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Ferrari's Deep Blood Red Celebration of 1000 Grand Prix is Perfectly Captured by Amalgam Collection

Bristol, UK, 16th April 2021

On the 13th of September 2020 the most famous team in Formula 1 celebrated their 1000th grand prix. It was an astonishing achievement signifying 70 years of total commitment to the world’s premier motor racing series.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel took to the Mugello track for the Gran Premio della Toscana in deep blood red SF1000 cars that echoed the livery of the very first Ferrari F1 cars back in 1950. The powerfully implied message to the world of Formula 1 was that Ferrari are the only team to have been competing consistently in every GP since 1950. 

Now the world’s leading model car creators Amalgam Collection, have revealed a collection of models to commemorate the occasion. Perfect replicas of these uniquely liveried SF1000 cars at 1:8 and 1:18 scales, are presented alongside a miniature nosecone at 1:12 scale.

“It is an honour and pleasure for everyone at Amalgam to be replicating such an iconic car, for Ferrari,” said Sandy Copeman, Amalgam’s founder and director of brand.  “Ferrari recognises that we share their passion for excellence and attention to every detail.”

The Ferrari name preceded Formula 1 with its humble pre-war beginnings as the racing division of Alfa Romeo in the hands of Enzo Ferrari, before the first Ferrari, the 125 S, was built in 1947. The inaugural Formula 1 Championship was established in 1950, and Ferrari made their debut at the second race in Monaco. Despite only seven races in 1950 and strong opponents in the dominant Alfa Romeo, it only took until July 1951 for José Froilán González to score Ferrari’s first win, and just one further season for Alberto Ascari to claim their first Drivers’ Championship. Ferrari were already world renowned by the start of the next decade, claiming the first of its Constructors’ Championships and already its fifth Drivers’ title in 1961. As many Formula 1 teams rose and fell over time, Ferrari continued to adapt and excel, winning a combined 10 titles between 1960 and 1980.  The start of the new millennium heralded a golden era, with Michael Schumacher and technical chief Ross Brawn superbly led by Jean Todt. Ferrari would secure six straight constructors’ titles from 1999 to 2004, with Schumacher the Drivers’ Champion in all but one of those seasons.  Since 1950, 75 drivers have raced for the Scuderia and a further 35 competitors have raced privately entered Ferraris. 38 drivers have at least one Grand Prix victory, whilst 9 took the World Championship wearing Ferrari red race suits.

Each of Amalgam’s models is hand-built and assembled by small teams of craftspeople across Amalgam’s global workshops with the co-operation and assistance of Scuderia Ferrari, who supplied original CAD designs and paint codes.  Every model has undergone detailed scrutiny by the team’s engineering and design teams to ensure complete accuracy of representation.

The flagship 1:8 scale sample model took over 2500 hours to develop, and each subsequent model has taken around 250 hours to cast, fit, fettle, paint, decal and build. The finished pieces measure over 71cm long (28 inches).

“We are tremendously proud to have worked with Ferrari to capture in perfect detail a car that marks a unique achievement” adds Copeman. 

The Ferrari SF1000 models mentioned above are all available from www.amalgamcollection.com.

 

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Editors' notes:

www.amalgamcollection.com

Contacts

Director of Brand and Business Development: Sandy Copeman sandy.copeman@amalgam.com

PR & Media Enquiries: pressandmedia@amalgam.com 

Business and Sales Enquiries: enquiries@amalgam.com  

ABOUT AMALGAM COLLECTION AND THEIR HISTORY

  • Amalgam are recognised worldwide as makers of the finest hand-made large-scale models. Their work is unique in its attention to detail, with a focus on creating models that truly capture the style and spirit of each car. They have dedicated all their skill and passion to achieving a level of excellence that raises the impact and value of each finished piece to a level far above anything previously created.
  • For owners of cars they have already modelled at 1:8 in a limited edition, for which the tooling already exists, they offer a tailormade service, customising a model to perfectly match the specification of the real car.
  • For owners of unique very high value cars, Amalgam Collection offer an even bigger 1:5 or 1:4 ‘one-off’ model build from their UK workshops in Bristol, England. They will digitally scan the car wherever it is in the world and take up to a thousand pictures of every detail, allowing them to perfectly and accurately replicate everything at scale. Given the significant number of hours required to develop a unique model the costs are high, so the model is built at a very large scale to maximise the impact and detail, and to deliver the ultimate finished piece.

Amalgam Collection’s design, management and development heart is in England, with extraordinarily skilled and dedicated teams producing the bigger editions in Hungary and China.  They are a multinational, multicultural team of crafts-men and women, dedicated to creating the world’s most precise, beautiful and exclusive models.  Inspired by the F1 teams and iconic luxury car marques of England and Italy that they serve and partner with, they take huge pride in their mission to perfectly capture the designs, and honour the designers, drivers and creators of the automotive art they love.

