Shite in Miniature II

barrett · March 28, 2021

barrett · March 28, 2021

Anyone fancy this pretty minty Norev (metal) Visa with original box?

RoadworkUK · March 28, 2021

Mr Loverman, SCHABAK

When we arrived home from our government-sanctioned perambulation yesterday, we were met by an oblong package on the doorstep.

"Well I haven't ordered anything", said the steering committee, indignantly, with an "I know perfectly well that's a model car" air if ever I heard one.

Can't fault her instincts, though.

After precisely 0.8 seconds of oohing and aahing the other day after @Amishtat posted his own, fabulously burgundy example of Schabak's 1:25-scale officially Ford-recognised rendition of the Mk3 Granada, I was already on eBay wondering how it has taken me quite this long to get one for myself. I considered it an early birthday present to myself – a justification that I'll no doubt apply to several other indulgences over the next three weeks.

Anyway. If this isn't the very embodiment of BNIB, I don't know what is; the cardboard is still in place over the polythene window. I won't be removing it. It was also among the cheapest Schabak Scorps currently listed.

I bloody love it. Of course I do. It being so BNIB I really don't want to remove the twangy straps that hold the doors closed (well... the front, opening ones – I'm not entirely sure why the rear, sealed ones were treated to the same treatment.

As I mentioned, I went for the Bronze because it's pretty close to the Quartz Gold that made such an impression on me from an early age; for starters, there was one trolling around in Frinton-on-Sea, its glorious gold-over-brown livery striking exactly the right tone in the self-proclaimed "Bond Street of Essex" (said nobody under 40 who lived there, ever). Plus a top-spec Scorpio so attired was also the subject of a Ford new car handover training video that one of my schoolmates purloined for me.

This is one of those models that you love for the basics.

The casting itself is quite crude in a number of places. There's a big chunk missing from the top grille vane, frinstance, and some rather unsightly flashing on the bootlid, just above the model inscription. Final assembly isn't absolutely top-drawer, either; the gap twixt front bumper and metalwork seems a mite wider than Ford's QC people would be happy with.

Also, the posture is a bit on the "grossly misjudged caravan noseweight" side:

See what I mean?

However. I'm ready to forgive that on the basis of how incredibly "right" the whole thing looks.

It could do with rather more matt black around the rear quarter windows, but the proportions are bang on, I reckon, and the curves and character lines are very nicely judged – especially upper regions of the front wings, where the Scorpio's contours do exactly the same thing as on the Sierra, and the way that swage line continues to curve over the rear deck is a fabulous bit of styling.

Yeah, I quite like Granadas.

Inside, well, it's a bit of a shame that mine's a left hooker, and that the steering wheel has clearly been depicted mid-doughnut, but you can see enough detail on the dash to be able to recognise it as Mk 3 Granada / Scorpio – all the relevant holes and hollows where vents, stereos etc would reside are present and correct. The seats are particularly well modelled, too; not that you can tell in this photo.

One thing that is perhaps notable is Schabak's choice to model the manual gearbox, whose gaiter is remarkably well observed. That makes the subject matter quite an unusual machine, the vast majority getting the automatic 'box. This would have been quite a nippy machine; 9.0 sec to 60 and 129mph top whack.

So, does that same level of detail run to under the bonnet?

Ah, yes; tip up that big old lid and you're treated to the unmistakeable sight of Ford's good old....

Oh; well there's a turn up for the books. That ain't no Cologne.

At first glance I saw the air filter housing and thought they must have got the wrong 2.8 – perhaps there was a development hack running around with the carb'd version.

But I then noticed only one bank of cylinders and quickly realised that this is actually quite a high-fidelity recreation of the 2.0-litre Pinto, as featured underhood in my dad's Sierra, complete with sundry fluid bottles, and the nicely observed front strut towers deserving particular praise.

