異想天開、痴人說夢的Autoart!

By admin, August 12, 2012 7:37 pm

當一個廠商的營利已經經過了歷史的最高峰而開始大幅度下降時,管理層就會想到要逐漸改變經營策略而維持這盤生意。

其中一個方法就像Exoto一樣集中車模消費者金字塔頂端的客戶,以最精緻的產品來吸引這批黃金擁有者。

看樣子Autoart這次是來真的了,我的意思是價錢來真的了,並不是質量也能跟得上。

人家Exoto和CMC十多年前就擁有了製造高端車模的技術,但看現今的AA技術上仍然跟人家Exoto和CMC相差一大截,但是Autoart就是眼紅別人,很明顯這次想走捷徑,猜想AA有這樣的舉動看樣子AA老闆Jimmy應該是這樣想的: “為什麼E和C可以,我就不行﹖我偏偏就不信邪了。怎麼說我們的牌子按照字母順序是排頭位的、也就是這個行業的老大!”

我的看法跟其它很多資深車模收藏家的估計一樣,基礎如果打不好的話,要一步登天,換來的結果已經是意料之中的事了。

看看世界其它國家的朋友是怎麼看這件事情的,大家的反應已經不用明言了。

The prospect of die-cast model cars in the near future:

8 Aug, 2012

Until the 1980s, most children went through a stage where they assembled plastic hobby kits of airplanes, ships, tanks, or cars. Car kits were probably the most popular hobby items for young boys because they see all kinds of vehicles in the street when they leave their houses, and cars are an integral part of our everyday lives.

Back then, young kids would buy plastic kits of model cars and slowly assemble them with great patience.  The model could be made with great detail when it was assembled carefully.  At that time, die-cast models were mainly produced in Europe, the popular scale was 1/43, and the built quality was mediocre.

Towards the late 1980s, however, the interest in plastic kits slowly diminished.  Young kids bought fewer and fewer plastic model kits to assemble at home, and makers of famous brands faced difficulty keeping their businesses viable because of the shrinking market.  The home computer revolution changed youth behavior, as they increasingly became fully occupied with computer games when they returned home from school. Kids started to have little patience for assembling a hobby kit for hours or days at a time before the final result could be seen.  The electronic games gave them much greater and more instant satisfaction.

In the meantime, die-cast model cars were slowly taking over the position of plastic hobby kits. The quality of die-cast models rose considerably when more and more makers moved their production to China.  Built with the very low labor cost then in China, a die-cast model could be made delicately on a production line that consists of tens—or even hundreds—of workers, while still retailing at an affordable price.   Because die-casts used metal in their bodies, fine details that would not be possible in a plastic hobby kit were easily realized.  Opening doors and workable suspensions, which were not seen in plastic hobby kits, became common features in die-cast model cars.   Buyers from teenagers to grand parents all appreciated the fine quality along with the low selling prices. For any hot subjects, the models were sold in the quantity of hundreds of thousands of pieces.

But things have changed. The proliferation of low-priced electronic devices with great features started to invade the toy and hobby market in the early 2000s.  Young people slowly moved from traditional hobbies to electronic and internet-based activities that many adults found too difficult to learn. Adults remained loyal to traditional hobbies, but from that time on, the age group of die-cast model car buyers became increasingly narrowed to people in their thirties up to their sixties.

In the global economy, a booming market in the mid 2000s saw a major increase in real-estate pricing around the world. While getting more expensive, average homes also became smaller. Nowadays they are generally designed with little space for any kind of display. Technology accelerated this trend. Photos and documents are stored in electronic formats requiring almost no space, while televisions adopted flat-screen technology to become thinner and lighter, allowing them to be hung on a wall to save space.  People who used to collect things at home such as model cars were forced to abandon the hobby because of the space crunch and the need to use it for other household necessities.

At the same time, more and more people, including the elderly, have been learning computers.  When people started to enjoy browsing online for what they want to know or for social communication, they became so preoccupied that it left very little time to enjoy their traditional hobbies.

