Ecurie Ecosse Racing Car Transporter

We are in the realms of objects of desire here. There was no way I or any of my friends could have owned one of these. There was a boy in the village who had one though; he was the Doctor's son and away at school most of the time. He had a room in the house just for his toys and the Corgis were lined up around the walls on shelves, still all of them, in their boxes (sad, anal or what?). I was shown his Ecurie Ecosse when I (very occasionally) went to play, but was never, ever allowed to touch it.

I just love the little vice on the workbench - that is brilliant detailing. The Corgi Ecurie was made from 1961 to 1965. It was available as a solo model and in gift sets with a selection of Corgi racing cars. Unfortunately Corgi did not make a D Type Jag to put on the back - Ecurie Ecosse were famous for their Le Mans winning D Type Jaguar racing team in the mid 1950s. The transporter is either light or dark blue metallic. The lettering can be red, yellow or blue, the interior can be tan or red. All versions are well priced, highest values though are for the light blue and the red interior.

The original vehicle upon which this is modelled is really interesting and worth finding out more about, Do a search on Google as it is a well known and well documented vehicle. It was based on a Commer bus chassis using the 'Commer Knocker' diesel engine with horizontally opposed cylinders. I saw it at the Goodwood Festival of Speed when they did a feature of the Ecurie Ecosse racing team, all those D-Types! It is an imposing vehicle too, the main difference between the Corgi and the full size item is that the front panel on the actual transporter is silver, polished alloy I think.

GS16

I've seen evidence that the transporter set was released in four variations:

• Dark blue with 150 Vanwall, 152 BRM & 151 Lotus

• Dark blue with 150s Vanwall, 152s BRM & 151a Lotus

• Dark blue with 150s Vanwall, 152s BRM & 154 Ferrari

• Light blue with 150s Vanwall, 152s BRM & 154 Ferrari