Karl AKA Stroget is an active curator at HobbyDB of many of the 1/43 model car brands. He has been adding model cars to the DB since 2014; some of his favorites are Alfa Romeo and obsolete Tekno from Denmark!
We continue the Galgo story; see the previously published Part 3.
Argentina has a very bright history of auto sport and, certainly, the drivers from this country achieved great success in different races around the world. Formula 1 takes a special place in the hearts of many people in Argentina . Fangio, Gonzales, and Reutemann are, no doubt, incredible F1 drivers. However, since 1999, there have been only two Argentinian drivers in Formula 1 after Norberto Fontana and Esteban Tuero ended their careers.
Model collectors like us should remember the exciting story of Carlos Reutemann (1942-2021), whose name may not be so well-known as many F1 champions. This Argentinian driver was one of the most talented in F1 in the 70- 80s, but unfortunately he never won the title but did come very close to it. He is still a hero in his country and many children played with his model cars produced by Galgo. In this article, we will tell about most of the Galgo miniatures of the Reutemann collection.
When Luis Biasatti introduced Galgo’s new model range in 1977, he naturally made models connected with Carlos Reutemann. In the next several years, the Argentinian company made several miniatures which illustrate the brightest moments of his career.
Brabham BT45 Alfa Romeo
The first car of Lole (Reutemann’s nickname) was the Brabham BT45 for the 1976 season. This car was equipped with a 12-cylinder Alfa Romeo engine but struggled with reliability. The best results were only a couple of fourth places. Before that, Carlos achieved great success in the F1 championship. He started from pole position in his first F1 race and had several victories from 1972 until 1975. Bad results after that encouraged him to find a new team.
Galgo modeled his car for the 1976 season, which carried number 7. Early models had plastic front and rear wings, later replaced by diecast. The tyres of the first models had a tread (A in photo), but then all models received smooth plastic tyres like on Polistils (B in photo). The red Brabham has the smooth tyre (B) in the photo below.
Some models had the name of tyre company, Michelin or Goodyear, printed on them (both used in F1). The miniatures were painted mostly in fictional colors like yellow, golden, brawn, or light green. Only the red color matched the real car. The livery Martini Brabham was on all of them but the other sponsors weren’t shown. The two Brabhams below have the earlier tyre (A).
Also, some of the first models had metal baseplates, but Galgo switched to plastic very soon. The baseplate carried the catalog number, name of model, and manufacturer. As with most Galgo F1 production in the late 70s, the Brabham BT 45 was packed into small acrylic boxes.
Ferrari
The next Reutemann car introduced by Galgo was the 1976 Ferrari 312T. Then Biasatti expanded the range with further modifications of the the 312T model for the 1977 and 1978 season.
After Brabham, Carlos Reutemann decided to continue his career in Ferrari. The tragic crash of Niki Lauda in Nurburgring caused Reutemann to replace the Austrian for one race. The next season, he became Lauda’s teammate instead of Clay Regazzoni.
In 1977 Galgo introduced 312 T2 models of the previous and current racing seasons. All of them had all the typical features for F1 cars from Galgo, and some were again in fictional colors. Most miniatures were red represented the real Ferrari team. These cars used more sophisticated decals than the Brabham BT45. They used race numbers 35 and 12, and the name of the driver was on the sides of the car, with Argentinian and Italian flags. Side pontons also carried the names of sponsors like Agip and Ferodo.
Some batches had a paper strip of the Argentinian flag with the words Campeon Mundial 1977. We guess that Biasatti expected Carlos to win like all F1 fans from South America.
Certainly, many fans from Argentina considered Carlos would win the title, driving the fast Ferrari 312 T3. Unfortunately, Lauda was the team leader, so Reutemann finished the season in fourth place but had one race victory.
In 1978 Galgo made a Ferrari 312 T3 for the current season. There were no principal differences in casting with the previous version. Only the number changed to 11 because after Lauda’s retirement Lole became a team leader. He could then show his full potential, winning four races and taking third place in the 1978 championship.