Furthermore, China began to enforce its labor law starting in 2006, and the average cost of basic labor suddenly exploded several fold.  Die-cast model cars could no longer be made for such a low cost, and retail prices have been increasing steeply since 2007. The average price of a good quality 1/18 scale model went from around US$60 to over $100.  When the selling prices surpassed the two-figure psychological price barrier, large number of collectors abandoned the hobby, and the volume decreased sharply towards the late 2000s.

Then came the global financial crisis of 2008, which devastated the hobby market.  The U.S. market was hit particularly hard and the die-cast model market shrank to its lowest level.  Consumers were much more careful about spending their money, and they spent less money on things such as model cars.

The year before the crisis also saw the revolution in smart phones with the introduction of the Apple iPhone.  The iPhone has literally changed the lifestyle of many people, and this time it’s not just the young.  The smart phones have become so user-friendly that even people who once hated computers have begun to live their lives plugged into electronic devices.  With all the apps that are available for free, one small electronic device in a pocket is enough to keep a person busy all of the time. Smart phones have not only sucked up a lot of disposable income from the consumer market, they have also taken away the leisure time of people in all age groups.  When people enjoy less leisure time, they have less time to enjoy their hobbies and they thus lose interest in buying hobby products. And now, it’s not just the young people who have abandoned traditional hobby collecting, it’s the middle-aged and elderly who are also leaving for other pursuits.  Only the diehard collectors remain to collect die-cast models.

China’s economy has recovered quickly after the financial crisis, but the labor cost in China keeps moving up at an alarming rate, and production costs must inevitably rise at an equal pace.  The impact is less on cheaper, mass market die-cast model cars because the labor content of their production costs is much lower than those of higher-priced collectable die-casts, which require hundreds of workers to produce.   A high quality collectable die-cast model car in 1/18 scale can now easily cost over US$200.  At this price level, even the diehard collectors are slowly abandoning the hobby because they simply cannot afford to collect anymore.

History shows us that labor costs only go up and never come down.  Workers in China, just like anywhere else, wish to improve their standard of living.  From the perspective of a model maker in China, the basic per-worker labor cost has gone from around US$50 per month in the late 1990s to around US$400 per month today. That hourly rate is still relatively low if we consider the average workers are working for 60 hours per week, but it has gone up dramatically. Moving the production to lower labor cost countries such a Vietnam, Bangladesh or Indonesia, whereby the basic labor cost is probably only half of China, is not possible. The Chinese are simply superior at jobs where the work requires their delicate fingers to maneuver expertly and without error to produce our highly detailed product.

Toy-quality die-cast model cars will remain in the market for years to come, as they can still be sold at an affordable price as gifts or playthings for children rather than as collectibles for adults.

No doubt, the collectable models will become more expensive in the future, but the product will change. The model will become more intricate with even finer details than the last one. The production quantity will drop and the models will become more like museum artifacts rather than just collectibles. The market will focus on the limited number of people who can really appreciate the quality and who can afford the resulting price.

One can find an example in the watch market. Young people nowadays seldom wear watches as their mobile phones are their timekeepers.  Overall production of watches is shrinking, yet some famous watch brands in Switzerland are in fact faring nicely by making very expensive and sophisticated watches in limited numbers. They cater to people—particularly men—who collect them and wear them as the only kind of jewelry item most men will put on. And it’s those same men who will demand highly detailed and collectible die-cast models to decorate their homes.

另一位法拉利車身打造大師Sergio Scaglietti

By admin, August 12, 2012 7:11 pm

原來去年11月另一位法拉利車身打造大師Sergio Scaglietti(91歲)也已經離開了人世,他就是設計1957年Testa Rossa和1962年250 GTO的那個靈魂人物。

巧合的是,他和另一位偉大的設計師Pininfarina(設計288GTO, F355, F40, P4/5, ENZO的那位)同名,大家都叫做Sergio! 難道是天意!

sergio-scaglietti

Sergio Scaglietti dies at 91

Legendary coachbuilder Sergio Scaglietti has passed away at 91. His Carrozzeria Scaglietti created some of the most beautiful Ferraris of the past such as the 1957 Testa Rossa and the 1962 250 GTO.

