09.12.2020Double-success for the Commer TS3 from the Ecurie Ecosse

It is a great success for the still very young label that has been founded just five years ago: Classis Model Replicars won in this year's readers election of the journal Modellfahrzeuge to the "Modelcar of the year 2020" in the category L as commercial vehicles and secured the second place at the same time in the categroy "Supermodel of the year". Chief editor Andreas A. Berse justified the introduction of the new category of commercial vehicles with the growing importance of small cars as opposed to big models: “The subject of commercial vehicles in 1:18 is booming. Hence this new category. And the unusually styled Commer TS3 from CMR, which originally transported the racing cars of the 'Ecurie Ecosse' team from the end of the 1950s, is an interesting and worthy premiere winner!” Let's now take a look at these great modelcars.

CMR presents with the racing transporter of the Ecurie Ecosse a real blast in scale 1:18. This one is interesting for the collectors of the Fiat Bartoletti-vehicles on the one hand, which recently appeared to the racing stables of Ferrari and Alan Mann Racing, but also as a backdrop for the collectors of the Jaguar D-Type, which amongst other things won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1956: With the Jaguar D-Type from the team Ecurie Ecosse, the British Ninian Sanderson and Ron Flockhart succeeded at the 24th version of the traditional race. The modelcars, available under the item number CMR142 of the D-type, which is powered by a 3.5 liter six-cylinder with 184 kW / 250 hp, are built of diecast as well as the racing van of the team Ecurie Ecosse, which we want to take a closer look at in this article after its election victory.

The team Ecurie Ecosse was founded in November 1951 by Edinburgh-based businessman and racing driver David Murray and mechanic Wilkie Wilkinson. The most outstanding achievement of the team based in Merchiston, Edinburgh, is the victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1956 and 1957. The appearances in Formula 2 and Formula 1, however, were not crowned with great success. The team Ecurie Ecosse was active until 1971 and then disappeared from the world of motorsport until the name was revived by the enthusiast and driver Hugh McCaig in the 1980s. The team continues to enjoy a large following, not only because of the team's racing cars in flag blue metallic from Scotland, but also because of their racing transporter.

And for this sensational vehicle, which has a high recognition value, CMR brings a wonderful modelcar under the item number CMR206 in 52 cm length. The transporter was designed by Selby Howgate in the late 1950s and built by the body builder Alexander from Falkirk, Scotland, on the basis of a truck chassis from the former British commercial vehicle manufacturer Commer. The racing transporter is powered by a TS3 three-cylinder two-stroke diesel engine. The two-axle vehicle can carry three racing cars - one inside and two above under the open sky - as well as the mechanics and is also a service workshop for the Jaguar. The spectacular, futuristically styled car made its first appearance on May 29th, 1960, on the Scottish race track Charterhall. But the missions left their mark.

In 1971, the enthusiastic collector Dick Skipworth bought the completely dilapidated truck, had it restored at the specialist Lynx, and then incorporated it into his Ecurie Ecosse Collection. This included several racing car classics such as the Jaguar D-Types and also the role model of our model. On December 5th, 2013, Bonhams auctioned the entire collection and the van alone set a record with its retail price of £ 1.8m. The vehicle can be seen today at events such as the Goodwood Revival. And now also in the showcases of the collectors: the modelcars from CMR correspond in line management and appearance to the successful prototype and reproduce the lines and the design in a flawlessly pleasant way; but they also offer numerous features.

There we are for example at the openable tailgate with its extra fine fittings, which can bring tears of joy to the eyes of precision mechanics and watchmakers. The modelcars offer plug-in loading ramps to simulate the realistic loading situation - perhaps with the above mentioned models of the Jaguar - and are even available from the end of Feburary / beginning of March 2020 exclusivley at modelissimo, littlebolide of course at ck-modelcars.de. The implementation of the outside mirrors are also impressive; all components of the model speak of a deep love of detail with which the mold makers from CMR put these miniatures on wheels. In view of this quality, we would not be surprised if the hype about the racing transporters is fired up again by these modelcars.

Here: Click to the election winner Commer TS3 1959

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