Modern British and Irish art on sale at Bonhams
9 November 2020
Royal Opera House – November lockdown live broadcasts
9 November 2020Perfect in every detail
Amalgam Collection creates exquisite models of the world’s most desirable cars, combining traditional skills with modern technologies
S
cale models. I suspect I may not be alone in finding the phrase brings back distant memories of fiddly plastic kits that never quite fitted together as they should and had a habit of shedding crucial bits like wheels and engines before hiding them under sofas or inside dogs.
Amalgam Collection creates exquisite models of the world’s most desirable cars, combining traditional skills with modern technologies
S cale models. I suspect I may not be alone in finding the phrase brings back distant memories of fiddly plastic kits that never quite fitted together as they should and had a habit of shedding crucial bits like wheels and engines before hiding them under sofas or inside dogs.
But that was then and this is now. Such sepia-tinted preconceptions don’t last long once I step inside the Bristol premises of Amalgam Collection.
Yes, the company makes models, but to such exquisite levels of accuracy and detail as to leave you questioning whether they haven’t used some sort of automotive alchemy somehow to shrink an original. Its productions range from 1:1 to 1:18 in terms of scale and prices range from around £500 to in excess of £100,000, for the most spectacular one-off productions.
Company founder Sandy Copeman explains that the firm began in 1985, making models for architects such as Sir Norman Foster.
It then branched out to work with Formula One teams such as Jordan and Williams, before ultimately adding Ferrari to the list. ‘I was a big fan of Formula One and car design generally,’ he recalls. ‘The first car we created was the 1996 season Jordan in a gold Benson and Hedges livery. Then the following year we started working with Williams as well.’
It was the partnership with Ferrari, however, that was to prove the most important and long-lasting of all.
Says Copeman: ‘In 2000 Michael Schumacher won his first [Formula One] championship and our sales increased dramatically from that point. Around five years after that we made our first modern road car for Ferrari and after that we started to produce classic cars for them. The history of Amalgam is very much driven by the evolution of its relationship with Ferrari.’
Formula One still represents a substantial piece of the business, with the firm making replicas for the teams as well as their sponsors, drivers, designers and fans. It also now produces a wide range of modern road cars that are gifted to owners, correct in every detail from the colour of the exterior, right down to the stitching on the seats.
‘We work with Bugatti, McLaren, Lamborghini; many of the top brands. At the moment we’re engaged in a project providing McLaren owners with a perfect replica of their car once it’s specified,’ Copeman explains. ‘People then receive their model before they get the actual car.’
‘The company has revenues of around £7m a year and employs more than 200 people.’
The contemporary car models are developed using original computer aided design (CAD) data supplied by the manufacturers, with interior and exterior finishes developed with input from the brands’ own design teams.
The parts are then cast, cleaned and sanded, with each set going through a fitting process to ensure they go together exactly. The models are then primed, spray-painted and polished. Decals and printed elements are added, then segments such as engines, wheel hubs and suspensions are built, followed by final assembly.
The company has now also branched out into producing bespoke pieces for owners, who either want exact replicas of their current car or a scaled-down version of a machine they’ve decided to sell.
Copeman explains the process: ‘We use laser scanning and we also take a huge number of photographs, between 600 and 1,000, choosing the angles we need to be absolutely sure of the details and the finishing inside and out.’
From there, the team formulates a computer-aided design (CAD) plan from which to work and which combines digital technology and painstaking craftsmanship to ensure the final model emerges as a perfect miniature.
‘We make a distinction between a one-off and what we call a bespoke model,’ Copeman says. ‘In the latter case we’ll be working with something we’ve already developed. For example, we’ve made quite a lot of the most important Ferraris, so we can essentially take that existing model as a basis and then personalise it to make it exactly like the owner’s car. It’s less complicated than making a pure one-off.’
Today the company has revenues of around £7m a year, employs more than 200 people and has two manufacturing facilities in addition to its Bristol base; in Chang’an, China, and Pécs, Hungary.
‘We manage the design and tooling of the models in Bristol,’ Copeman explains, ‘but most of the models are fabricated in China and Hungary. We are also increasingly making one-offs and doing special projects from our Bristol premises.’
amalgamcollection.com