FSW Weekly Edition #35/2026

Hill's Nürburgring Run

Spark's Lotus 49B 2nd Germany 1968 #3 Hill in 1:43 scale captures a car and a season that sit at the very centre of Formula 1's history. The Lotus 49 had already changed the shape of the sport by making a stressed member of the Cosworth DFV, and in 49B form, with the wings and aerodynamic addenda that arrived so suddenly during 1968, it became the car in which Graham Hill held Team Lotus together through the most difficult year the team had ever known, following the death of Jim Clark at Hockenheim in April. The German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring that August was run in fog and torrential rain over a circuit that needed no help to be intimidating, and while Jackie Stewart's Matra disappeared into the murk to win by more than four minutes in one of the great drives of the era, Hill brought the #3 Lotus home second in conditions that ended a good many other afternoons. It was the sort of result that wins championships rather than headlines, and by the end of the year Hill had his second world title and Lotus the constructors' crown.

Spark's resincast interpretation is exactly the sort of subject the maker's methods exist to make possible, resin bodies rather than traditional diecast meaning that relatively short production runs can be made and what might otherwise be marginal subjects become viable. The 49B's slender monocoque, exposed suspension, high-mounted wing and famous gold-on-red Gold Leaf livery are all cleanly resolved at this scale, and the model captures a shape that changed considerably across a single season and is all the more interesting for it. Best of all, this one has arrived rather than been promised, and it is in stock now and ready for immediate dispatch.

The Lotus heads a strong week for the historic single-seater collector. Spark's latest delivery is broad indeed, bringing three Arrows A6s from the 1983 season in the hands of Thierry Boutsen and Marc Surer together with Giacomo Agostini's Williams FW06 from the 1979 Race of Champions, while the larger 1:18 releases take in Carlos Reutemann's Brabham BT42, the Renaults of Jean-Pierre Jabouille and René Arnoux and Alain Prost's Williams FW15C, a fine spread of late-seventies and early-eighties Formula 1 in the scale that best suits it. It is the sort of delivery that fills gaps rather than duplicating shelves, and much of it is available to order now.

There is a good deal more to look forward to besides. Werk83 has added a considerable run of 1:18 Formula 1 to its future production programme, headed by the 1961 Ferrari 156 Sharknose in both Wolfgang von Trips' British Grand Prix winning form and Phil Hill's third-placed Monaco car, alongside Michael Schumacher's Ferrari F300 from his 1998 Canadian Grand Prix victory and Nigel Mansell's championship-winning Williams FW14B of 1992, with the F300 supplied in collector's box packaging. Looksmart's shipment announcement is dedicated to Ferrari Formula 1 and could hardly be better timed for Monza weekend, with Charles Leclerc's fourth-placed #16 SF-25 from the 2025 Italian Grand Prix joined by Lewis Hamilton's #44 car from his first Monza as a Ferrari driver, alongside 1:5 driver helmets taking in Leclerc and Hamilton from Monza 2025, Leclerc and Carlos Sainz from Abu Dhabi 2024 and Leclerc's special helmet from his home victory at Monaco in 2024. Spark's own shipment announcement adds Max Verstappen's Red Bull RB21 winners from Japan and the USA in 2025 together with new 1:5 helmets for Kimi Antonelli and Franco Colapinto, and both announcements have pre-order windows closing soon. Looking a good deal further ahead, Mini GT has confirmed a 1:64 Lotus 78 in Ronnie Peterson's South African Grand Prix winning form for Q2/2027, and we assume by then the yellow helmet peak so closely associated with Peterson will have been added to the driver figure.

