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In 1986, when my son was but ten years old, he was helping me to look for a book, which I had mislaid. The book in question was Vanwall by Denis Jenkinson and Cyril Posthumus, of which young James knew nothing.

However, it was James who found the book and called to me from the next room: "Is this it Daddy, the one with the olden days cars on the front?"

Not long afterward I met Stirling Moss at the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide and recounted the tale of the book to him. "Cheeky young bugger," he said.

Of course, few of us can afford to own olden days racers, and there are nowhere near enough Vanwalls to go around, even for those who can afford them.

Many enthusiasts bow to reality and collect models of their favourite racing cars, or cars from their favourite period. I have been collecting for a long time, more recently aided and abetted by my wife, and we have a substantial collection of diecast static models and slot racing models.

Over the years I have accumulated a number of model Vanwalls, including the now sought after Dinky model (bottom left in picture below). The somewhat more accurate Brumm model (not pictured) is also in the collection plus a 1:52 scale model from the Wrenn Formula 152 slot racing range of about 40 years ago (bottom right).

We have also two varieties of 1:32 scale slot racing Vanwalls, the older one from MRRC (top left), which I bought by mail order in late 1987, and the superb recently released model from Scalextric. The MRRC model is in a most unlikely shade of yellow, when the full size car never appeared in anything but a very dark green. I've never been able to fathom why the model should be yellow.

The nearest to the correct colour is the Scalextric car, top right in the picture above.

Of course there are many other models of 1950s racers in our collection and the picture of the assortment below proves my contention that 1950s racers had style. It was also difficult to mistake one for another, as each manufacturer had its own style.

Again there are models from MRRC and Scalextric for comparison. The differences between the excellent Scalextric Maserati 250F and the MRRC model behind it are not as obvious as in the case of the Vanwall models. MRRC at least coloured the Maserati red.

The sports cars are (top left) an Aston Martin DB3, then from left to right, Mercedes-Benz 300SLR, D-Type Jaguar, Maserati A6GCS and a white Ferrari Testa Rossa. The colours for the D-Type and Testa Rossa are acceptable as both prototypes were raced by private owners in their own colours.

Our track in the spare bedroom is Ninco from Dave’s Hobby Centre in Sawyers Valley (www.hobbycentre.com.au) and recent purchases are mainly from Stanbridge’s Hobbies in Mt Lawley (www.stanbridges.com.au).