Odd, though, that such a model should be built with a discrepancy between boot badge and bonnet-load; these Schabaks were definitely priced more towards the 'admire on a shelf' brigade than the 'run into the skirting boards' crowd, and somebody desirous of a replica of the luxobarge on their drive would no doubt be mortified to find a plebeian four-pot up front.

@Amishtatand @andrew e, if you have the facility to take a look at yours, I'd be interested to see if the 2.8 actually did get modelled, or whether they were all like this.

bunglebus · March 28, 2021

Someone obviously blew up the V6 so dropped in Pinto in there instead...

NorfolkNWeigh · March 28, 2021

Are you sure it’s a 2.0, don’t forget there was a 1.8 too.

RoadworkUK · March 28, 2021

Indeed, but it wasn't available at launch and I'm pretty sure this model was offered around that time.

Amishtat · March 29, 2021

I did try to post an under-bonnet photo the other night, but a combination of shitty kitchen lighting and an unphotogenic colour scheme defeated my phone camera. Will nip into the loft later and have a closer look. I'm still quite impressed that Schabak bothered with making it both as a Granada and Scorpio.

Amishtat · March 29, 2021

No, it's a Pinto. In its defence, the boot badging isn't claiming it's anything else.

Bren · March 29, 2021

Bear in mind this is a left hooker - foreign spec cars often had smaller engines for tax reasons. You could get a senator with the the 2.0 cih engine in mainland europe but not in the UK.

RoadworkUK · March 29, 2021

2 minutes ago, Bren said:

Bear in mind this is a left hooker - foreign spec cars often had smaller engines for tax reasons. You could get a senator with the the 2.0 cih engine in mainland europe but not in the UK.

Yes, but it says 2.8 on the bootlid! Perhaps they round the numbers up in Europe.

Bren · March 29, 2021

Ask for your money back !

flat4alfa · March 29, 2021

1 hour ago, RoadworkUK said:

Yes, but it says 2.8 on the bootlid!

Friday car? It was after all built on the banks of the Rhine

It might even have been in during Oktober...

sierraman · March 29, 2021

3 hours ago, Bren said:

Bear in mind this is a left hooker - foreign spec cars often had smaller engines for tax reasons. You could get a senator with the the 2.0 cih engine in mainland europe but not in the UK.

Italy is a notable example of this, didn’t they do a 2.0 V6 Ferrari in the 80’s specifically for the Italian market?

RoadworkUK · March 29, 2021

4 hours ago, sierraman said:

Italy is a notable example of this, didn’t they do a 2.0 V6 Ferrari in the 80’s specifically for the Italian market?

Yup, the 208 Turbo. There were 2.0-litre versions of the Lambo Uracco, too, and probably others for the same reason

bunglebus · March 29, 2021

950cc MK1 Escort!

bunglebus · March 29, 2021

Found myself another Hare Splitter hidden in a job lot

And a road going version of the Road Champs 928, goes nicely with the monster truck one. Pretty decent little casting, compares well with the Matchbox version

Also the Dinky Firebird, the listing made it look near mint but it's not unfortunately

Corgi 924 isn't bad though

andrew e · March 30, 2021

On 7/23/2020 at 11:08 PM, andrew e said:

I too have the burgundy Granada (check out the taligate, not a Scorpio so a UK centric casting!) the box is a bit batterd and those paint chips came with it! I seem to have lost a tailgate finisher in the 34 years I've had it, which makes me feel really old ?

As with most things it had a tale - me or my dad won it in a raffle at the 1986 Ford’s Dunton open day. All staff and families were welcome, the rest if us local to Dunton just chanced our arm - if you had a ford you had a good chance of bluffing your way in ? luckily my dad had a graphite grey Granada so we made the cut. A few weeks later from this 11 year olds best ever day out a package arrived - they had tried to use the internal mail but couldnt find my dad on the payroll, so in the end they rang the house and a rather sheepish dad accepted the prize and confessed he ligged his way in - to which the prize delivery driver approved!

You can buy these un-scened taxed on ebay for not much money MIB and they are a well detailed model if you fancy a payday treat.