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Worlds & Stories
Road icons, racing heritage and the details that make a miniature unmistakable.
Aston Martin DB5
Sierra Blue, no visible machine guns. The Mini GT DB5 looks quite capable of attending a nice lunch without an international incident. Before the cinema turned it into equipment, Aston Martin had already built a rather serious grand tourer. I wanted to spend a little time with that car.
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Bugatti EB110
EB means Ettore Bugatti. The 110 marks his birthday. That sounds like a tidy naming exercise until the rest of this car arrives: an Italian factory, a carbon structure, four turbochargers and twelve cylinders. I followed the address before trying to count the plumbing.
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McLaren F1
Three seats sounds almost practical. Then McLaren puts the driver in the middle, ahead of the passengers, and practicality becomes a more interesting discussion. I started with that cabin and ended with number 59 at Le Mans: the same road-car idea, sent out into a very wet race.
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Porsche 911 Dakar
A 911, but higher. Normally the expensive sports-car discussion heads in the other direction. The black Mini GT Dakar has the familiar cabin and rear-engine shape, then a distinctly different gap above the ground. I wanted to know how much suspension work was hiding behind that stance.
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Porsche Taycan Turbo S
Turbo S, no exhaust pipes, two gears at the back. The Taycan is quite capable of making a familiar badge start an unfamiliar discussion. I went past the name and into the transmission. That is where a very modern electric car has a surprisingly conventional problem to solve.
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Mazda MX-5 Miata (NA)
Headlights up. There it is: a tiny sports car looking ridiculously pleased with itself. The first-generation NA Miata can get quite far on that face alone. I wanted to get past the pop-ups for a minute. Turns out Mazda had been fussing over everything from the layout underneath to the noise reaching your ears.
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Toyota Supra (A80)
That large rear wing gets most of the attention. The carpet was contributing too. Toyota’s original A80 launch material describes hollow fibres under the occupants’ feet, which is a wonderfully unglamorous thing to find inside a car with such a glamorous reputation.
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Mercedes-Benz 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution II
The Evolution II looks as though a touring-car paddock has interrupted a fairly respectable Mercedes sedan. The wing is difficult to ignore. But the number that explains this car is smaller and much less visible: 502. That is how many road-going examples Mercedes says it built.
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Nissan Silvia (S15)
The black Rocket Bunny model has a lot to say about wheel arches. The D-MAX drift car has plenty to add. I went back to Nissan’s S15 launch and found a more compact starting point: a rear-drive coupe only 1,695 millimetres wide. Before all that extra bodywork, Nissan had actually made the Silvia smaller.
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Lincoln Capri (1954)
I started with the number 149 on the doors. Then the size of the red-and-yellow Lincoln became the surprise: a substantial-looking sedan on a shelf full of low sports cars. Carrera Panamericana explains the racing identity. A photograph of people working on it gave me a better way into the story.
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Volkswagen ID. Buzz
White over orange, a big badge on the nose, wheels near the corners. The Mini GT ID. Buzz is an easy van to look at for a while. I started with the two-tone paint, then wondered how much of that tall, short-nosed body was available to the people inside.
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Ford Puma Rally1
A 2022 Puma and a 2025 Puma can look like close relatives on a model shelf. The date looks like something for the little name card. Then the hybrid system disappears from the rules, and that small date starts explaining a fairly large change underneath.
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