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Amalgam: The World’s Most Exclusive Modelmaking Shop

Founded in 1985, Amalgam was a UK-based modelmaking shop that provided architectural models to Foster + Partners and prototype parts for the first Dyson vacuums. After ten years in business, they began producing scale models for the Jordan Grand Prix and Williams Formula One teams. These were so successful that by 1998, Ferrari signed on as a partner, sharing their precious, top-secret CAD data so that Amalgam could faithfully reproduce scale models of their street cars.

Today Amalgam focuses on creating ultra-detailed scale models of every desirable car brand you can think of, from Ferrari and Lamborghini to Bugatti and Jaguar. The amount of time they spend working on them is insane: “It can take over 4000 hours to develop a 1:8 scale prototype, and each subsequent model takes between 250 and 450 hours to cast, fit, fettle, paint and build,” the company writes. “Our models then face detailed scrutiny from the manufacturer, motorsport team or client to ensure the model accurately represents every detail of the real car.”

As you’d expect by the hours put in, these models are very expensive, and “usually start in the low five figures,” according to the Robb Report. “One-off special orders can run to $85,000.”

So who’s buying these? The most obvious clients are the ones who own the real thing, and would like a replica they can keep on display inside their homes. Others simply appreciate the workmanship. “They’re like mechanical watches, real craftsmanship in a digital world,” customer Kurt Carlson told RR. “Models let me have cars that I could never own.”

To get a sense of just how detailed these models are, look at their “handling video” for this 1929 Bugatti:

Or check out this McLaren Senna with remote-controlled butterfly door and lights:

Here’s a brief peek inside Amalgam’s UK workshop:

“Every one of the models we make, whether it be for a private collector or a world-famous driver is the very best we can achieve with no effort or expense spared,” Amalgam writes. “We are continually striving to reach new levels of craftsmanship and to create masterpieces of model-making art with enduring value.”

“I know the Amalgam cars are expensive,” says Carlson. “But I don’t know how they make money with the amount of labor hours going into each one. They must be the true enthusiasts.”

You can see Amalgam’s full current production models, as well as their archives, here.

https://www.core77.com/posts/99096/Amalgam-The-Worlds-Most-Exclusive-Modelmaking-Shop