Competition Cars

1Why aren't all teams in a particular racing series modelled by the one manufacturer? Top

First up, the actual racing teams must grant licences to the model manufacturers. Sometime teams may ask more in royalties than a model manufacturer may consider worthwhile.

From another perspective, some teams are obviously more popular than others. Some model manufacturers may be satisfied to produce small quantity editions of a particular model, whereas other diecast model companies may only be attracted to the 'bigger' teams.

Yet another angle may relate to the origins of teams, drivers and model manufacturers. For example, one manufacturer may be German based, so their preference for product may align more toward German drivers and/or cars and these could be the types of models that they most want to make.

2How often is a particular competition car made? Top

For each model manufacturer, the established practise is for only one production run of a particular car/driver combination.

However, there have been variations in recent times that have seen alternative special editions, being re-packaged versions of the same model car. This has been evident with IXO's 1:43 scale Le Mans Winner items for example, and situations with other diecast manufacturers include the likes of multiple car presentation sets and signature editions.

There are also circumstances whereby the same car is sometimes replicated in model form by more than one diecast manufacturer. Generally though, most competition cars are one-offs and that is why you need to buy your favourite model car as soon as you see it made available.

3Are only current competition cars made? Top

There is a broad range of competition cars available in both 1:43 and 1:18 scales.

For instance, CMC almost exclusively produce models that reflect the pre-war Grand Prix era and the first decade of Formula 1.

Others, such as Minichamps, are producing the latest in Formula 1 and FAI GT type cars.

Biante Model Cars is in itself moving away from producing models of current category touring cars and concentrating on what appears to be a strong movement of interest in the Australian motorsport touring car heritage of the Group C and Group A eras.

4Why do some competiton models not have all the sponsors decorations like the real car? Top

Discrepancies are mainly due to tobacco and/or alcohol government legislation.

In a majority of western countries it is now illegal to display tobacco advertising, including company or brand logos. It doesn't matter as to whether tobacco advertising was legal in the time of the relevant race car - model manufacturers have to abide by the current day rules.

Also, there are countries that restrict alcohol advertising, so some models do not show these areas of decoration either.

Other livery deletions may be due to conflicts between team sponsors and race event sponsors.

5Why are some older competition car models harder to get? Top

Over time, some models get destroyed or lost, especially if they weren't regarded as collectables at the time of their manufacture, eg children's toys.

Also, as mentioned in item 2 above, most competition car models are only made once and often that is within the year to which they apply. If you miss the original release you're then at the mercy of the collector marketplace, eBay and the like !

6If I start collecting now, how do I find the models from years ago? Top

You can check out the smaller shops that may have stock left over, or go to the larger recognised collector shops where you can often find historical issue model cars - these latter shops often have their own websites retailing both past and present issue model car stock.

Other avenues include internet auction services, such as our very own Biante Auctions - a separate entitity to the Biante retail website- and of course, who can ignore eBay ?

More traditional sources for model cars can be found at various suburban swapmeets or dedicated toy fairs, not to mention the "For Sale" columns in newspapers, trading magazines and the like.

7What makes up a unique collection? Top

A large amount of model cars in itself makes up an impressive collection, but a unique collection is one that is built up over the years with foresight.

For example, who would have thought that the original model of Michael Schumacher's first Jordan F1 car would later on progress to being a pivotal component to a collection of multiple Michael Schumacher model cars.

Pick yourself a theme and run with it - chose a favourite driver or a favourite team. Or, think outside the square and collect competition cars on the basis of original vehicle manufacturer or engine supplier. Other theme possibilities include basing a collection around competition categories, such as F1, F2, FIA GT, Supercup, etc. Maybe you're keen on one significant event - a classic example here would be the Le Mans 24hr endurance race, in which many diecast manufacturers have a product interest.

From the above you can see that the possibilities for unique or specialised collections are seemingly boundless.

8What does it cost to produce a competition type model car? Top

Purely from a Biante perspective, depending on the scale and level of detail components, a quality model in 1:18 scale costs about AU$400,000 and a 1:43 scale item about AU$130,000 in development and tooling. That is BEFORE you even have one model car produced to sell. This assessment does not factor licenses and royalties, which are an additional and necessary expense.

Competition model cars are more expensive to produce than basic road cars because of the individual nature of driver/team cars, This relates not only to body fittings and decoration (livery), but also to the more involved licensing and royalty contracts that are a significant part of replicating competition cars.

9Why are some cars modelled and others not? Top

The correct procedure for replicating a car in model form requires that the diecast model company obtain from the actual vehicle manufacturer a license to make the model.

In the case of competition car models, a license will be required from the owner/s of the actual race car. Further, other contractual arrangements may be required - these may involve the drivers of the car as well corporate sponsors associated with the actual car/team.

On top of the legal aspects, there must of course be sufficient guaranteed demand for each proposed model car - the diecast manufacturer has to be confident of covering the 'tooling-up' expenses as well as the license fees, production costs and royalty payments, with a reasonable margin for profit remaining after all the effort involved in making the actual model.