Sergio Scaglietti founded his Carrozzeria Scaglietti in 1951 and during the 1950s, the 1960s and the 1970s he worked closely with Enzo Ferrari and indelibly linked his name with the Italian carmaker, by building the body of some among the most iconic cars of all-time.

1955 Ferrari 410 Sport Spyder 1955 Ferrari 410 Sport by Scaglietti

He was known for his ability in working with aluminum, and directly sculpted his designs handbeating sheet aluminum without sketching ideas on paper.

One of his most famous creations is the Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, built in 22 units from 1957 to 1958.

The car, known for its trademark “pontoon fenders” design, entered 19 international championship races from 1958 through 1961 emerging with 10 victories and earning legendary status among collectors.

In 2008 and 2011, a 1957 and a 1958 Ferrari 250 TR were sold for $12.1 million and $16.4 million respectively, setting new world records for classic car sales.

Many other Ferrari classic models were built by Scaglietti until the 1970s, mostly based on designs by Pinin Farina.

Sergio ScagliettiAmong these are the 250 California, 250 GTO, 250 Tour de France, the 500 Mondial and the custom Ferrari 375 MM created in 1954 for Italian movie director Roberto Rossellini and his wife Ingrid Bergman.

In 1975 Ferrari acquired “Scaglietti Works” and today the coachbuilding facility serves as the main bodyshop where Ferrari assmbles the aluminum frames and bodies of its models.

In recent years Ferrari has paid homage to Sergio Scaglietti by naming after him the 612 Scaglietti.

Ferrari Chairman Luca di Montezemolo has commented: “Today is a sad day for Ferrari. We lost a friend, a travel companion, a man who had his name forever connected to the Prancing Horse. Sergio Scaglietti leaves behind the legacy of an artist who with his talent created some of the most beautiful cars of our history. Who had the luck to know him like I did will also remember him as a straightforward and honest man, completely dedicated to his work. We will miss him.”

Short Biography

Sergio Scaglietti was born in Modena on January 9th, 1920. Since his childhood he had a passion for creating automobile: at the age of 8 he used to make toy cars using clay and wire.

In 1933, after his father’s death, he began working at a body shop.

In 1951 he founded his coachbuilding company “Carrozzeria Scaglietti”. Started as an auto body repair shop, the company – located across the road from Ferrari’s headquarters in Maranello – soon gained Enzo Ferrari’s trust and respect.

In 1959 Scaglietti started working in his studio together with sons Oscar and Claudio.

He worked as an external supplier for Ferrari until 1975, when the Italian carmaker acquired majority stakes in “Scaglietti Works” company. He retired in the mid-1980s.

Sergio Scaglietti died at his Modena home on November 20th, 2011 at the age of 91.

Mr. Scaglietti, the son of a carpenter, was regarded as the Italian automotive industry’s modern-day Michelangelo — a sculptor whose medium was metal. He was known as Ferrari’s “maestro of aluminum.”

Hammer in hand, he shaped his designs by pounding sheets of the light metal over bags of sand. Many of the classic cars he built are said to still bear lumps on the bodies from the swing of his “martello.” Blemishes to some, the imperfections often increase a car’s value, said David Gooding, president of the Gooding & Company collector car auction house.

In August, the 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa prototype that Mr. Scaglietti designed was sold at auction for $16.4 million. Known by its chassis number, 0666, the car was thought to be the most valuable ever to be sold at auction.

Mr. Scaglietti’s designs are “revered by historians and collectors as some of the most beautiful cars ever created,” Gooding said in an interview.

The Testa Rossa, Gooding said, is the “Sophia Loren of automobiles. It’s curvaceous. It’s voluptuous. It’s quintessentially Italian — wild, extreme, beautiful, of course beautiful, but also unique. It really looked like nothing else from the time.”

Compared with American cars of the day, Gooding said, the Testa Rossa was “so radical, so wild, and yet had such dramatic impact that it had tremendous influence on everything” designed since.

Sergio Scaglietti (pronounced Ska-yeh-tee) was born Jan. 9, 1920, in Modena, Italy. He was forced to drop out of school at 13 after his father died. To support his family, he went to work in a local garage, where he learned to repair by hand the bent and dented bodies of cars banged up in accidents.

It was by chance that the shop where Mr. Scaglietti worked was near the entrance to the Scuderia Ferrari factory in Maranello. Soon, Mr. Scaglietti’s handiwork was noticed by the race-car company’s imperious founder, Enzo Ferrari, who asked the young mechanic to repair a mud flap.

That seemingly trivial test led to more Ferrari assignments for Mr. Scaglietti, who opened in 1951 his own custom coach-building business, Carrozzeria Scaglietti.

Shunning pencil and paper, Mr. Scaglietti worked out his designs in his head and with his hammer.

In 1954, Mr. Scaglietti was commissioned by Italian movie director Roberto Rossellini to design a custom Ferrari 375 MM for his then-wife, actress Ingrid Bergman.

Mr. Scaglietti’s other well-known Ferraris include the 250 GTO, of which only 36 are said to exist, the 500 Mondial and the California Spyder.

His repertoire “embodied not just Ferrari beauty, but extreme beauty,” Leslie Kendall, curator of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, said in an interview.

“They weren’t just low slung, they were impossibly low slung. They weren’t just sexy,” he said, “they were impossibly sexy.”

Some of Mr. Scaglietti’s design had value beyond aesthetics. His famously bulging “pontoon” fenders on the Testa Rossa, for example, helped cool the car’s drum brakes.

How the Testa Rossa accidentally got its name was a tale of Ferrari lore that Mr. Scaglietti enjoyed telling.

As he explained to the Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call in 2000, the company’s chief of production told Enzo Ferrari that the company had to stop building the proposed car because it had run out of black paint to coat the engines’s cam shaft covers.

“Enzo asked, ‘What color do we have?’ ” Mr. Scaglietti said. “The chief of production said ‘red.’ Ferrari said, ‘Paint the engines red, and we’ll call it the Testa Rossa’ ” — red head, in Italian.

Mr. Scaglietti sold his business to Ferrari in the 1970s and retired in the mid-1980s. In 2004, Ferrari named in his honor its four-seater sports car, the 612 Scaglietti.

A list of Mr. Scaglietti’s survivors could not be determined.

Mr. Scaglietti’s clients for his high-end vehicles included many of the world’s richest people, including royalty.

In 2004, the London Mail on Sunday reported that members of European aristocracy had once given Mr. Scaglietti two precious racing pigeons.

Mr. Scaglietti, apparently unaware of the birds’ competitive qualifications, inquired how best they should be prepared for eating.

極為罕見南韓製造的豪華Limousine

By admin, August 12, 2012 5:46 pm

每天都會經過樓下停車場看見這台長陣車,一直以為是台Cadillac/Lincoln Town Car 豪華Limousine,今天走近才發現原來完全錯誤,它的真身其實是南韓製造的SsangYong Chairman (或者Daewoo Chairman) CM 600L型號,車身設計是基於老奔馳的E-Class。

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Jaguar D-Type 細節圖

By admin, August 12, 2012 12:24 am

Jaguar D-Type乃是Autoart 10年前的鎮山之寶,我覺得其做工只有當時另一台同樣是AA出的捷豹JaguarXJ13可以和它匹敵!

本周奇跡又出現了,竟然本地也有這种上等好菜,好吃,太好吃了,一定要盡快把它用個好价錢再賣回給老外,彌補一下之前英國老外賣給我的第一台讓我大大地出了血,哈哈。。。

1/18 Autoart Jaguar D-Type, British Green

香港二手車模市場奇怪的現象

By admin, August 12, 2012 12:19 am

我最近發現了個奇怪的現象,就是如果有人大量放貨出來的話,本地二手車模市場就會自然熱鬧起來,連帶其它賣家一同加入了瘋狂放貨的行列。

相反,如果市場是一片寂靜沒什么人放新貨的話,其它賣家也同樣會一同潛水的,好像大家都不約而同地商量好了似的。

所以說香港的二手車模市場實在奇妙! :)