In the 1980s and 1990s, the most important company producing scale model cars in Portugal was Vitesse. Until its collapse in 2001, Vitesse was manufacturing current and classic cars in 1/43rd scale and trucks in 1/50th scale. The Vitesse group started using varios labels (Vitesse: road cars and rally cars; Onyx: Formula 1 and touring cars; Quartzo: classic racing cars and NASCAR models; City: commercial vehicles) and produced models for other companies, such as the Rextoys range for the Swiss model train manufacturer Fulgurex, and the Macadam models for the Hapax company in Geneva. Production of Vitesse models was moved to China around 1995, and after 2001 several Chinese companies continued to produce modelcars designed by Vitesse. Another Portuguese model manufacturer is Troféu. This company released its first model in 1990 and is specialized in 1/43rd scale rally cars. Last but not least the Swiss company Tek-Hoby manufactured a range of resin model cars in Portugal. But there have been model cars made in Portugal for decades: Jato, Osul, Leiria, Radar and others, as well as, more recently, Pe-Pe produced plastic models in rather big scales, Ribeirinho copied German Wiking models, Metosul made re-editions of old models made by Corgi, Solido and other manufacturers from 1965 to 1990, Luso released a range of 1/43rd scale diecast and plastic cars in the 1970s, and Novacar and Poliguri offered toy cars in about 1/60th scale. The French companies Solido and Norev also manufactured model cars in Portugal in the 1980s. Models of Portuguese original cars are very rare, but Del Prado released an UMM Alter off-roader as a fire brigade vehicle in one of their partworks.
Portugal