Annnnnnnnd here it is! La Carrera Panamericana Series 2. About a month and a half ago I wrote my first feature here on the Lamley blog. That feature can be read here: La Carrera Panamerica Series 1. This series contains replicas of real race cars that participated in the La Carrera Panamericana race. In the series 1 feature, I wrote about the history of the race so I will not rehash that information here.
(Greenlight La Carrera Panamericana on ebay)
The last series was excellent and this one is too. It heavily features the new Studebaker tooling. In fact, half of the series is comprised of it. You might think that it is lame to have three of the same casting in a series but it makes sense for this one because the Studebaker is one of the most popular choices of cars to run in the race. Also in classic Greenlight fashion, it is a new tooling so right away multiple variations get released at around the same time.
First, we have this 1953 Studebaker Champion in Gulf livery. This is a replica of one that participated in the 2018 race. It wears the Gulf colors and logo nicely and would be a nice addition to any Gulf diecast collection.
Second, is a replica of the #17 car from the 2015 race. The deco on this one is less busy and is a nice metallic silver. It has some nice little touches like the cursive font on the roof and the American and Mexican flags on the trunk.
Third, we have the only car in series 2 that is from the original series of races that took place in the 50s. This one is my favorite of three. The chicken with a huge egg is a cool deco. I like that “MEXICO” is printed across the windshield. The whitewall tires look good too. Also, you will notice that this a Studebaker Commander, not a Champion. I think the main difference between the two cars was the engine (as far as I can tell as Studebakers had some long confusing names). However, the only notable difference I can see in the tooling is the lack of the center pillar in the Commander.
The last series also had one car in it from the original 1950’s races as well so my guess is that Greenlight will continue that trend should they continue making more releases.
The other three cars in the series are castings that we saw in the first release. This also makes sense as like the Studebaker these are popular choices for La Carrera Panamericana race participants.
For you Mustang fans this is a nice one to add to your collection. It has a classic Mustang look with the blue stripes running from boot to bonnet. There is a tasteful amount of racing graphics on the car and the wheel choice is good. Overall it is a nice looking vintage style race car.
Look guys JDM! Seriously though, if you are into Japanese cars I really hope you like and collect this casting from Greenlight. I know I know…many brands make a 510. The Greenlight tooling seems to be the most scale accurate out of the US brands and if you like these there are a ton to collect.
The livery that this one had in the first series I thought was a little more interesting but this one looks good too. It has the quintessential BRE style angled stripes on the sides and has a clean red, white, and blue color scheme.
Lastly, we have the good ole Classic Volkswagen Beetle. Yes, this casting has been released what seems to be a million times. This is definitely a unique look for it though. It is an odd color with some weathering. It also has Skittles logos on the fenders and the hood. It actually does kind of look like an old Skittle you would find stuck to the carpet under a seat in a dirty car (I, of course, wouldn’t know as I’ve never had a dirty car or ate sugar).
I dig this series a lot. I hope it continues on as there are a lot of cars I would like to see them do. Greenlight has a new Mini Cooper tooling on the horizon so we will likely see that in the next series. They also have a Porsche Speedster coming out in 1/43 scale so hopefully, we will see it in 1/64 in a future Panamericana series. Just flip through pics on Google images, there are a lot of cool cars that they could use in future releases.
(Greenlight La Carrera Panamericana on ebay)
If you would like to see me unbox a sealed case check me out on YouTube: