How's this for a fab little race result: driven by Elio Celani, this Giaur 750 (pictured below) finished the 1956 Mille Miglia in 142nd place! That was enough to seal the deal for me. I wanted one! Lots of collectors love to get the car that came 'first' here, 'won' that – and I don't mind doing that either sometimes – but I love the way diecast model car makers occasionally make a model of an interesting, glorious place-getter.
I first spotted this Giaur at my home forum, www.scale143.com where a Swedish collector, Johan, had found one. I almost wanted it straight off because of its era, the fact it was just 750cc, and its looks, but that 142nd placing sealed the deal for me.
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| The model itself is 1:43 scale, made by Metro, and is very cheap to buy on eBay. I got mine for under 10 Euros. |
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| Not sure how accurate those wheels are, but the rest of the car looks pretty close to the photos I have seen online. |
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| This photo of one at a modern car show gives you a good idea of how tiny these Giaurs were. |
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| Knowing how small these cars are makes this other shot from another Mille Miglia all the more incredible. Imagine having to race for 1000km cramped together like that! |
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| Giaur themselves were an interesting company. Here's a photo of their factory, with several cars in different stages of manufacture. |
http://www.ferrariexperts.com/giaur.htm
Discovering this Giaur is one of the things I really enjoy about collecting little diecast model cars: I love the way this hobby keeps on educating me about motoring history. I'm a history buff anyway, loved studying all kinds of history at both school and uni, and I still read all kinds of history books just for relaxing fun now. However, when I read car history I usually do it online, and it's almost always kicked off by seeing an interesting model car at some collector's forum somewhere, just like I did with this Giaur.
