LITTLE AND LARGE

The Little Car Company makes half-size replicas of old racers - and not just for show. Matt Prior attends the inauguration of the adult and child championship

Ettore Bugatti himself first had the idea of making a half-size racer for children.

One of his own cars for one of his own nippers. In 1926, he and his teenaged son Jean set about making a much-reduced Type 35 for his younger boy, Roland, then four. He called it the Bugatti Baby.

Ninety-three years later, the Bicester Heritage-based Little Car Company launched a follow-up, the Baby II, at the Geneva motor show. Remember those? 

The Little Car Company does a mean line in pint-sized luxury sports replicas, electrically powered 75%-scale visual recreations of originals. And even for cynical duffers like me who initially see their prices and imagine a new BMW 3 Series or something even more special on the driveway, it's hard to ignore the craftwork that goes into them.

Baby II bodies are hand-beaten and rolled from aluminium to the dimensions from a 3D scan of an actual 1924 French Grand Prix car.

Components are chosen for both quality and authenticity, and sometimes the end result is more than just licensed by the original maker. The firm's Testa Rossa J has a Ferrari chassis number.

And if I'm mystified by the idea of spending £78,000 on one, well, I'm sure a greater number of people would think it bonkers that I would blow £500,000 on an old Grumman flying boat in a heartbeat.

Besides, the Baby II is a beautifully built recreation of one of the world's most beautiful race cars.