California Highway Patrol CHP Volvo S70-T5 Test Vehicle 1/43 *LAST ONE!

Minichamps California Highway Patrol CHP S70 T5 Test Vehicle 1 OF A KIND Extremely Accurate Replica of the actual CHP Police Vehicle Test & Evaluation Program Volvo S70 T5 Test Car "Slicktop" (see photos) 1/43 scale Volvo S70 Police Sedan with dual metal post mounted spotlights with red driver side spotlight built on an Imported from Germany NIB "Paul's Model Art" of Germany Minichamps Brand Limited Volvo Dealer Edition S70 Promotional model which was first custom painted by Dan at "Pocket Cruisers" to his usual standard which is absolute perfection and attention to every detail, custom Code 7 decal work, dual custom hand painted metal spotlights with red drivers side spot, hand painted resin rear deck mounted directional amber arrow stick, hand painted resin rear deck dual red & blue strobes, custom front bumper CHP style push bar, Clear Coat Sealant and diecast wax buffing all hand crafted by PoliceDiecastDecals.com this car is very unique and an extremely accurate and highly detailed replica of the actual "Slicktop" version which is one of the 3 "in-service" CHP Police Volvo S70 T5 Test Vehicle Sedans. We have only one of these left to sell so upon request it can have an accurate overhead CHP Vector lightbar added. Brand new in the Minichamps factory clear plastic display case and outer Volvo Dealer sleeve/box. If you have questions don't hesitate to ask. ***Shipping on this model includes tracking & insurance. ***NOTE: We have now sold all but 1...so we now have only this one left! This will be the last one we ever make!!! When it's gone that's it...no more!!!

NOTE: OK, now that I got the official description out of the way, for those of you fellow hard core collectors still interested enough in this unusual model to still be reading I thought an explanation of sorts was in order since the painfully obvious giant white elephant in the room is of course "Why is the price of this model so absurd that it's obscene?" A fair question, which I will do my best to answer as briefly as possible. I'm sure we all have our own little "angle" or favorite genre that we either started or add to our collections from. Mine happens to be California, Federal and non U.S. public safety vehicles with an emphasis on 1 of a kinds, limited evaluation and test vehicles pretty much in that order. So as you might imagine this CHP Volvo is all of that rolled into one car. What started out as a simple desire to create this model replica became a year long obsession that had I been thinking clearly I would have given up after finding out what would be involved. But after seeing photos of these cars I happened to attend the famous Barrett-Jackson Classic Car auction & car show in Las Vegas in 2005 and CHP happened to have a booth where they were representing & recruiting and I had the pleasure of seeing and sitting in one of these CHP Volvo's in person. It was like it was meant to be for me and I was determined to make these cars not just for myself but for customers thinking that like Gearbox or anything else I would start out with a couple of cases of these bad boys and make them a regular offering. Long story short I made an effort to obtain them in quantity from all of my Minichamps sources in Europe. Of course it had to be the exact Volvo S70 model or I didn't feel it was worth doing. As it turned out this particular model was almost impossible to find because it was a "dealer only" promotional model that none of the wholesale distributers had available to sell. I didn't give up, even after months of searching to no avail. Finally I contacted Volvo Group Automotive in Sweden and after just a little effort actually was in contact with the law enforcement division rep who handles LE sales to most of the European LE market where the Volvo police model is about equal to the Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor in the U.S. in popularity. After explaining my idea for the project he understood and was very helpful in supplying me with a source list of dealers that stock the models to sell to customers since Volvo really has very little to do with the actual scale model cars other than licensing and approving the process and Minichamps while not the exclusive maker is certainly the major player and produces most of the high end & certainly most accurate European cars of any diecast manufacturer in the world. This is no secret in the world of diecast collectors. The problem was these S70's were already long out of production with no plans to do another run since they were already several years ahead in production of more current versions...therefore my idea of "I'll start with a couple of cases and see how they go" was a pipe dream at best since there was not even one case available anywhere. In the end with the help of a Minichamps rep I was able to find only a few cars at a couple of dealers in the Netherlands. For which I had to pay "full tilt" retail to obtain plus obscene shipping charges since the dealers had no interest in being responsible for shipping the cars to the United States. So I had FedEx pick the cars up from the dealers which was not without considerable cost which when added to the retail cost each dealer charged for the cars which drove per unit cost up considerably. After arriving in the U.S. I had additional shipping costs in getting them to & from our painter as well as painting costs. We also learned the hard way that Minichamps without a doubt fit & finish wise makes probably the nicest most accurate precision scale models in the world...but they are nowhere near as durable as the Gearbox, Road Champs & Auto Art cars I'm used to taking apart and putting back together in short order to work on. So between taking them apart to paint and taking them apart for the interior install of the up-fit parts...we lost one "to experience" shall we say since we took it apart one too many times and ended up with a "parts car"! Well that's about it, this ended up being a long & very expensive project but I added the CHP S70 T5 Test Car to my collection and if you would like to add one to yours here it is...the cost is unfortunately based on the simple division of way too high of a per unit cost spread over way too few units to make it affordable to everyone...but if you want one as badly as I did here it is. It's not for everyone at this price which was not my intention, actually quite the opposite since I hoped to make many and offer them at an affordable price to a broad audience, but even though that was not possible for me it was worth it to complete my CHP collection and if you feel the same here's a chance to obtain one for yours as well. THIS IS OUR LAST ONE, THIS MODEL WILL NOT BE REPEATED!