Now that we're two days into December, Christmas preparation is in full swing, and you can guarantee retail stores will be doubling down on Michael Buble's album in the hope of enticing punters in.
While your local department store will have everyone in the family covered when it comes to gifts, if you're looking to nab this incredible F1 slot car set, you're going to have to dig deeper into those pockets. A lot deeper.
Set to sell at RM Sotheby’s auction in Abu Dhabi this Saturday, this masterpiece was commissioned by Formula One, and was built by Slot Mods. It has lived its life in the F1 Paddock club, only to be used by VIP guests every now and then.
When it comes to building a slot car set of this magnitude, everything is hand-built and hand-painted, resulting in thousands of hours being sunk into it. This translates to a cost of well over $100,000 depending on the scale and level of detail.
This particular track features hand-painted fans, bespoke buildings, and foliage lining around the track. While a few of the turns look quite familiar, the seller notes that this track isn't based on a real-world one. Sebastien Vettel and Nico Rosberg's cars are both very real, though.
Despite the six-figure price of the set when new, RM Sotheby's is estimating that it will only fetch a maximum of $50,000 when it crosses the block, which is still nothing to sneeze at.
The fact that numerous Formula One stars have allegedly used the track just last year should drive the value up somewhat, but it isn't going the magic $100K mark.
Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Reaching the Last Mile fund, a campaign that fights preventable diseases. This is a joint initiative between Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and Bill Gates.
