MINIATURE CARS FROM A-Z ADDENDUM part 1
by Dave Weber and Christian Falkensteiner
Images by Doug Breithaupt

AC (GB) 1907-PRESENT

This company, originally located in Thames Ditton, Surrey, was founded by John Weller and made small single-cylinder three-wheelers at first. After WWI it turned to manufacturing sports cars featuring a six-cylinder engine which was to remain in production with no major changes until the 1960s. The 1950s saw the introduction of a line of three-wheeled microcars for disabled persons beside the sports cars. The big breakthrough happened in 1962 when Carrol Shelby equipped an AC sports car with an American Ford V8 engine. The resulting AC Cobra became a huge success and was also made under the Shelby marque in the USA. AC then developed a larger luxury sports car called AC 428 which survived into the 1970s but was not very successful. Financial problems delayed the development and production of the next generation AC called ME 3000. After several changes of ownership and another modern sports car called AC Ace which failed to reach production in the late 1980s, AC resorted to producing replicas of its own Cobra. Despite a few more changes of ownership, these are still available nowadays.

There are many small scale models of the AC Cobra in existence, for example by Matchbox, Hot Wheels, Johnny Lightning and High Speed in diecast metal and by Monogram and Herpa in plastic. Sadly no small scale models of any other AC cars can be found anywhere.

AC/Shelby Cobra 427 - Hot Wheels

ACURA (JA) 1986-PRESENT

This marque was established by Honda Motor Co to compete in the US luxury market.

Thus these cars in this division are designed for the Upper Class high end market. Although they are imported from Japan, they are sold in the US and are not available in their homeland by the above brand name. Acura also introduced an exotic sports car called the NSX in 1990. Production after 15 years has recently been discontinued. It immediately appealed to the consumer and was successful in sales during its lifespan.

Acuras are also included in the Tuner category. Models that have been made include those by Johnny Lightning, Muscle Machines, Maisto, Hot Wheels, Majorette and others.

Acura NSX - Muscle Machines

ADLER (GE) 1900-1949

Heinrich Kleyer founded the Adler company in Frankfurt/Main in 1880. The company's first products were bicycles, followed by typewriters in 1896. As a car producer, Adler made cheap and reliable cars which were very popular from the start. Adler's position as one of the foremost German car makers was maintained into the 1930s, when the front wheel drive Trumpf and Trumpf Junior models were among the most advanced German cars available. However, in spite of some promising prototypes built in the late 1940s, the company then decided to discontinue car production for good and make motorcycles instead, which lasted until 1958. Thereafter Adler merged with Triumph of Nuremberg and concentrated on producing typewriters and later computers, printers and associated equipment. The group experienced several changes of ownership (involving Grundig, VW and Olivetti among others) and several changes of focus. Interestingly, from 1996 to 2003, even the French model car producers Majorette and Solido belonged to the Triumph-Adler group.

The only known small scale model of an Adler car is a plastic 1912 Adler which was found in Ferrero's Kinder Surprise eggs in 1993.

ALCO (US) 1909-1913

The American Locomotive Co in Providence RI originally produced the American Berliet for years under license for the parent firm in France. But Alco, also a producer of steam locomotives, believed they could build a better car! This resulted in the introduction of their own product with combined strength, power, weight and simple construction to give perfect balance and fitness to travel all the roads available at that time. Later the company also branched out into taxicab and truck manufacture. They believed a vehicle should be built slowly to produce a perfect product every time. This was no doubt the antithesis of mass production. Alco made the claim that their car was the most expensive produced in the US. But the lack of rapid production and unprofitability led to the end of automobile production. A new model with fresh design had just been contracted from Crane Motor CarCo in Bayonne NJ. But even this attempt to lengthen the life of this marque was unsuccessful. A model of this marque was made by High Speed of Kong Kong and is part of one of their Classic Vehicle sets depicted in their present catalog.

AMPHICAR (GE) 1961-1968

The Amphicar was designed by German amphibious vehicle expert Hanns Trippel and produced by the DWM railway car factory in Berlin. To this day it remains the only civilian amphibious passenger automobile ever to be mass-produced. It used an engine from Triumph of Great Britain mounted in the rear. The majority of the 3800 examples made were exported to the USA. Then new US legal restrictions banned the Amphicar from being sold there and eventually put an end to its career altogether.

An H0 scale resin model of the Amphicar was made in small quantities by Rene Pohl in Germany.

AMPHI-RANGER (GE) 1983-1995

The Amphi-Ranger 2800 SR was produced by RMA in Rheinau (Baden), a company founded in 1969, the main products of which are valves and other components for pipelines. It was an amphibious vehicle powered by a Ford V6 engine, based on prototypes designed in the late 1970s by Hanns Trippel. High prices and maintenance costs kept the number of interested customers and hence the number of produced units at a low level.

Rietze of Germany has made several variations of Amphi-Ranger models in H0 scale plastic.

ARMSTRONG-SIDDELEY (GB) 1919-1960

Armstrong-Siddeley of Coventry was a subsidiary of a group of companies mainly involved with aircraft production. The motor car division made mostly expensive luxury cars in relatively small quantities. After WWII the company found it difficult to maintain its position against competition such as Jaguar, Daimler and Humber, all of which made similar cars of comparable quality in larger quantities. Eventually car production was discontinued as it was no longer deemed economically viable.

The British company Autosculpt produces pewter-finish H0 scale resin models of a pre-war and a post-war Armstrong-Siddeley.

