Minichamps 1:18 Rover Vitesse Diecast Model Car Review

It has been a good few years now since Minichamps first announced that it would be replicating some racing variants of the Rover Vitesse in 1:18 scale. But at the Nuremberg Toy Fair a couple of months ago, it finally had a couple of pre-production samples on display. Hopefully this means that the project is now carrying on apace.

The first replica that was on display was the #1 Bastos-liveried car of Tom Walkinshaw and Win Percy from the 1985 Donington Park 500 Km, which was a round of the European Touring Car Championship. The duo not only took pole but went on to win the race by a full lap as well, ahead of their team-mates Schlesser and Hahne. Allam and Thibaut completed a lockout of the podium for the team.

The second Rover sample that was on show was Olaf Manthey’s car from the first ever DTM season in 1984. The German only scored one win during the year, but six further podiums saw him finish second in the standings, only narrowly bested by the BMW 635 CSI of Volker Strycek.

The other two 1:18 Vitesses that Minichamps will be producing are the winning machine of Jeff Allam and Denny Hulme from the 1986 Silverstone TT, and Tim Harvey’s steed from the 1987 British Touring Car Championship.

With all of these the numbers making it into the UK are going to be minute, so pre-order your favourite version(s) now or there is a very real possibility that you will miss it/them.