mrm

Thank you Doyle. I sure hope it will be nice when done. It got way more involved than initially planned.

So, what are the mods? Looks the same to me.

I’m sure you will figure the issues out, so I am completely ignoring them at the moment. What I see is one mean and lean, very unusual, cool as heck, super original hot rod, that I am jealous of (in the best possible way) that I didn’t think of. I absolutely love it. It makes me want to go find one and build something similar. (Not happening anytime soon). Keep on it. I can’t wait to see it finished.

With its siblings and the production car that it is based on...

Mattel made two more variations of the 575 Z. One was the all red one in their premium SE line, which I did not buy and our days is hard to find. The other I did get and I'm showing you bellow. It differs in having only one vent on the side of front fenders vs two, having US market side markers and rolling on different modular wheels.

Unfortunately, Mattel chose not to renew their license with Ferrari few years back. The company that picked the license is Bburago, which is owned by Maisto.

One has to commend Mattel for actually making the models faithful to their respective originals with minute differences, like the grilles and the different vents in the fenders.

The coolest thing about Hayashi-San is that not only he had the drive and means to get Zagato to make the cars, but he actually ordered two of them. The two-tone grey one was for his personal collection to admire and polish in private, while a second black example was made for him to drive and enjoy on the road. Later on the black one was sold and I believe subsequently repainted, but the very first one made, the two-toned one is still in his collection to this day with pretty much no miles on the odometer. FERRARI 575 GTZ - Mattel Elite

Wow. lovely car that I never knew existed in model form. For those who are not very well versed in Ferrari/Maserati code, this was basically based on a Ferrari Enzo chassis and engine. Thank you for showing this. Now I may have to chase one for my collection.

sweet

I have to say, this is the first time I’ve ever seen a woody VW bus. Brilliant!

Looking really nice. I just wished it had proper Rothmans markings.

I always loved this car. Your model is simply spectacular.

She's a beauty

I don’t know. I’ll try to figure it out next year and if they don’t have one, perhaps I can help organize it. By the way, you have quite few pictures of the model tables, but didn’t show your models and which won what. C’mon now, don’t be too modest. ?

When I saw the title of the thread I didn't quite expect what I find in it , but pretty close. I do get the price hike for certain things. Some are reasonable and some not so much. $30 for a model kit is, let's face it, a reality that we'll have to learn to get used to. But certain things are just ridiculous. and don't have anythig to do with inflation and should be regulated somehow or being plain criminal. I went with my wife to get her cars's oil changed in the dealership. I can't really complain about the price of that service and I think the overall experience is worth it. And yes, it is an experience. At least at Mercedes Benz of Music City. Now, what followed however, left me speechless. Not an easy thing to do. We were looking around while waiting for the car to be done. And my wife sees a G-wagon on the floor. We both know that it is not a car we can afford at this time, but it is her dream machine. It was red, with some tasty options and carbon fiber accents in the interior. The initial shock of the $180 000 sticker was quite powerful. This was not an AMG model. Just their regular G series model with the standard drivetrain. Apparently, there are X amount of these build to this exact spec of trim and color that rendered this a "limited edition" and therefore demanded something like $60K over the price of the same vehicle in grey for example, with wood veneer instead of carbon on its dash and different design wheels. Now that is a little steep even for a Benz. Four fender flares, a trim package and set of wheels for 60 Grand! And this is where the REAL SHOCK hit! There was an addendum sticker next to the factory window sticker on which with bold letters was printed: MARKET ADJUSTMENT $120 000 I sincerely thought this was a mistake and asked a salesperson, who reaffirmed with a smirk: "Yup! We can't keep these in stock, so that's what we're asking." That means that they are asking the price of their top of the line S class model in addition to the price of their SUV, just to sell you one! Or Think about it this way. Two brand new Corvettes ON TOP of sticker price! Call me crazy, but this BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH on the floor of official MB dealer is just offensive!

Interesting to see at least three Novitec Rosso Ferraris in one place.

I went to the Nashville Nats the last two years. Either I am not understanding where this is happening or Goodguys don't have a model show at their Nashville events. Thanks for the pictures.

The story of this car is very interesting. Andrea Zagato inherits the company, which has very rich history with Ferrari. For quite some time the company was waiting for the right time to release a Ferrari based model. In 2006 right before the 50the anniversary of Zagato's first Ferrari, the company received an inquiry from a Japanese collector - Mr. Hayashi, if they can build him a custom 12 cylinder Zagato bodied Ferrari. Andrea Zagato puts the wheels in motion, fully aware that there is huge difference between customer bought Ferrari that has its body changed and an official limited Ferrari model. Eventually he gets Ferrari's permission to use their name and badges and the car is given the green light as an official Ferrari product under one condition. Not to be shown at the Geneva Auto Salon the same year, as Ferrari was debuting their 575 replacement the 599. The car is met with great approval from both Ferrari and Mr Hayashi and actually represents the last series from the 575 family. FERRARI 575 GTZ sn127394 - Mattel Elite

The 550 Maranello may have brought Ferrari's old ways to the company, but the 575 was the better car. Not visually IMO, but still. his led to way more cars being based on the 575 than the 550. One such car was the very small series, I believe only six were made, of the bespoke 575Z. The Z standing for Zagatto, who designed the new body.