AUTOCAR (US) 1901-1912

This firm originally began as a cooperative effort between the Clark Brothers and a friend Wm Morgan. All participants were from Pittsburgh PA and the Pittsburgh Motor Vehicle Co was founded in 1897. But when the company moved to a new location in Ardmore PA, outside of Philadelphia PA, a new name for the firm was also adopted. Their car sales were successful since their vehicles were well made. They were advertised to be cars that were easy to control. In 1907 they branched into commercial vehicle production. This venture was also very successful and soon caused the shutdown of automobile production. Truck production then became the main concentration. In 1954 Autocar Trucks became a division of White Motor Co and moved to Exton PA, another Phila suburb. Subsequently White was acquired by Volvo Trucks of Sweden in 1981. And in 2001 Grand Vehicle Works Holdings LLC (GVW) purchased the Autocar line from Volvo Trucks N America Inc. GVW has now made Autocar LLC a welcome subsidiary. The Autocar Xpeditor used for refuse hauling is manufactured in Hagerstown IN. Autocar LLC claims to now own the oldest vehicle nameplate in continuous US production.

A model of the automobile was made by Charbens.

BEARDMORE (GB) 1919-1967

The steel and shipbuilding company Beardmore, located in Glasgow, Scotland, produced taxicabs for British cities to compete with those made by Unic, Austin and later Carbodies. In 1932 production was moved to London. After WWII engine manufacture was discontinued and Ford engines were installed instead. In the late 1960s, Beardmore's taxi production was taken over by Metro-Cammell-Weymann, the manufacturer of the London underground trains, and the brand name was changed to Metrocab.

The British company Autosculpt produces a pewter-finish H0 scale resin model of a 1960s Beardmore Mk VII taxi.

BERTONE (IT) 1982-1993

Founded in 1912, Bertone of Turin is one of the most famous Italian coach building firms. It produced bodies for various luxury cars as well as one-off concept cars, and designed cars on behalf of other companies. From the 1960s onward, Bertone carried out production of some sports versions of Fiat (and later Volvo and Opel) cars in its own factory, but those vehicles were still sold under their original brand names rather than Bertone. One of those was the Fiat X1/9 (introduced in 1972), which Fiat intended to discontinue in 1982, but Bertone decided to continue producing it under its own name. This can be regarded as the birth of Bertone as an independent car brand. Later on, a convertible version of the Fiat Ritmo and a Daihatsu-based off-road vehicle powered by a BMW engine (Freeclimber) were also marketed under the Bertone brand.

Beside some models of Bertone concept cars, the X1/9, although labeled as a Fiat on all the models, can be regarded as representing the Bertone brand production cars and were made in small scale diecast, by Corgi, Playart Tomica, CF and Zylmex.

Fiat/Bertone X1/9 - Tomica

BITTER (GE) 1973-1986, 2003-PRESENT

In the early 1970s former racing driver and car dealer Erich Bitter approached the Opel company with the idea of an exclusive sports car to be built in Germany. With Opel's help the idea turned into reality in the shape of the Bitter CD, which was based on the Opel Diplomat and was produced in small quantities by Baur in Stuttgart. In 1979 it was succeeded by the Bitter SC based on the Opel Senator. After SC production ended in 1986, Bitter worked on several new projects none of which led to another production car. Eventually in 2003 a new Bitter concept car based on the Holden Monaro was presented, and this car has been developed into a new production model which is scheduled to reach production maturity by the end of 2005.

The only small scale renditions of Bitter cars to be found are low-production H0 scale resin models by BS Design (SC) and US Models (CD).

BOND (GB) 1949-1975

This company from Preston, Lancashire produced three-wheeled microcars using Villiers motorcycle engines. A range of four-wheeled Triumph-based sports cars with plastic bodies was added from 1963 onward. In 1969 Bond was taken over by its main competitor Reliant, which first put an end to four-wheeled Bond sports cars. The last vehicle to be produced under the Bond name was the unusual wedge-shaped, Reliant-powered three-wheeler called Bug.

H0 scale resin models of some four-wheeled Bonds are made by the British company Autosculpt. Corgi made a 1:43 scale diecast version of the Bond Bug, which may or may not be regarded as a small scale model.

CARBODIES (GB) 1982-1984

Carbodies of Coventry started out in 1919 manufacturing bodies for cars of various brands. After WWII the company concentrated on producing taxicabs which were marketed under the Austin brand name until the early 1980s. When the company gradually shifted away from the Austin Rover group (formerly British Leyland) and began using engines from other sources, Carbodies came to be accepted as the brand name used for the then-current FX4 taxi. However, changes in ownership led to yet another name change to LTI (London Taxis International).

Small scale diecast models of the FX4 taxi which carried the Carbodies brand name have been made by Corgi and Matchbox. Smaller plastic versions could be found in Ferrero's Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs in the early 1980s and again in the early 2000s.

Carbodies FX4R Taxi - Matchbox

CIZETA (IT) 1988-1992

Sports car specialist Claudio Zampolli and music producer Giorgio Moroder created this exotic sports car which was intended to compete with the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini. The car was designed by Marcello Gandini, featured a 16 cylinder engine and was to be produced in Modena at a rate of one example per week. However, the high asking price of $600,000 each kept potential buyers away, and the car never went into full production.

Interestingly, the only small scale model of the Cizeta to be found is a spring-engined racer by Darda of Germany (made in China), introduced in 1991

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