Have I got a soft spot for Porsches? Yes. Have I got a bit of an obsession with unique colours? Yep. Do I yearn for a lottery win and Porsche’s “paint to sample” colour chart to hand? Yep. And do I often day dream how I’d configure my dream Singer 911? Every other day. But knowing the chances of my numbers coming up are almost zero, these two miniatures will more than suffice for now. Two of my favourite brands replicating two of my favourite cars will do nicely. And we’ll start by looking at the Pop Race Singer “Mulholland”.
Pop Race are no stranger to replicating Singers and doing that job brilliantly. But I’ve got to say this is probably the best they’ve done so far, and that’s maybe down to the subject of the miniature: Singer’s Mulholland commission.
Named after the famous Mulholland Highway that runs through the Santa Monica Mountains of Los Angeles County, the Mulholland was commissioned by its anonymous owner to provide the ultimate vehicle to tackle his/her favourite stretch of road. As Singer explained: “It makes few concessions to touring ability and is focused on providing an intense experience on a favorite road…. the car is a celebration of the unadulterated, analog, driving experience”. And it also looks incredible, finished in a deep blue and adorned with a topographical map of a section of the highway. And it has real presence with its jacked up “ducktail” spoiler, quad driving lights and wide Minilite style wheels.
It’s a serious bit of kit and luckily Pop Race can do seriously good diecast. I’ve been very impressed with the brand since I first encountered their work and they’re only getting stronger.
The attention to detail is superb and the chrome detailing on the real car has been mirrored neatly on the miniature with the door handles, window surrounds, side mirrors and the filler cap all finished well. With as complex a livery as this the decals need to be spot on. And they are. The topographical map looks incredible and the “Singer” script on the rear is sharp and crisp. And it rolls wonderfully on rubber tyres.
I know that this is one of brand founder Marchy Lee’s favourite models he’s done to date and I can see why. The wheels need a little work in terms of the spokes and spacing but I’m nitpicking as we’re talking minute adjustments. It’s a really well done diecast.
Next up we’ve got the newly resurgent Minichamps (alongside Tarmac) with a stunning new casting in the shape of the Porsche Cayman GT4 RS.
Revealed in November 2021 the Cayman GT4 RS takes the already successful Cayman GT4 formula and throws the 4.0 911 GT3 engine in the back. Throw in aero tweaks (including a massive “swan neck” rear spoiler), some weight reduction, chassis tweaks and a 9000rpm redline and you get one of the most sensational Porsches of modern times. Producing 496bhp the GT4 RS can hit 62mph in 3.2 seconds on the way to 196mph top speed. A fitting subject then for a brand that can already do Porsches and do them well.
And the shade they’ve chose to finish the model is one of my all time favourite car colours and one of my dream shades for any Porsche: Rubystar Red. I’ve wasted hours on the Porsche configurator speccing up all manner of 911s, Boxsters and Caymans and this has to be nearest thing to one of my pipe dreams, minus the gold wheels (I’d have them silver). And for images of the real car I’ve used the configurator to design some Caymans to my taste instead of the advertisement/press shots I usually use.
The model itself is a beauty. Like the Pop Race, the details are seriously strong. The weave of the carbon parts is visible and the “RS” lettering on the wheel centre caps can be picked out.
A trivial observation I can make is that this wheel/body combination wouldn’t really be possible to order. The wheels are 20 inch forged magnesium (sprayed “Satin Neodyme”) from the Weissach Package which would give the car a carbon bonnet which clearly isn’t present here. But the world of personalised Porsches has budgets that can secure any combination….
I’m not sure but I think this is the first time a 1/64 miniature has been finished in Rubystar and I’m hoping for a lot more. A 964 RS in Rubystar is as close to heaven as it gets for me and I’d love to see one in this scale. Until then the Cayman will more than make up for it, especially alongside the Pop Race Singer.
What would make your dream garage in 1/64 scale?
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(Find the Minichamps Porsche Cayman GT4 RS and the Pop Race Singer Mulholland on Ebay)
Both are great models. Poprace has some fantastic SIngers. It is tough to hold back from getting them all.
I got this and the yellow Cayman. New releases are on the pricey side so getting them all will be problematic.