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Real Life

MAXi-MODELS is one man and man and his cat and a number of highly talented contributors and suppliers. The man is Max Winter. The cat is Ezzie (Esmerelda).  The contributors and suppliers are too numerous to name.

Born 1956, London, UK.

Brought up in the Victoria district, right next door to our seat of government Westminster, imagine growing up and living next door to the Senate Building. Childhood playground, St James Park, the one out front of Buckingham Palace (well known to tourists the world over).

Schooling, both private (boarding) and state education. Early classmate - Dyson team driver (IMSA/ALMS/GrandAm) James Weaver - he was a serious petrol head at the tender age of 11 years, honest.

First job working in a hobby store, 1972, resolved never to make a job out of my hobby again.

Worked in retail, for the world famous Harrods department store, for 10 years. Managed a small sales team in the "Fitness" section of the sports department, but I didn't practice what I preached.

Moved on to business to business sales with the Xerox and Canon organisations for the next 20 years. In other words copiers and digital colour print systems.

Decided to have a midlife crisis and give up the hurly burly of London and corporate life. Sold up and shipped out of town and landed in a little village just 5 miles south of the Silverstone race track (now I wonder how that happened?).

Fell into manufacturing model racing cars by accident - see below.

Interests - Motor sports, mostly historic events these days. Gridiron Football, Patriots supporter for the last 20 years. Sumo wrestling, only as a spectator although I'm just about the right build for it, I like all the tradition and ceremony that surrounds it. Music, all sorts, got to listen to something during the day to keep me sane doing this sort of work. Arts in general. Occasional competitor with a group of friends in outdoor enduro karting events.

Claim to fame - I exist as a character in a children's story written by Count Nikolai Tolstoy ( Leo's nephew). I'm the little kid who spends his time dreaming up contraptions to do away with the head teachers at his school. Nice to know the perception your old English teacher had of you.

The "technical" gene appears to run on my mother's side of the family, although I think the genetic code had become somewhat corrupted by the time it arrived at yours truly.
My grandfather (the one married to the grandmother who made the mistake of leaving me to my own devices at a slot car raceway, see below) was an engineer by trade. During the 20's and 30's he worked for Austin Motors, which included a spell engineering the works team 750 cc monoposto "Brooklands" racers.

Model Life

As a small child avid builder and trasher of plastic kits. First slot car set arrived when I was 5 years old. You have to thank my grandmother though for my real interest in motor sports and slot racing. She made the mistake of "parking" her doted on 10 year old grandson in a commercial raceway while she went shopping one day. That and a picture of "Denny" Hulme and his McLaren M6 on the cover of "Road and Track" seal my fate. There now follows a period of 1/24th scale racing and rising interest in "real" racing cars e.g. Can Am, USAC and NASCAR not to mention NHRA dragsters. Names like Al Unser, Don Garlits and Parnelli Jones rate higher in this kid's mind than home grown Graham Hill, Jimmy Clark and Jackie Stewart. And Mura, Cox and Lancer sure beat the hell out of Scalextric and MRRC at the time.

However girls intervene and interest in slot cars and models diminish. Girls have much greater play value. Still keep an eye on the general model scene by visiting the annual "Model Engineering" exhibition.

Around 1985 I made the mistake of walking into a specialist hobby shop, in the centre of London's theatre-land, that sells diecasts and hand built model racing cars. A very clever shop owner induces the purchase of a "Marsh" hand built 1/43rd scale #5 McLaren M6 (it's that car and driver again). Many more were to follow. Also got back into building models at the same time, 1/43rd's and 1/12th's. Nothing too special, just a (hopefully) nice clean straight build with the odd bit of extra detailing or conversion work sometimes.

Around 1989 I see an article about old Scalextric cars in one of the classic car magazines I buy regularly. Oh dear, it has some contact numbers at the end of it. A new strand to my hobby interest has just emerged. I love the old Scalextric/Revell/Strombecker/Eldon items, especially the accessorising stuff like buildings and figures. It also helped that I had, and still have the same, cat which requires constant entertainment and thought slot cars were the best thing since wind-up mice to go hunting for. Like all predators she goes for the weak ones first and can recognise a sick slot car when she hears one. Open wheelers are her favourite, especially the ones with airfoils, she only has to lazily stick her paw out and hook them by the wing with her claws to register a "kill". She has her own self appointed place on the track to flop out and watch the cars go by.

Around 1990 nothing up to the current quality of Fly and Ninco slot cars existed.  So about 12 years ago I built a slot car up from the only known high detail 1/32nd resin static model at the time, to check the suitability of the materials. The kit was heavily reworked to allow the fitting of a motorised slot car chassis. Remembering some of the tricks from my "commercial raceway" days I made up a "lightweight" brass angle-winder chassis, to allow the retention of a full interior and driver figure. The full sized F40's engine configuration also allowed a lot of exposed detail to be retained in that area to "mask" the model's electric motor. It might be said the first MAXi-MODEL was born then.

I'm still a collector at heart. My new home was chosen for the fact it was the only one the estate agent had that was modestly priced and had a room big enough to put the track and the rest of the collection in.

A MAXi-MODEL is closer to a real race car than you may realise.

MAXi-MODELS lead patternmaker's previous occupation was that of aerodynamic model maker for the TWR Jaguar Le Mans/IMSA team.

Our decal makers are also well known in the UK as suppliers of repro decals and full liveries for full sized historic and modern race cars. There's a good chance that some of the artwork used on a model came from that used on a real race car.

The company that produce our mouldings and castings as well as being rated as the best in the world for this type of work are also known for their prototyping work for BMW, Rover, General Electric and British Aerospace.

  MAXi-MODELS location, 5 miles south of the Silverstone circuit, places it right in the middle of Britain's motor sport industry region. Our near neighbours include the Jordan, Jaguar, BAR, Williams, Arrows & Renault Grand Prix teams and Prodrive (Ferrari GT endurance racing  constructor and Subaru rally team) and countless other specialist suppliers to this industry. We now actually share a supplier for turned parts that also does work for real race car teams. Who knows, those wheels that are on your MAXi-MODEL may have come off the same CNC machine as parts that just flashed by you on a TV screen attached to a real and famous race car.

MAXi-MODELS has its own, in-house, 65 ft scenic layout which is used to test and develop models and new concepts before they go into production and on a post production ongoing basis (ok, I like to play with them). We like to make sure we know they are going to work and be fun to use before they get to you.

More about our test track. Click on picture..............