Spark is a really neat company. About ten years ago, I was at Le Mans with a friend in his Pantera GT5-S--in fact his car was the original prototype of the series. We were at the big informal car show at Indianapolis corner on the Friday, and two Chinese guys were shooting a billion photos of the car from every angle. We spoke to them and learned they were from Spark Models.
A year later, Spark released an almost perfect model of his car:
It differs in small details, because we put them in touch with the owner of another, almost identical car, and they chose to use some of the non-standard details from his car.
Over the years, they continued to release different Pantera models. Although I was excited, I was also disappointed because there were some detail problems that would be invisible to most people, but were glaring to me. By coincidence, many of them could easily be solved. For instance, the Group 4 race cars used the early Pantera interior; their model had a late Pantera interior, but they also had a model of an early Pantera. So by using the interior of that model, they could make the race car model correct.
I contacted them to offer feedback, and they were more than enthusiastic about it. I learned from them that they had never even SEEN a real group 4 Pantera (only 14 were ever made), and instead created their models entirely from photos in old magazines etc.! So, given that, the level of accuracy and detail really is astounding.
I ultimately sent them a CD-ROM with about 400 detailed Pantera photos (yes, I am a mega-dork!), and a few months later, a box arrived from China, with representative examples of one of each of their Pantera Gr4 models, now fixed! It was a nice gesture of thanks on their part.
I wonder if they actually got the opportunity to have access to the Gulf GT40, or just relied on extensive photo archives? The model looks quite good, don't you think?
I hope they produce a non-Gulf GT40 as well.
Their website has an interesting 'about us' page that's worth reading:
Spark Models
I really admire this company....