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!
Text and photographs copyright of the Author(s) unless otherwise stated.
This article is a continuation from Part I of the story of MGC Custom Coleccionables, 1:43 race cars from Argentina.
The 1960s were one of the most romantic decades and brought with it a plethora of special sports prototypes based on compact street cars. For example, in addition to the SP Ford Pronello Huayra mentioned in Part I, Marcelo Gustavo Caveda reproduced Chevrolets: the 1967 La Garrafa driven by Andrea Vianini and the 1968 Trueno Dorado of Oscar Fangio, a son of the great Formula 1 driver. The results of these cars were magnificent: Vianini won the race in Buenos Aires in 1967, and Carlos Pairetti took the TC championship title at the wheel of the Trueno Naranja.
Also in the 1960s, the 1967-68 Falcon TC of Carmelo Galbato was built, a very successful driver who won 2 races driving this car. By the way, Carmelo was one of the drivers who participated in the 1968 television film Turismo Carretera and in 1969 he participated in the 84 hours of Nürburgring.
The 1970s in the MGC model range were started by the addition of the IKA Torino of Juan Maria Traverso from the 1971 season. This was the first TC car of his long career, which brought him 6 championship titles.
TC models from the 1980s and 1990s are now in high demand and are the main theme of MGC’s production programme. A few are mentioned below.
Ford Falcon is represented by Marcos A. Gaggino 1984, Cocho López 1997, Jorge Raúl Recarde 1993, etc. As for Chevy, Roberto Mouras 1991 and Guillermo Ortelli 1997 were produced. Unfortunately, the 1991 season was the last complete one for 3-time champion Roberto Mouras, who died in an accident on November 22nd of that year.
The total domination of the 80s Dodge GTX is modeled using a large number of designs, including Juan Manuel Landa 1993.
Marcelo did not forget about contemporary TC cars and even built the 2024 prototypes of the Ford Mustang TC of Johny de Benedictis and Mariano Werner, the 2023 champion.
Apart from Turismo Carretera for6-cylinder sports prototypes, there is also a championship for slightly improved production cars: the TC 2000, which started in 1979. MGC reproduced many iconic cars from this racing series. Some examples are Traverso’s 1980 Ford Taunus Coupe, Jorge Omar Del Rio’s 1981 VW 1500, who won the title driving this car, and Guillermo Maldonado’s 1992 VW.
By the way, the VW 1500 is not a German car: it is an old Hillman Avenger. After Hillman’s previous owner Chrysler sold off its activities, VW bought their Argentine plants and continued production of the current range under its own brand. During 1980-85, the main contenders were Ford and VW, but in 1986, Renault dominated and introduced its Fuego: 8 titles until 1994!
Argentine motorsport is not limited to TC and TC 2000. Between 1969 and 1973, a special Sport Prototypes championship was held, and from 1961 to the present, the Turismo Nacional, in which production cars with minimal modifications participate. There are several categories depending on the class of the car. Among the interesting models manufactured by MGC, there are the VW Gacel from the 1994 season driven by Anibal Colapinto, father of the F1 driver who began his career in the Williams team last year.
Marcelo also makes some models of other local race cars like the special upgraded Sierra XR4, black dragsters from Racing Legends, and F1 miniatures. For example, the craftsman reproduced all the F1 cars of Carlos Reutemann, who was a superstar during the 70s and early 80s.
Without a doubt, Marcelo Gustavo Caveda is one of the most respected and authoritative craftsmen in Argentina. His own TC collection consists of 200 models and he plans to continue doing more. For 5 years, the MGC workshop built a large number of miniatures for collectors and continues to reproduce new types. For Marcelo it is not a regular business, it is part of his soul and passion. And he builds models only during free time from his main job and household chores.
If you are a big fan of Argentine racing cars, you can order the MGC models through the workshop’s Facebook and Instagram pages (mgc.customcoleccionables), where Marcelo will be happy to answer your questions and take orders.
We wish Marcelo all the best and thank him very much for the interview and the photos for this article. In our next articles we plan to continue talking about Argentine manufacturers. Don’t miss out!
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