All models of the Ferrari were packed in small acrylic display cases. To provide more interest for collectors, Biasatti offered special F1 team sets consisting of a car towing a trailer with race car.
Lotus
After the 1978 season Reutemann made up a decision to join the Lotus team. Logically, it was the strongest player in F1 at the time. Carlos replaced Ronny Peterson who tragically perished after the 1978 Italian Grand Prix in Monza. Unfortunately, the decision to continue with Lotus was a mistake. The team built a very innovative but unreliable and difficult-to-drive car. It had a very powerful ground-effect system and didn’t need wings. After testing, Carlos preferred to use the previous year’s Lotus 79 while his teammate, Mario Andretti, decided to struggle with the unsuccessful Lotus 80.
Reutemann achieved several podiums and was faster than Andretti but neither won any races. At the same time, Jody Scheckter, who replaced the Argentinian at Ferrari, won the championship.
Galgo modeled both versions of Lotus, the 79 and 80, painted in green and carried the Martini livery. There were 3 variants of their packaging – acrylic display case, blister, or cardboard box. Blisters and boxes were designed by Jorge Garcia and looked incredible. The miniatures also were sold as F1 team sets and customers could purchase a team truck as a separate model.
Williams
It was obvious that a crisis was beginning at Lotus, so Reutemann changed teams and went with Williams. By this time, it was a good choice. A couple years before Frank Williams’ team started to win Grand Prix races and their prospects were increasing.
The 1980 season was incredible for the team. The Williams FW07 driven by Alan Jones won the title. Carlos took third place in the championship and showed himself as a very reliable driver.
In the next season, Williams continued to be a strong team and had many opportunities to defend the title, but relations between teammates deteriorated. Jones considered himself to be a leader while Carlos felt that he could be faster. Unfortunately, Lole didn’t get enough support from the team. In the last race of the 1981 season, Reutemann’s car had technical problems with the gearbox and Nelson Piquet at Brabham finished higher. Piquet thus won the title by a margin of one point.
Many Argentinians expected Lole to win. So Galgo, of course, made both versions of Williams FW07 for the 1980 and 1981 seasons.
The Williams FW07 of 1980 carries number 28 and TAG on the side pontons. The Williams FW07C for 1981 championship was a new casting. It has number 2 and painted in real white/green colors of Williams team. This was the most mass produced miniature by Galgo during 1981, about 300,000 have being produced per a month. There were two variants of packaging: blisters or cardboard boxes.
In addition to the standard versions and F1 team sets, Galgo offered a special blister pack designed by Jorge Garcia, where was the image of the driver and his autograph.
The Argentinian company also made a 1:87 Scania team tractor trailer and a set of cargo truck and F1 car (very interesting that they used 1:64 for race cars but 1:87 for trucks).
After the 1981 championship Frank Williams persuaded Carlos to continue his career, but suddenly, after two races Lole decided to retire. At that time, the Falkland War had began, and perhaps he could not work for a British team. Maybe he also lost interest to F1.
Even though he never became F1 champion, many people in Argentina consider him to be one of the best. Reutemann presented his fans with incredible weekends of Grand Prix viewing on their televisions.
Who knows what could have been if he stayed in racing? In 1982 after Carlos left Williams, his new team mate, Keke Rosberg, became champion. After his F1 career stopped, Reutemann took part in rally competitions and achieved a third place, a brilliant result in a different type of racing.
He continued his career as a politician and became governor of Santa Fe province. After the 2001 crisis destroyed the national economy, Carlos Reutemann got out of politics. He was very popular and might have been President of Argentina, but he did not run.
Part 5 will discuss 1:43 cars from Galgo. The models made by Galgo remind us about wonderful times. Today collectors appreciate these miniature race cars.
By the way, in the mid 70s another diecast manufacturer from Argentina, JET, introduced a very sophisticated range of F1 model cars, but this is another story that we hope to tell in future articles.
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