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.
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.
Not sure how accurate those wheels are, but the rest of the
car looks pretty close to the photos I have seen online.
This photo of one at a modern car show gives you a good idea
of how tiny these Giaurs were.
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!
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.
