When God is a scale-model...
I had the opportunity to interact with Mr. Manoj Lulla, an automobile enthusiast and supercar collector, in Chennai recently. His spacious "Bat-Cave" was littered with supercars like the Mercedes AMG GT, Ferrari 458, Ferrari 430 and a Lamborghini Gallardo. Apart from these beauties he had a few collectibles that took me on a rocking nostalgia trip.
A large scale model of the moon rocket from Tin Tin's moon adventure captured my attention for a long time and then my eyes fell on two cars that completely took my breath away.
The Ferrari F40 and Ferrrari 250 GTO are possibly the most desirable and elite of all supercars and, recently, a 250 GTO sold for 70 million US Dollars! When you put that into perspective, the USD 15000 price tag on these scale models by Amalgam seems like a bargain.
I was so drawn to the 250 GTO that I may have offended by host by spending more time with the scale model than the real cars in his garage. I need not have worried because Manoj soon joined me in ogling at the 250 GTO and marveling at what it might be like to own and drive the real thing.
As it was, I contented myself by shooting some photos of the car through it's glass case and working the images to wallpapers that I regularly use on my desktop. The details on this model are really astounding. Real wooden steering wheel. Leather seats and straps to hold the body panels down. Real rubber tires and nearly everything else is aluminum, steel and other "real" materials.
The Ferrari F40 was no less astonishing but it was displayed in a corner which made it harder to shoot for the purpose of editing like I could with the 250 GTO.
If you stop to think about what you can do with USD 15000, you can't help but think about how far down the list a scale-model 250 GTO would be. But that is just the point, everyone attaches a different value to different things. For Manoj, and I agree with him, $15000 is not completely insane when you look at what you are getting. If I had the money, I wouldn't mind having a few cars like this around my "den" perfectly illuminated with the soundtrack available at the push of a button.
There are worse ways to spend your money...
Try USD 70 million for example :)