Lotus 49B 2nd Germany 1968 #3 Hill - SPK6369

Ferrari 250 GTO 2nd Daytona 3hrs 1963 #29 Penske - ARE1474

Penske's Daytona GTO

Arena Modelli's Ferrari 250 GTO 2nd Daytona 3hrs 1963 #29 Penske in 1:43 scale takes us to the very beginning of what would become the most famous endurance race in America. Daytona's international sports car meeting was then a three-hour affair rather than the twenty-four hours it would grow into, and in February 1963 it was settled between 250 GTOs, with Pedro Rodríguez taking the win and Roger Penske bringing the Team Mecom #29 car home second overall. Penske is remembered now as one of the great team owners in the history of the sport, but in 1963 he was still very much a driver, and this is a rare snapshot of him at the wheel of the car that has since become the most celebrated Ferrari ever built. Chassis 3987GT is a genuine piece of the GTO story, and a competition subject from the model's own period rather than another study of a car that has spent the last forty years being admired on lawns.

Arena Modelli's 1:43 interpretation comes as one of the maker's accurate and well detailed resin kits, with white metal ancillaries and the excellent photo-etched detailing that has made these such a favourite among builders who want a genuinely rewarding project at a sensible parts count. The GTO's long bonnet, cut-off Kamm tail and the particular set of its arches are shapes that reward careful mastering and punish anything less, and this is a subject that suits the medium well. It is available to order now.

The Ferrari heads a week rich in historic endurance content. Arena Modelli's delivery brings two further 250 GTOs, the #22 car of Frank Roberts and John Cannon which finished fifteenth in the same 1963 Daytona 3 Hours and the #32 Ferrari of Bill Eve and Leslie Perkins from the 1964 Daytona 2000kms, where the pair came home eleventh, so three distinctive competition versions of Ferrari's most celebrated racing car can be shelved together as a group. Ixo moves the story forward six decades with a 1:18 Porsche 911 RSR-19 from the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours, recreating the #911 Proton Competition entry shared by Hollywood actor Michael Fassbender with Martin Rump and Porsche works driver Richard Lietz, whose journey from the big screen to the Circuit de la Sarthe made the car one of the more recognisable on the grid, and 2023 also marked the final Le Mans appearance for the 911 RSR in the GTE-Am class. Spark's delivery is deep in this territory too, with the 1975 Spa 24 Hours winning BMW 3.0 CSL, Walker and Moss' second-placed Jaguar C-Type from Le Mans 1953, the Grid S2 from Le Mans 1984, the Calsonic Nissan Skyline GT-R, the Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo which is in stock and ready for immediate dispatch, and several classic Le Mans entries from McLaren and Porsche, while in 1:18 there is the 1956 Le Mans winning Jaguar D-Type alongside further endurance machinery from Corvette, Porsche and Riley & Scott.

There is a great deal more in prospect for the endurance and GT collector. Spark's shipment announcement is headed by the Cadillac V-Series.R which finished fourth at Le Mans in 2026 and the Genesis GMR-001 Hypercar, with GT racing represented by an excellent selection of BMW M4 GT3s including the 2025 Bathurst 12 Hours and Suzuka 1000km winners, together with DTM machinery from BMW and Ford and the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo from Suzuka, all available to pre-order now but with the window closing soon. Werk83 has listed the famous Solar Productions Porsche 908/02 camera car in 1:18, ninth at Le Mans in 1970 while gathering the footage that became "Le Mans", and DSN 43 has the Porsche Club Romand 911RS from nineteenth place at Le Mans in 1975 chosen for release next month. Mini GT looks to Q2/2027 for 1:64 diecast versions of the #40 Dex Cadillac V-Series.R from the 2025 Daytona 24 Hours and the ninth-placed #93 Wall Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 from the 2025 Bathurst 12 Hours.

