#733 NACORAL S.A. / CHIQUI-CARS – MACO SHARK and PORSCHE 904 (2032 and 2033) (Around 1969)

Finding these two models in such a great condition only happens once in a blue moon. They are really rare models made by Nacoral in Spain. I have talked about this company in several previous articles, so I would recommend you to visit these entries (click here).

Unlike the previous entries, that dealt with cars of 1:43 scale or bigger, this time I also present two cars in 1:64 scale (3 inches). They are two sport cars of the 70s: the Maco Shark (based on a Chevrolet Stingray) and the Porsche 904. Cars in this scale by Nacoral are much rarer than their bigger brothers.

The accuracy of the casts is (in my opinion) worse than the quality of the 1:43 or bigger, these are based on Aurora Cigarbox from the U.S.A, while many of the 1:43 or bigger models are made from casts bought to Polistil or other European manufacturers.

The wheels are very nice, with some silver/chromed painted hubcaps (in the Schuco style) and with nice interiors. The Porsche model still has some stickers, but the Maco Shark probably never carried any.

These models have reference 2032 and 2033, but there were not as many made as that. First I would like to mention that the Chiqui-Car series started as a 1:43 series (see entry #145), including originally plastic models. After some time the models were made die-cast, and the series name changed to Inter-cars. Some models have both plastic and metallic versions, but many others were simply discontinued as new die-cast models were made available.

Why did Nacoral decide then to use the old name “Chiqui-Cars” to the new metallic 1:66 scales series? Proabably because they had the copyright for the name already and that was cheaper than registrating a new name. On top of that “chiqui” has the meaning of something “small”, so, as 1:66 is smaller that 1:43, Chiqui-Cars and Inter-Cars could actually fit very well together. The Chiqui-Cars were also used with some race tracks in the Hot Wheels style, and were advertised as “Pista-matic”, “Pista Rápida Meteoro” or “Pista RR..Rapida” (“Pista RRRápida”). The wheels however are far from the Superfast by Matchbox or the Whizzwheels from Corgi… maybe there were several versions of these Chiqui-Cars wether they were sold with or without track?

So, back to the references, they started in number 2030 and ended in 2035. All references carried an “M” at the end, indicating they were made of metal. So 6 models in total, all copied from foreign makers.

Ref. 2030/M – Chevrolet Camaro
Ref. 2031/M – Ford Mustang
Ref. 2032/M – Mako Shark (in the boxes, Mako is written with “k”)
Ref. 2033/M – Porsche 904
Ref. 2034/M – Pontiac Firebird (cabrio)
Ref. 2035/M - Silhouette

The original Chiqui-Cars series comprised numbers 2000 to 2029 plus two Land Rovers with references 2051 and 2052.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: MACO SHARK and PORSCHE 904 (2032 and 2033) (CHIQUI-CARS)
• Scale: 1:66
• Year: Around 1969
• Company: Nacoral (Spain)
• Size: approx. 6 cm