The enjoyment of cars is, of course, a total sensory experience. The smell of gas/petrol, burning rubber, hot brakes, materials inside the car, the feel of polished metal, a wrench handle, the alcantara-wrapped steeringwheel (in the case of the ballers among us), the sight of the landscape whizzing by, the sound of that high-pitched V10 revving to a billion RPM or the low burble of an idling carbed V8.
For the diecast hobby, however, some of those sensory experiences have to be imagined, with only the visual and tactile senses getting a real world workout. Even among these two, however, feeling a model is mostly restricted to unboxing it (unless you’re not a member of the DLM, you know who you are) and moving it around to pose it for photos.
But have you ever really felt a car? Well, that is what I am exploring today. And while this may tie into a wider argument about resin vs. diecast that I won’t go into at this time, it might be a factor. Part of the tactile experience of a car model is to open doors, trunks, frunks, and hoods to see warning labels and spark plug wires and move the steerable wheels, which are just not possible with most resin models. Resin models look amazing in their detail on a shelf or in photos, but to extract that last 9/10th you have to really touch it. Inside and out.
Just don’t squeeze too hard or you’ll end up with a 1:43...