And here is the Ultimate Diablo - The GTR. This is one of the the cheapest models in my collection. It is a Welly, which I found at Ross I believe, for something like $9. The only thing done to itis that I masked and painted the black trim around windows and doors. I think it looks really good and holds it's own next to the vintage Autoart Diablos, which go for stupid money our days. LAMBORGHINI DIABLO GTR - Motor Max

Thank you Jason. I used to use Scratch-X . Until I discovered "Ultimate Compound". I still follow it by "Ultimate Polish", which really brings out the shine. Very rarely I'll go all the way to Wax. But if I do, I try to keep everything the same brand.

There are few things apparently I failed to make come clear through "my rant". First off, I don't look down on anyone, which is silly to even insinuate, simply because I am part of that same group. At least according to my kids. And then, this is not about my kid or your kid. My kid used to build Ed Roth cars. He had a huge kick out of building the Boothill Express with me. When he was a kid. He made a C3 Corvette and he is in love with those darn death traps to this day. (And before you jump to conclusions again, I've owned six Corvettes, two of which C3s and loved each and every one of them. Which does not change the fact that the only crappier car I've owned was the C4 Corvette)The Benz he bought at the last show is from the '80s, which is about a quarter of a century before he was born, so I am not sure where do you get the notion that I think kids today should only like current cars. The point I was trying to make is that even tho I would like to see every variation of every Ferrari from their 75 year history made in a model and that would love to see Revell release a new '32 Ford variation every other year, we should be more aware of the direction we are driving the hobby in. And it is not toward bright future for sure. The industry needs to open the scope of their demographic targeting and figure out how to appeal to more diverse crowd and attract fresh blood. Times have changed dramatically since I first started building models and that probably was couple decades after your generation. Clubs in general are becoming a thing of the past, same as brick and mortar hobby shops and printed publications. And the main reason is mainly technology and the lack of necessity for these things. Perhaps we should embrace those changes and look for ways to make them work to our benefit instead of fighting them, which pushes potential new members of the hobby away. I'm 46. I am not giving up my hobby over reception of my model at a contest. But someone who is just starting in the hobby may not feel this way. I am not going to quit the hobby because no one has released any of the last ten Ferrari cars, because I can still find new ways to build the same old Revell Deuce from 25 years ago. But many young kids may never pick a tube of glue because of it. And we can wax poetic about past trends all we want, but the facts remain the same. If I enter a perfectly built and fully detailed Ferrari F12 in factory stock class, I stand no chance against the requisite Camaros, Challengers and Chevelles built to the same standard, by default. If I we make a poll of what new tool Revell should make, I promise you the winner would be a variation of a car already made over and over again. The Chip Foose deal comes to mind. More and more people I used to see at the shows or used to look up to, for their skills or styles are no longer with us. And there is nobody coming to replace them. Again, I'm 46 and I'm considered one of the "young modelers". That is ridiculous and can't be good for the hobby.

I have no idea who John Wood is, but this article if anything, demonstrates his ignorance about the subject matter. First off, the car was designed by Paolo Martin, not Pinin Farina himself. It was originally painted light blue pearl, almost light silver color for the Geneva Auto Salon. It got sprayed satin black for the Turin Motor show same year to appear in Pirelli ads (if I remember correctly). In the remainder of its 14 year show circuit world tour, the car was white and it remains white to this day. I have quite a Ferrari literature library, most of which is put away in boxes, so I can not dig up articles that I don't really know where to start looking for, but the idea for the design of the car was balance of shapes and in particular the red belt line which separates the upper half of the car mimicking the bottom half. Creating an effect of reflection on a water surface or mirror image. Which is why the car was originally light blue pearl and later white. The pictures of the car in black are wrongfully circulated as being from Geneva. One can actually go on Pininfarina's site where the studio themselves mention the car was originally light blue pearl (which looks very silver to me). On the original sketches the design is in white. Note that the signature no the sketch is not Pininfarina. The mockup model was also in white. Original color of the car. The car was also shown at the Osaka Auto Show, Japan in 1970, where it appears was still wearing it's original light blue pearl paint. Either way, it is often called "The UFO car", because to this day it looks like it came out of a sci-fi movie. It has been made by variety of manufacturers in small scale, both as high end collectibles and as toys. Somewhat recently BBR made it as a resin model in 1/18 scale, which is the model I have. However Top Model is also supposed to release a 1/18 scale model, together with another Ferrari based concept design by Pininfarina from the same era - the 512S. The set of the two together should be retailing for less than just the Modulo from BBR, so I am definitely looking forward to adding it to my collection. A lot of people don't realize how many crazy cars like that were made back then and how illustrious the history of brands like Ferrari is. It is great to see models like that shown on here and I appreciate you sharing your collection with us.

Very nicely done.