Treasure hunters, private car enthusiasts, motorcycle races - the Grand Prix of Macau had many faces since its birthday in 1954. The motorsport event really got going because of the support of the Indonesian businessman and casino operator Teddy Yip, who was engaged from 1977 to 1984 with Theodore Racing as well as a sponsor of further racing teams even in the Formula 1. The initial objective of the Macau Grand Prix was to make the Portuguese colony upstream of the People's Republic of China interesting for tourists from Southeast Asia, but especially from neighboring Hong Kong. For the first seven years it was a sports car race for amateurs, later it was advertised as a Formula Libre race, and from 1973 to 1982 it followed the rules of the Formula Pacific, which in turn was based on the Formula Atlantic.
On initiative by Teddy Yip, a converison to the Formule 3 reglement took place in 1983, which quickly proved to be a success. Ayrton Senna had won the first Formula 3 race in Macau, who was driving for Teddy Yip's Theodore Racing team. We also remember modelcars, whose role models were successful with Michael Schumacher at this point: in 1990, for example, when Schumacher and Mika Häkkinen wrote motorsport history: In the final lap, shortly after the Mandarin Oriental Bend, Häkkinen stumbled upon the Germans overtake, against Schumacher's car. The man from Kerpen in the WTS Racing Reynard Spiess F903 was noticeably slower and Häkkinen could not avoid the contact, but Schumacher could continue with damaged rear wing and won the race. The models from Minichamps replicate the winner of the Macau GP Formula 3, 1990 in 1:18 (517901803).
Until today, on the 6.115-kilometer city circuit called Guia Circiut in Macau races of the Formula 3 (Macau Grand Prix), touring cars of the GT3 (Guia Race) and motorcycles (Motorcycle Grand Prix) are held. The GT3 Touring Car FIA GT World Cup is being run by the Stéphane Ratel Organization (SRO) and the Macau China Automobile Association (AAMC). And that brings us to the modelcars we announced at the beginning. Spark got us this week a miniature of the Porsche 911 GT3 R in the colors of Manthey Racing in the scale 1:43, whose role model was raced by Laurens Vanthoor at the FIA GT World Cup Macau in 2018. The model number 911 with the item number SA175 is limited to 500 units and comes, as usual with Spark, made of high quality resin plastic.
One winner comes from BMW
In the same race (18SA020) also limited to 500 limited edition models of the starting number 912 of the same team (18SA020): Earl Bamber reached with its role model the fourth place of traditional event. The production of Vanthoors racing car in the format 1:18 is limited to 300 copies (18SA021). Under the designation 18MC18, a model in scale 1:18 and limited to 500 pieces is dedicated to the winner of the same race, the BMW M6 GT3 of the BMW Team Schnitzer, driven by Augusto Farfus. He finished fourth in the same year for the same team the year before, on which the series of 300 modelcars of the M6 GT3 in matte black (18SA022) remind to. However, the editorial favorite is the runner-up in the 2018 FIA GT World Cup, to see the orange Mercedes-AMG GT3 by Maro Engel (18SA018, 300 St.) at the top.