Category: News

The best Le Mans ever?

All right, that may be a bit too strong… So, maybe not the best ever but certainly the best in the last 10 years, then? Probably. The race had one of the most exciting beginnings ever, with lots of rain and drama. And after that, it was something or other happening all the time. Honestly, something happened every 15 minutes or so. Even so, the best part was Hypercar, hands down. Lead swaps occurred left and right, a VERY competitive race – so much better than the boring parades of the last five years. Moreover, the cars are absolutely gorgeous!

The bad part? A Ferrari won 🤣. Oh come on, it is bad – a Ferrari winning means that I’ll have to get an expensive Looksmart 😣. Yet, I’m NOT complaining – I was really dreading getting another boring white and red Toyota. And speaking of spending money, things will get expensive for the W-143 Garage: Ferrari 499P (Looksmart 🙄), Porsche 963, Peugeot 9X8, Cadillac V-Series.R, that Garage 56 Camaro, Oreca 07 #34 and the Corvette #33. And perhaps, because of the liveries, the “Dinosaur Porsche”, Nielsen Oreca 07 #14, a Glickenhaus and the Iron Dames Porsche. Oh yeah, the 2023 24 Heures du Mans will definitively be expensive.

Even so, all in all, and as expected, it was a FANTASTIC race! 🏆🏆🏆

New Silver Arrows?

Oh yes! Minichamps released a few new ones:

- Typ B #1 - 1935 AVUSrennen (H.Stuck)
- Typ A Rennlimousine ("Typ Lucca") #4 - 1935 AVUSrennen (B. Rosemeyer) 
- Typ C/D #125 - 1939 Grossglockner Hill Climb (H. P. Muller)
- Typ D Stromlinie #18 - 1938 French Grand Prix (R. Hasse)

I first found out about these models in early 2020 (I talked about them here). At the time, however, I was really skeptical that Minichamps would ever release them. After all, Silberpfeile collectors are a rare breed. Yet, to my surprise, in March Minichamps did actually release some of the models from that list. I found the ones above on eBay, and few online retailers are also offering them. Nonetheless, Minichamps made only a limited quantity of each (200 or 300?). And what that means is that they are already hard to find online 😣. Therefore, DO NOT wait to get them.

WEC 2023: entry list

Oh boy… Things are looking EXCITING for 2023! 🤩🤩🤩

Ferrari joins the party

Ferrari unveiled their new 499P Hypercar a few days ago. The new 499P will be ready for the 2023 WEC season. The car counts on a 200 KW electric motor powering the front axle and a 500 KW twin-turbo V6 powering the rear (that’s around 930 hp total). It is still to be seen if it’s good or not, however it looks MIGHTY fine.

My only issue with it is that probably it will only be available in 1:43 from $Looksmart$ 😣.

W-143 Beetlemania

In seven days, the whole world celebrates the International VW Beetle Day. On June 22nd, 1934, Ferdinand Porsche signed the contract to start the development of the “people’s car”. In 1995, spearheaded by the Brazilian Beetle Owners Group, the date was suggested as the international date to commemorate the iconic car. With support from other Volkswagen clubs, the idea caught on. Consequently, everywhere in the world enthusiasts celebrate the date as a “drive your Beetle to work day”. 

Therefore, starting this Friday, we will have the W-143 Beetlemania. From June 17 to the 24th, W-143 will be all about VW’s iconic bug. So prepare your air-cooled engines because we will have a beetle infestation around here 😁😁😁.

Yep, Toyota did it again.

Well, a 1-2 win – not unexpected, was it? Even so, we had a Glickenhaus on the podium, which was quite nice to see. Some say that Toyota, Glickenhaus and Alpine were only “place holders” until things get really serious next year, when the “big boys” will be back. In LMP2 Jota did a great race, and this year was the last race for GTE-Pro, which was kind of sad to see. At least Ferrari didn’t win. Anything 🤣. Shame to see that no Corvette finished on the podium, though (and they started REALLY well).

In the end a nice race. The great part is that there’s just one year to go for Le Mans 2023 🏆.