Road car, classic and film car collectors are well served this week too. Schuco's latest delivery brings two very different additions to the Pro.R 1:18 range, starting with the wonderfully characterful 1965 Autobianchi Bianchina Furgoncino, finished in blue and capturing one of Italy's distinctive little commercial vehicles of the period, and at the opposite end of the performance spectrum the spectacular 1984 Ford Transit Supervan 2, the second generation of Ford's famous project combining the familiar Transit silhouette with purpose-built racing performance, both produced as 1:18 resincast models and available to order now. Looking ahead, KK Scale covers two of its favourite themes at once with a new 1:18 diecast 1963 Lincoln Continental Sedan, modelled in the metallic green seen in "Matrix Reloaded", the metallic grey of "Marnie" and a generic black for good measure, while Matrix has added the elegant 1968 Citroën DS21 Le Majesty Chapron in three colours to its forward programme with Q4/2026 suggested for first delivery, and Ixo expects the Mercedes 500 TE V8 AMG in black and the Mercedes 200T in red, both 1979 S123 estates and both in 1:43, during early October.

Alén's Sanremo Sweep

Spark's Lancia 037 1st Sanremo 1983 #6 Alen/Kivimaki in 1:43 scale commemorates one of the most significant afternoons in the history of the World Rally Championship. By October 1983 the Lancia 037 was the last serious rear-wheel-drive challenger in a discipline that four-wheel drive had already begun to take over, and the Sanremo Rally was the event on which the whole season turned. Markku Alén and Ilkka Kivimäki led home a Lancia one-two-three, with Walter Röhrl and Christian Geistdörfer second and Attilio Bettega third, and Miki Biasion fifth to put four of the cars in the top five, a result that put the manufacturers' championship beyond Audi's reach with rounds still to run, the team not troubling to contest the RAC Rally at all. The 037 remains the last rear-wheel-drive car to win the World Rally Championship, an achievement never repeated in the four decades since, and that alone makes the Martini-liveried Alén car one of the essential subjects in any rally collection.

Spark's resincast interpretation puts that car on the shelf in the maker's familiar 1:43 form, the 037's compact silhouette, purposeful arches and neatly resolved Martini stripes all coming across cleanly at this scale, and it is a subject that has been surprisingly poorly served in miniature given its standing in the sport. It is due during January 2027 and available to pre-order now with our online discount applied, and while that is a little way off, the pre-order price is very much the reason to deal with it early rather than late.

The Lancia heads an unusually well-stocked week for the rally collector. Spark has produced a long list of future production 1:43 rally subjects, mostly but not exclusively drawn from the Monte Carlo Rally and including several outright winners, taking in the Alfa Romeo GTV6, Audi Quattro, BMW 323i, the Citroën AX, GS, SM and Visa, Fiat 131, Ford Escort and RS200, Hyundai i20 N, Lancia 037 and Integrale, MG Metro, Peugeot 104, 204 and 505 and the Renault 8 Gordini, which is about as broad a sweep of the discipline's history as anyone could reasonably ask for. Schuco has added three new Audi Quattros to its growing 1:64 range, headed by Walter Röhrl and Christian Geistdörfer's #4 car from the 1984 Rally Portugal, where the pair finished sixth during Röhrl's first season with Audi, with the legendary road-going Quattro also offered in black and red as two clean alternatives to the rally machine, all three available to pre-order now with our online discount applied.

The rest of the rally shelf is no less inviting. Werk83 stays with Röhrl and Audi for its 1:43 model of the Quattro in which he won Pikes Peak in 1987, supplied in collector's box packaging, while Trofeu has two 1:43 models due during September in the shape of Colin McRae's third-placed Ford Sierra RS Cosworth from the 1990 Manx and the Audi Quattro Sport in which the Swiss pairing of Krucker and Polli finished seventh on the 1986 Della Lana Rally. DSN 43 has three rally subjects chosen for next month, the Audi 80 Quattro of Stohl and Kaufmann from the 1986 Safari and the fifth and ninth placed Datsun Violet 160Js from the 1979 1000 Lakes, and Ixo brings the story right up to date with the 2025 Wallonia Rally Porsche 911 (992) Rally GTs of Cherain and Withers and De Cecco and Humblet, expected during early October in both 1:43 and 1:18. With Sami Pajari rewriting the record books in Paraguay and the championship suddenly alive again, it is a good moment to be adding to a rally shelf.

Lancia 037 1st Sanremo 1983 #6 Alen/Kivimaki - SPK9169