Originally a partnership of four talented model-makers formed in 1985, from the start Amalgam created finely tuned models for the most important UK and German designers and architects.  Working closely with Norman Foster’s team on the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank and on the Hong Kong Airport project was a fast, steep learning curve which quickly opened their eyes to subtle aesthetics and refined engineering. Working with such gifted architects their passion and desire to model the very best designs was ignited, which in due course led them to Williams F1 and Adrian Newey who were dominating the F1 championship in 1995, then on to Maranello and to the massively important design heritage of Enzo Ferrari in 1999, and latterly to the works of Pininfarina and Ettore Bugatti.

The seminal performance and luxury  car designers of the early to mid-20th century were obsessed with achieving ever higher speeds, lighter and more powerful engines, more streamlined bodies, an impassioned quest that inevitably resulted in elegant and beautiful solutions as a consequence of stretching the supreme excellence of the craftsmanship and engineering to the very limits of what could be achieved at the time. 

The companies that today bear these iconic names continue to be inspired, and their creativity is still fuelled, by the extraordinary passion and genius of their founders.  Amalgam Collection too find inspiration in the creations of the founders and their companies who continue to design and create automotive artworks.

Recognising the beauty and importance of these designs Amalgam Collection have utterly dedicated their energy and passion to modelling these cars to a level of accuracy, precision and excellence that raises the finished replica to a level far beyond anything previously created.  Amalgam have chosen to work at a scale of 1:8 which is widely acknowledged to be the most satisfying scale to comprehend the entirety of a car’s design at a glance, whilst in addition showing the most minute details.

To create perfect scale replicas of modern cars they use original CAD data supplied by the manufacturer and work closely with the design team to perfect their rendition of the interior and exterior finishes.

With regard to classics, in their quest for supreme accuracy and authenticity Amalgam’s team goes to great lengths to locate the best examples of original cars and digitally scans them to capture the precise shape and proportions of every part of the car including the chassis, engine and drive train. In addition, 600 to 800 photographs of every aspect and detail of each car are shot, to ensure a complete understanding of the finishes and detailing. The resulting models beautifully and precisely capture the entirety of the original and are impossible to discern from a real car in photographs.

Amalgam is the only maker of model cars in the world that can be considered alongside a maker of luxury watches like Richard Mille or Hublot.  In fact, Richard Mille is an Amalgam patron who recognising a shared passion for engineering detail and perfection has commissioned from Amalgam Collection many unique models of his own cars and those he sponsors.  

HOW THE MODELS ARE CREATED

  • The patterns are created using original CAD from the manufacturer, or extraordinarily accurate digital scans and hundreds of photographs of an original classic car.
  • The patterns are used to create silicon rubber moulds that capture every detail.
  • Prototyping resin is used to cast the parts from the silicon moulds.  Around 20 to 30 parts can be cast from each mould and then a new one must be made.
  • Each model is built from thousands of parts: castings, photo-etchings and CNC machined metal components.  
  • Genuine car paints and manufacturer or archive colour references are used to spray the bodywork.
  • It takes between 2,500 and 4,500 hours to develop the tooling for each model.
  • It takes between 250 and 450 hours to cast, fit, fettle, paint and build each model.

Every Amalgam Fine Model Car is made entirely by hand from thousands of parts.  Detailed original CAD data is supplied by the car's manufacturer or the race team of the car to be modelled.  The process of developing each model and creating the master patterns takes between 2,500 and 4,500 hours of skilled work depending on the complexity of the car, with classic cars taking the longest. 

In the case of the classic cars an extremely accurate digital scan is made of the car, and hundreds of photographs of all the details of a carefully selected original car are taken, to ensure complete accuracy and adherence to the authentic finishes and materials. Many parts of the model are machined from metal with the major components hand cast from prototyping resin. Each model is individually assembled by a small team of highly skilled model-makers. In total the time taken to machine, cast, hand fettle, paint, polish and assemble each model is between 250 and 450 hours of highly skilled work depending on the complexity of the car.

The finished model is a very precise scale replica of the original car with every detail perfectly and authentically represented at an 8th of the original size. This is modelling elevated to such a high level that it becomes an art form.

Since 1995 Amalgam have been admired and hugely respected by leading designers and engineers in the European automotive industry, as well as F1 designers, drivers and team principals. Amalgam's models appear on the desks of CEOs and presidents of the world's most important car companies. Due to the extreme accuracy and authenticity of Amalgam's creations, made in small limited editions, they are also much sought after by devoted collectors of fine handmade objects across Europe and in the USA.