Racing Saloons Re-visit Famous Rivalry
story by Doug Breithaupt

While Americans refuse to embrace saloon car racing, the rest of the world enjoys the idea of racing sedans on road courses. In the U.S. we clearly prefer our NASCAR style sedan racing.

As regular readers know, I cannot resist interesting pairings of toy cars. These two make a great matched set.

The intriguing nature of the two cars pictured here is that both are Matchbox, both are offered in Premier Edition/Collection form and both are European saloon racers. Even more interesting is that the cars in question are from Mercedes-Benz and Alfa Romeo. Racing fans will know that before WWII, these two marques often raced head to head in Grand Prix and sports car events. Here they are again in 1990's form, reviving one of racing histories greatest rivalries.

Furthermore, both cars wear the traditional racing colors of German racing silver and Italian racing red. Complete with massive chin and rear-deck spoilers, these are two mean looking machines. It's nice to see that models of this quality and style can still be done. Thanks Matchbox.