The project of the radio controlled model cars “Rally Legends” was born at the end of 2010. During one of my trips in the Republic of China visiting the works producing our materials, I was literally “struck by lightning” one night in the hotel while trying to overcome the jetlag that kept me awake.

 

Passion for rallies has always been in the family: in the eighties I took part as a “gentlemen driver”, together with my wife Cinzia as navigator, who shared my passion, in some of the national and international rallies with appreciable results and some important wins.

 

Finding myself in some works surrounded by chassis, wheels, tyres, all in 1/10th scale I asked myself: “Why can’t we do something that has never been done before?”. Difficult, I replied to myself, as it seemed that everything had actually been already done. The idea then struck me during the sleepless night. “TheRally Legends”, a commemorative series of all the most important Italian rally cars.

The big Italian success in the seventies-eighties. I was already thinking, however, of the complete collection which was going to be a celebration to Italian inventive and technical ability in the car racing sector. I contacted my office through Skype and together we started laying down the first ideas, the possible choice of models, the pros and cons. I stayed up all night (I was in China after all) and my colleagues stayed in the office until late, but in the end we had already decided on the first models which were going to be three Lancias: the Delta, the Stratos and the 037. Niche models, one might say, which others had tried to do beforehand but not with the scale details we decided to implement.

 

The difficulties in starting up one’s own production have been many and the investment substantial. In the end, however, everything paid off because we continued with different models and we managed to achieve what we wanted.

A complete collection of all Lancias engaged in Rally competitions which dominated the stage in the whole world and now, with the release of the “Lancia Fulvia” of Munari-Mannucci which raced in Monte Carlo in 1972 the collection is really complete. Nobody ever did this before, and we even received praises from the FIAT GROUP which authorised the use of their brands. The “rally legends” were thus born under the international brand “The Rally Legends”.

 

Today we have 17 different models in our catalogue, including other famous brands such as Audi, Abarth and Ford; all officially licensed by the original car maker. In these first three years we have tried to move forward both from the technical quality and the aesthetic point of view and, today, looking carefully at the latest models produced, we realise the work which has been done and the qualitative improvement we have achieved step by step.

 

We still have not settled down and are continuously striving for improvement. Our “Rally Legends” models are by now known and appreciated in many European and world wide countries, even in Japan, probably the most competitive and representative market for the production of 1/10th scale electric models.

The next models released to the market shall be reproductions of more recent and modern cars, to accommodate the requirements for the younger who might consider the “legends” slightly too far back in the past.

Stay with us, rest assured there will be surprises.

 

Francesco Ristori