Oh well, there goes 2024… You know the the expression “time flies”? I’m certain you already heard it. However, trust me, it only acquires meaning after you reach a certain age. And yes, I’m already over that age. The year came and went and here am I writing a new Top 5 list. The year of 2024 was a bit rough, with few new models. Specially in terms of Le Mans cars. It started out slow, totally stopped by mid-year and only got going in the second semester. There were months that I didn’t get a single new model…🙄 Even so, as of this writing, the W-143 Garage is at 560 models. It was a slim year, however good enough to make the Top 5 Models of 2024 list (in chronological order):
1️⃣ First things first: even to me it sounds a bit weird to post a van in a Top 5 list. Nonetheless, Ixo did a heckuva job on the model and it looks FANTASTIC with my Quattro S1 E2 towed behind. As I said before, a shame Ixo doesn’t also make Le Mans’ service vehicles.
2️⃣ This one is easy to justify: GRAIL MODEL, period. The Delta is one of my all-time favorite cars, and a rally version, from Spark? Puh-leeze, just take my money.
3️⃣ Another rally car? And a Toyota 🤨?!? As I’m certain you noticed by now, I’m always complaining about dull liveries. Yeah, those bland, flavorless and boring red-white-black-silver corporate affairs that big manufacturers insist for their cars. And here you have a works car from Toyota (yes, TOYOTA!) with a cool off-the-wall livery. Awesome!
4️⃣ Rexy: a Porsche painted as a green T-Rex racing at La Sarthe. The coolest Le Mans livery of all times? If not, in my humble opinion certainly one of the Top 5. No doubt, like the Pink Pig or the Calder BMW, one of the greatest.
5️⃣ This one is also very easy to explain: the first Porsche that won at Le Mans. With the 356 Gmünd Coupe, Porsche began it’s long relation with La Sarthe. And finally, in the second semester of 2024 Spark released their version of the car. Another case of take-my-money.
Happy new year Luciano! The Audi service van is very peculiar, all those tires on the top ready to be deployed… hope they’re fixed to the rails. By the way my vote for your best addition of the year goes to: Mazdaspeed RX7 Le Mans ’94, a great car in a sublime rendition by Tsm.
As you were talking about months without any new models it came to my mind that also my ’24 purchases have been relatively scarce. Maybe going to the races and seeing the cars so closely temporarily satisfies the need to collect?
Anyway do you plan your additions to the collection with a monthly / yearly budget or instead leave it to a more impromptu choice?
Cheers
Hey Giovanni!
Good to hear from you! The LT45 is a fantastic model – well, if you’re into service vehicles or want to make a pair with the S1E2. For me, it scores on both camps, so… And yes, the tires are glued there. The RX7 almost made the list, just because it’s such a nice model; in a Top 6 list it would be there 😉. For me, at least, there really wasn’t much to buy during a few months. Customs is hammering everything from eBay, making a simple (and not exactly cheap) Spark become prohibitively expensive. I’m basically limited to what my dealer can bring and the older oddball that sometimes shows up on MercadoLivre. Therefore, my options are not very broad, so it’s not like I need to worry much about a budget. Yet, of course, when it rains it pours, so sometimes I rely on my dealer to set aside models so that I can get them piecemeal without busting the bank.
Cheers!
LUWerner