Here’s a little vintage diecast rarity for you and its name is longer than the model itself.
This is a Fiat Abarth 1000 Bialbero made by Mercury.
The Italian company was making cars in several scales from the 40s through to 1978 but they don’t turn up too often these days.
Despite the scarcity I got this one on a well-known auction website for little over a tenner and although the paint is well worn its complete and undamaged.
As far as I know these are the only contemporary models of this car, but Hachette have produced one recently though without the opening parts that Mercury provided.
There are currently a couple of nice boxed examples on sale (not mine) for £49.99 which seems like good value for a well-made and rare model of a rare car.
The models Mercury made tended to favour Italian makes unsurprisingly but they did a rather impressive mid 50s Cadillac Eldorado which does seem to fetch more money and a few trucks as well so look out for some of these underrated models.
Do you agree with Baz? Is this a rarity? Are you a Mercury fan? Let us know – join in our conversation and leave a reply below. We would love to hear from you!
(Thanks to our friends at Vectis Auctions Ltd for allowing us to use some of their images on our post)
