LITTLE WONDER
Located near England’s southern coastline, Halfscale Cars produces motorised small-size versions of popular road and race cars, including the G-series 911 and the 917 sports-prototype...
Many of us can trace our passion for Porsche to an event occurring during our formative years. What was the catalyst for your love of the marque? An encounter with a family member’s air-cooled 911? Maybe the Zuffenhausen concern’s dominance of sports car racing, plus the 959’s rule over motoring headlines following model launch, was enough to trigger a deep-rooted love for Porsche lasting to the present day? Perhaps, as a child, you were given a toy Porsche to play with, an event leading to your name appearing on the logbook of a full-size Stuttgartcrested car in the here and now?
Ask Sam Murphy to identify the event inciting his affection for Porsche and he’ll give you an answer amounting to ‘all of the above’. “My father has owned various Porsches, not only in recent years, but also when I was a child. Even then, I recognised these air-cooled sports cars, complete with their engines at the rear, were quite unlike any other vehicle on the road. The look, the sound, the performance. Totally different to the norm.” His fascination with the marque led to the gift of a small-scale 917 slot car for his Scalextric race set, but where most of us migrated from diminutive depictions of Porsches to the real deal, Sam found himself somewhere in between the two, as we discovered when visiting the Winchester workshops of Halfscale Cars, the business he launched in 2013.
“First-hand, I witnessed the thrill and excitement surrounding the Settrington Cup, a children’s pedal car race held at the Goodwood Revival each year,” he continues. First hosted in 2012 and named after Revival founder, The Duke of Richmond, who happens to hold the baronetcy of Settrington, this surprisingly competitive event has established itself as one of the most highly anticipated features of the Revival — participants aged between four and eleven years old run across Goodwood’s hallowed asphalt to their pedalpowered Austin A40s for a Le Mans-style standing start, before making their way along the pit lane straight at full pelt. Believe it or not, this is one of the most hotly contested of all the Revival weekend’s races.
Sam’s education saw him engage in two very different college courses, one focused on graphic design, branding and advertising, the other concerned with computer aided design, engineering and fabrication. “I’ve always been very hands-on with my personally owned cars, whether dealing with bodywork or mechanicals,” he tells us. His love of Porsche, his formal education, his enthusiasm for getting his hands dirty and his experience watching the inaugural Settrington Cup came together as the impetus for Halfscale Cars. “I noticed a niche gap in the market for reduced-size replicas of popular sports cars. Specifically, I recognised an opportunity to produce high-quality motorised sports cars for children. At the time, as far as I could tell, the only offerings out there were poorly manufactured plastic cars available from high-street toy retail chains.” His findings encouraged the founding of Halfscale Cars, which is a catchy if slightly misleading moniker. “Perhaps we need to rename the company?!” he jokes. “After all, our latest collection comprises cars near seventy-percent of the size of those they’re based on. They’re not just for children, though. I fully appreciate the appeal of parents and children driving together, which is why I decided to base the bulk of our builds on bespoke monocoque chassis accommodating two seats, thereby allowing for two kids or a single tall driver. Our cars are, of course, predominantly for children, but an adult taller than six feet can also hop in the cockpit.”
Let’s dive into the menu. Presently, Halfscale Cars offers five different dishes, with three of the quintet being based on Porsches. There’s a G-series 911, a Dakar-inspired version of same model, a 917 short-tail, a Mercedes-benz 300 SLR (based on Sterling Moss’s 1955 Millie Miglia winner) and a Jaguar E-type ‘Crystal Car’, so-called because each example built is hand-decorated in more than one hundred thousand Swarovski Xirius cut crystals. Yes, really! Available exclusively through world-famous department store, Harrods, each sparkling not-so-big Cat requires a team of three very patient technicians approximately two months to hand-finish. “With fifty shades of crystals to choose from, the sky’s the limit!” Sam laughs, before telling us Halfscale Cars created a twenty-four-carat gold-plated version of the same car for a buyer based in the Middle East.
Past offerings have included a baby Ford GT40, but
A SEVENTY-TWO PERCENT SCALE REPLICA OF 917 CHASSIS 023, ARGUABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT RACE CAR IN PORSCHE’S HISTORY
Sam’s team of six has focused its attention primarily on the development and production of petite Porsches, a reaction to market demand. The core ingredients are largely the same across all models and can be altered to suit their owner’s tastes. For example, the body of each car can be optioned in either fibreglass or carbon-fibre, depending on the buyer’s preference. Similarly, power can be pedal, petrol or electric.
MINIATURE WONDERLAND
This leads us to Sam’s ‘hit single’. “We sell more 917s than any of our other cars,” he reveals. What makes this particular Porsche pocket rocket so special? Well, for starters, it’s based on the actual Salzburg 917 short-tail raced to victory by Richard Attwood and Hans Herrmann at the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans, Porsche’s first overall win at Circuit de la Sarthe. “Despite Porsche’s best efforts to re-acquire the car, it is in private ownership,” Sam confirms. “Through a mutual contact I share with the owner, I was able to secure access to the vehicle, enabling 3D scanning of every inch, from nose to tail.” The result is the Halfscale Cars 917 K Junior, a seventytwo percent scale replica of 917 chassis 023, arguably the most important race car in Porsche’s history. “It’s reasonable to think Porsche might not be in existence as a manufacturer today without scoring the win in 1970,” Sam shrugs, recognising the significance of the flattwelve-powered racer he enjoyed playing with in slot-car form many moons ago.
The 917 K Junior is powered by a Honda 230cc keystart engine developing nine horsepower. It’s enough to drive this pint-sized Porsche at speeds of up to 28mph, although restrictions can be put in place if the buyer so desires. Paired with rack-and-pinion steering and differentials, hydraulically operated Brembo disc brakes bring the car to a safe stop. Essentially, this is a scaleddown version of full-size vehicle engineering.
The interior is finished with bare aluminium panels and features a mini bucket seat upholstered in leather with suede inserts. A quick-release steering wheel is fitted, as are working headlights and a rear cooling fan emulating parts on the real 917. As standard, the bodywork is moulded fibreglass, although as mentioned