Perfect $7500 Race Car Model Made of Gold and Silver (May, 1932)
Perfect $7500 Race Car Model Made of Gold and Silver
PRONOUNCED by Harry A. Miller, world-renowned designer of racing automobiles, as the most perfect model in the world, the eighth-scale reproduction of the newest type racing car, shown in the photo at the left, has every working part of a full-size automobile duplicated in miniature.
Pistons slide in tiny cylinders, steering gear operates in regulation fashion—even speedometer and oil gauges, hardly larger than the head of a match, function perfectly. The model is the creation of L. F. Ange-vine, of Southgate, Cal., who calls it “the only $7,500 automobile that won’t run.” This is due to impossibility of Carburetion.Each of the 1157 individual parts, which make up the model is built in exact scale.
This car cost $7500 when gold was about $20 an ounce (and dimes were still made out of silver) I wonder what it would cost today?
Well adjusted for inflation it is about $126,000. But there are a lot of factors like how pure was the gold and silver. Sterling silver is 92.5% silver 7.5% copper other compositions such as coin silver and German silver can be 90% and 80% respectively. 10 karat gold is only 41% pure while 18 karat is 75%. I think that a big part of the cost of this little model was the labour that went into it for the molds, casting and fitting the parts.