Fascination with miniature versions of something grand, like an automobile, may seem frivolous, silly even. Items like this, arguably little more than trinkets, serve very little if any practical purpose. While they may be faithful recreations of something larger, they are just that, recreations. By the same token, though, our ceaseless and at times almost obsessive fascination with the larger automobiles themselves can also seem frivolous. Like models and toys, so many of the automobiles that arouse the greatest interest provide little more than recreation and visual beauty.
And even though the car always comes before the model, the miniature can still play a formative role in a given person’s automotive interests. It is important to remember that for those enthusiasts whose passion dates back to their childhood, the first encounter with a dream car was typically not in the driveway or on twisting back roads during a blissful ride in the passenger’s seat, but with a tiny scale model perched on a bookshelf or bedside table. And thanks to the cruel laws of supply and demand, for many of those who covet a particularly rare dream machine, the well-produced scale model is the closest they will get to ownership of the real thing.
