zagato...


This car featured a 1.3 litre V4 engine with approximately 90 hp...



This model is from Starline in 1:43.
 
#14 ·
Some Alfa Romeos finished this weeks collecting... :)



How square can a car become... ? Well this is as close enough... in profile it almost looks like when children draws pictures of their first cars... I like the functional simplicity in this design..

The Alfa Romeo 1750... From Starline models in 1:43


Next car is the Giulietta Spider Veloce, and this single seater is a real beauty I think...



The Giulietta is a very beautiful car i its coupé and normal convertible versions... but this is even better...




From Metro models in 1:43
 
#17 ·
Nice tiny models to bad they dont have that much choice in 1:18 .... welcome here
Thank you! And yes, it is easier to find a broad range of models in 1:43 than 1:18. My goal is to have a quantitative aproach in 1:43 to get as much of the models that I like in my collection. Then to add the ones that are my REAL favorites in 1:18 :)

That 156 SW is made by New Ray, it is sold somwhere without New Ray logo on the bottom.
Yes, knez - you are right, I looked at the box and there was a New Ray badge on it, on the model itself it says nothing. Very sharp of you to recognize that. :)
 
#18 · (Edited by Moderator)
I was thinking about finding somewhere to display pictures of my models in a somewhat strucured way that would be easy to browse in... I don't know but here is a try. I have not uploaded all my cars here, just the ones i have had time to Photograph in my little "mini-studio". I have this "jalbum"-thing on trial so in about a month I would have to pay to keep building the albums... :)

Let me know what you think and if there are better ways...

Here is the link http://jalbum.net/a/1050022/
 
#19 ·
Got another Zagato designed Lancia Yesterday

The Appia Zagato is a stunning coupé from 1961 - yet again Zagato proves to be one of my favorite design houses of Italy... sometimes just elegant and beautiful, sometimes just crazy...






This one is from Norev in 1:43
 
#21 ·
As you said, too beautiful to look at or just crazy, but still my favorite, this Lancia is simply crazy enough to be beautiful, i am looking for a blue one, but the red is quite rare.
Indeed knez! I have seen some blue ones out there, its a good colour for this Lancia too. :)
 
#22 ·
Updating my Ferrari collection with a car I wanted to get a long time. The 365 GTC/4 is in my view perhaps an even better looking car than the Daytona... but I know most people think otherwise...




This one is from IXO in 1:43

 
#24 ·
it is quite high on my wish list.
But you would prefer it in some other colour than red - if I remember right?


Next three cars came yesterday and have a common theme... or several themes... one is that they all come from almost unknown italian makers like Ferrari, Lamborghini etc... Another common thread is their connection to the classical race Mille Miglia in Italy.

First is the beautiful soapshaped Stanguellini 1100 from 1948, and it is hard to believe it is from -48 when looking at the timeless lines...


From Starline models 1:43


Next is the Osca MT4 from 1957, and it has a little "italian shelby cobra" over its lines... don't you think?


Starline 1:43


Last but not least is the Cisitalia 202 from 1950, the only coupé in this gang...


Also from Starline, 1:43


That is all for now... and oh - another Lancia is on the way....
 
#26 ·
You got a lot of sweet 1/43 models. Can you retract the headlights on the Miura? Is that IXO or Del Prado?

You took a great shot at the 365 GTC/4. that would makes an ideal desktop wallpaper. :) I have the Ferrari collection part work subscription and the GTC4 is part of the collection and I look forward to receiving that model. Can't remember what colour it will be in though.
 
#27 ·
Thank you jazzy for your kind comment on the 365 GTC/4... the pictures hide a major flaw with that model. It has a big crack in the front window, but I managed to "repair" it somewhat in photoshop. The Miura is from IXO and the headlights don't move at all - I had to check that when you asked... :)
 
#28 ·
my only complain for the GTC4 is the mounting stub on the headlights. :( Other than that little imperfection i think the model itself is quite well detailed. These sort of detailing is the reason why i am attracted to 1/43 scale models.

Would be great if that IXO miura has retractable headlamps. Nonetheless it is still a stunning model.
 
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