Card of the Day - 2023-06-05

Panini Super Auto
Figurine Panini [trade/commercial : O/S : Italy] "Super Auto" 189/ 200 (1977) 

And lastly, on Monday, we have a motorised "Beetle", one of the most popular Volkswagen models ever, and one of which, coincidentally, was the first car I ever owned. It was dark blue.  

Apparently the name "Beetle" was coined by the New York Times in 1938, who thought the car looked like a beetle with its sloping hard shelled form. Its original German name of "Volks Wagen" actually meant "People`s Car", because it was designed as a cheap car for normal people. And kudos to Volkswagen because they have recently stopped paying for twitter adverts and set up sites on the way friendlier, and ethical, mastodon social media. Check them out at @VWGroup and @Cariad_Tech 

This is a great set of cards, and it starts with racing drivers from Formulas One, Two and Three, as well as rally drivers. From card 43 the race cars themselves take centre stage, and then from card 47 they work through road cars in alphabetical order starting with the Alfa Romeo S.p.A. (though it is a bit confusing because card 46 is also an Alfa Romeo, but that is part of the race car section). Around number 100 they briefly return to motor racing again, kind of like a highlights reel. Then they resume with the second half of the alphabet and end with card 195, showing the ZAZ 968-A.  The final five cards are "cross country" vehicles, and that includes the trusty Land Rover, at last. 

Now the ZAZ was a really unusual vehicle, being rear wheel drive and built as early as 1958 in Ukraine. To all intents and purposes they were an early attempt at a smart car, though they followed the Volkswagen as well by being designed as a people`s car. Sadly, despite many upgrades, the idea never really took off and the last one was made in 1994.