May issue: Model of the Month - Model-Icons' Jaguar 340

**OUR TOP MODEL AS CHOSEN BY THE DIECAST TEAM THIS MONTH

Model-Icons
Jaguar 340
PRICE: TBA LIMIT: 999 SCALE: 1/18 REF NO: 999001

Inspector Morse’s Jaguar had style but in terms of character, this uniformed Police 340 wins hands-down. Staffordshire County and Stoke on Trent Constabulary had a long association with the leaping cat and used Jags for motorway patrol duties. It’s unsurprising as the 340’s 3.4 litre engine produced almost 120mph and, back in the 1960s, that was considered to be fairly ticking along. While its 0-60 in 11.9 seconds might be deemed as positively pedestrian these days, back then it did the trick in catching the bad guys.

Imagine a time, though, before compulsory seatbelts and relatively relaxed attitudes to drinking and driving. The roads must have been sheer carnage! This point was duly emphasised with this Police car’s colour scheme. The red-painted boot and custom rearward-facing flashing red lights were installed to protect traffic officers after one unfortunate copper was struck while getting out of his vehicle.

Model-Icons has done a creditable job in re-creating this iconic car with a vocational bent. This is a pre-production sample, which does have a couple of anomalies. Firstly, the mirror stems are of the bent variety but they would be straight on the real car. Also, the inner trim on the doors replicates polished hardwood, but the more frugal and spartan Police version stuck with black trim. Both of these, however, will be corrected on the production model. These aside, there is much to covet on this replica.