Real Cars I Have Owned In Diecast Miniature Chapter Two: Audi 100LS

May 22, 2020

#386

Gentle reader,

Yes, this is the 386th post I have written. A 386, coincidentally was the first personal computer I was involved with. It was my new (and permanent) wife's. She had upgraded from a 286.

It was a Gateway 2000, it ran at 16 kilohertz, it had a 40 megabyte hard drive and four megabytes of ram. 

But I digress, this is 2020 and that PC is long gone. Here is a link to the master list of all articles I have written about diecast cars and HO slot cars.

The Robb Collections: INDEX To EVERY Diecast Die Cast Car And HO Slot Car Article I Have Written  

My previous article along this line was the second one about my first car, purchased in September, 1973, a 1964 Chevrolet Impala two-door hardtop.

The Robb Collections: Johnny Lightning 1964 Chevy Impala 1:24 DieCast Car Super Detailed  

All photos EXCEPT the orange Audi coupe were gathered off the Internet.

My wife and I refer to our first (failed) marriages as, "In a former life...."

In a former life, my wife sold her first new car to buy me a Triumph Spitfire 1500. 

She had mentioned that she liked Audi cars, so I traded my six-month-old first new car, a 1979 Chevrolet Monza in for a 1975 Audi 100LS.

Similar to this 1974 model I found on Bring-A-Trailer's website. This car, by the way is all original, a real time capsule.

The trunk is HUGE. We were able to fit a playpen and various baby things as well as all our stuff for a trip to upstate New York. By the way, the car broke down on the way back on the I-495 Beltway around Washington, D.C. I did not have AAA then. I have since then.

Unlike almost every front-wheel-drive car today, Audi and the larger VW cars had then had the engine longitudinal. 
The engine is completely in front of the front wheels. As you can see below. Look how tiny, and offset, the radiator is. 

Ours was a light silver-blue color and it had small hub caps instead of full wheel covers like the one above. It also had a manual transmission while the one above has an automatic.

Someone in Russia has this diecast model of a four door Audi, but it has the European headlights and he wants almost $400 for it.

I suspect there are other people who have this four-door sedan model, but this is the only one I found. I REALLY like it!

There are two limited production 1:18th scale Audi 100 Coupe models out there, that are very expensive and nothing opens. This white one is made by KK and is RESIN, not diecast metal.

Extremely well detailed and yet, one can only enjoy it from the outside. Like some cool car you have come across in a parking lot. You REALLY want to open the door and sit in it.

This lovely model is from BoS Models and is also resin. I suspect that the same molds are used in both cases.

There are watermarks as to who sells this one on each photo. I cannot afford either one of these, but on eBay are a number made some time ago, in diecast metal, with all openings working by Anson models.

I paid $49.95 for this without the box from this seller on eBay who has a massive amount of unique cars for sale: 
Items for sale by charliecasa | eBay

I like the registry number: FUN W26.

Yes, car tires WERE very narrow and wheel/tire sizes were much smaller diameter then. These are 14" wheels.

A coupe is not a car a family man would buy. I imagine the trunk opens farther than on this. But look, a spare tire!

Photos in which they car appears more yellow than orange is due to my having to get my LED lights very close to the car to illuminate interior shots.

Very good details on the interior and really the whole car. I have no idea when these came out, nor the original price.

The car in the Bring-A-Trailer web page has shots of the undercarriage and this is a very good representation of it.

You can clearly see how far forward the engine is here. Longitudinal means that the engine/transmission is front to back in the car, like rear-wheel-drive cars are. 

As you can see above, the automatic transmission is where it would be on a rear-wheel-drive car or truck. The front suspension mounting is completely wrong on the model. There is no crossmember on the real car.

But I guess they had to have a way of attaching the lower control arms to something. I just noticed they even molded the two horns, right in front of the exhaust. Which, now that I look at it is also on the wrong side of the car. Oh well, OCD sucks sometimes.

Before safety regulations mandated safer locations for gas tanks, almost every car had it right below the trunk.

The exhaust on the four-door sedan is different as you can see above. Gas tank is at the top of the photo, so we are looking towards the front of the car. Very simple beam rear axle. Not like independent rear suspensions of today.

I have this Spitfire coming today. It is a Mark IV in British Racing Green, also 1:18th scale.

This is a photo from 1982, made with a JCPenney 110 film camera of our 1974 Spitfire 1500. It had a larger engine than the Mark IV but less powerful due to US emission regulations and only one carburetor. Yes, my six foot three inch, long legged body fit fine. Those are thirteen inch wheels and tires.

The Triumph Spitfire (and GT6 coupe) will be the next chapter in this series.

Thanks for reading my humble blog. Please click FOLLOW above and leave comments below or on Facebook.

Scott
May 22, 2020
#386