I finished my last final this afternoon, so I can finally take a break. Well, for 3 weeks, anyway. I haven’t been as active on here as I would like the past few months, so I’m happy to finally have some free time to change that. Expect some interesting original content in the next few weeks. In the meantime, enjoy this interesting piece I learned about recently:
I recently found this unique version of the 1:43 Norev Subaru Alcyone SVX online. Norev was one of the few companies to produce a model of the SVX, and possibly the only company to produce one in a larger scale. A few versions were produced, including this pace car version.
This version of the Norev model appears to be based on a real car. Subaru utilized an SVX as a pace car for the Subaru Kenkyo Center (SKC). The Subaru Kenkyo Center is their experimental research and testing center.
The pace car is a bit weird (besides the fact that it’s an SVX). Even though it’s in Japan, it’s left-hand drive. For what ever reason, Subaru decided not to use a Japanese market vehicle. Instead, they used what appears to be a European market model (indicated by the clear turn-signal lenses, headlight washers, and side-markers; none of which appeared on the US market versions).
Norev appears to have done an excellent job replicating this pace car. Other than some of the decals, it’s spot on. Unfortunately, all versions of this Norev model seem to be rare (at least in the US). I’ve seen them occasionally appear on eBay, but I’ve never seen this pace car version.
Norev picture source can be found here. SKC Pace Car sources can be found here and here.