Rivarossi’s little Bakelite Mercedes

Rivarossi also made small racing cars. This Mercedes monoposto, recorded in our museum as model AM 1, has a reddish-brown Bakelite body, dark wheel centres, an open cockpit and a long pointed tail. Two bands of ventilation detail run along the bonnet.

Founder Alessandro Rossi later recalled how a demonstration at the Milan Fair had impressed him: powder was placed in a mould, pressed, and emerged as a finished ashtray. He saw the possibilities of Bakelite for his own models.

In that 2007 interview, Rossi explained that he believed the material allowed finer detail than he could obtain with sheet metal or metal casting.