Every time I visited my local model railroad shop, I noticed a beautiful model of an old sports car sitting on the shelf. Besides being good-looking, it was also quite expensive, so for a long time I left it on the shelf.
After a while, it came on sale and I was powerless to resist it any more. 
It turned out to be a model of a German sports cabriolet made the the German company Horch, which was a part of the Auto Union company, which also included present day Audi. The model is made by Minichamps.
The model is a plesure to behold, above photographed on my Monastery Diorama.
The feeling of luxury from the real car is replicating in the model, which by the way is in 1:43. This means it is a bit too large for use with American 1:48 scale, but for European O scale, which usually is 1:45, it fits quite well.
It is quite detailed, and the seats look very realistic, almost like small springs are hiding beneath the fabric.
The wheels feels a bit like real rubber, and in this macro shot, I think the reason is shown. The surface of the tire seems to be very raw, which most likely is the cause of the rubbery feeling.
Notice the small crowned H on the hub. I didn’t notice that till I saw this image, but it must refer to the manufacturer of the car, Horch.
Even though it was an expensive model, I am glad I finally bought it. It fits into my around WWII European collection like the locomotive from Fleischmann and the jeep from Tamiya.
What do you think of the model?
[...] Nonetheless it still looks really small compared to the huge 1938 Horch Sport Cabriolet from Minichamps. [...]
Very nice setting you have created. I wish Minichamps would build some pre-war German Ford models (like an Eifel cabrio). I will follow your blog with interest.
Thanks
It seems that perhaps 99% of all diecast car models are of vehicles from after the Second World War. Interesting pre-WWII are hard to find and pre-1930 are almost impossible. If you know of any manufacturers of especially pre-1930 models, I’d love to hear about it.