A LIFE IN MINIATURE

James A Sommerin has been fulfilling people's dreams for the past fifteen years by creating individual hand made fine art 1:8 scale models of famous historic grand prix and sports racing cars for discerning automobile collectors, museums, celebrities and fellow petrol heads worldwide.
 
James originally trained in graphic design and as a technical engineer which included time spent with a luxuary high performance boat builder's and an international grand prix team working on the last of the great two stroke 500cc motorcycles.

Then after a chance meeting in 1993 James moved away from Hampshire, He started work at Presentation Models in the beautiful Cornish fishing village of St Ives in the West Country. During his time at the studio he learnt enjoyable new large scale model making skills and produced models of racing Jaguar's, Maserati's, Ferrari's, Porsche's and Mercedes-Benz's.

This also revived his passion for the charismatic Le Mans and grand prix cars he had watched race as a child. As shown here at even a year old james was always interested in old racing cars and the intoxicating smell of Castrol "R", during his childhood James was very lucky to be taken to various race meetings, private museums and classic car gatherings all over the U.K. and Europe in the late 1970's and in the 1980's.
 
His motoring mad parents owned many different old Jaguar's and various other old pre- and post-war sportscars and at times getting to these events meant James leaving direct after classes at school on a Friday afternoon to travel accross France or Italy to a distant race meeting held over the weekend and then returning direct from the return cross channel ferry crossing and back to school gates first thing on a Monday morning. This was always a great talking point with the other pupils when asked the question "What did you do last weekend?".

In 1999 James co-founded the well publicized " Monoposto Collection ", with these new works they took the model makers art and the exclusive 1:8 scale model market to new heights in terms of detail and improved quality. During his time with the Monoposto Collection James helped to create 3 different 1:8 scale models of monoposto grand prix cars. These editions included the 1952 Alberto Ascari 500 Ferrari, the 1965 Graham Hill BRM P261 and the last model in the collection the 1938 Mercedes-Benz W125 Silver Arrow, each of these different models were strictly limited to 100 examples worldwide.
 
Then in 2001 James moved back from Cornwall to the New Forest in Hampshire, and here he founded the Auto-Racing studio.

Using the experience gained with producing the Monoposto Collection 1:8 scale models the new Auto-Racing studio has produced very exclusive limited production runs of diverse subjects some that have rarely been created as a miniature replica in the past.

These new subjects have been featured in Motorsport, Octane, Classic & Sportscar, Evo and Vintage Motorsport magazines and included the 1948 Talbot-Lago T26C "monoplace", 1952 Le Mans Aston-Martin DB3S and the 1936 ERA "Voiturette" and more recently the completion of the first of the new 1:8 scale 1963 Jim Clark Lotus 25's.
 
Unlike the models James had created before these new Auto-Racing fine art models now have full visible engine detail and removable body panels, yet again taking these 1:8 scale models to a higher level of detail and realism.

"For the new models we are pushing the boundry's further by using many more exacting engineering materials and methods than previously, including a couple of world first's.
This constant improvement includes the use of carbon fibre, sand cast aluminum, brass, bronze and even titanium in some of our models. We now also have close ties with a couple of very well known engineering companys in the motorsport industry which has helped us to improve the quality of our machined components and some of the new techniques that are used in the creation of the models.
However we have been careful that these new museum quality models have not lost the feeling and patina of a warm racing car as it is pushed back into the paddock after a victorious race"
 
Since 2007 the studio has been concentrating on the production of the 1963 Lotus 25's and the new patterns for the later type 33 variation's.
 
Recently James has also been developing two new 1:8 scale models. There is a prototype model of the Le Mans entered Daytona Cobra Coupe (Chassis number CSX 2299) in the studio and due for a release in 2010. Secondly Auto-Racing is proud to have been chosen to create the highest quality models of the stunning Spyker C8 as shown below, this masterpiece is being produced in collaboration with the bespoke Dutch Supercar manufacturer.

Then in the spring of 2009 James moved the Auto-Racing studio back to the far west of Cornwall to the historic industrial town of Hayle. Please see our new studio section of the website for more details on the new studio.

when not busily working on the scale Lotus models James can be found running and sometimes racing various classic motorcycle including his original 1955 Velocette MSS