Mini Longroof: 1976 Grand LeMans Safari by Greenlight

One of the things that has gotten me excited the past few years is how many of the current diecast model companies have been releasing makes and models I never, ever expected to be produced in scale. Cars from the ’70s and ’80s that weren’t Camaros, Mustangs and Corvettes. Cars I remember from my childhood and various and sundry ’80s TV shows watched in my formative years.

Case in point. Greenlight has recently released the Colonnade Pontiac LeMans wagon in several different versions. They’ve even released a wagon version of Buford T. Justice’s Montague County, TX LeMans. Yes, really, I saw one at Hobby Lobby last week.

But the ones that really tripped my trigger were the silver blue metallic 1977 Pontiac LeMans Safari and red on red 1976 Grand LeMans Safari, complete with opening rear tailgate, painted in authentic colors, and located by your author recently.

While they really should have whitewall tires (probably 75% of these rolled out of the factory and onto the transporter with them), and while the wheels are similar to the correct Rally II wheels, they’re not strictly stock, I still can’t help but love them.

But remember, I’m the kind of person who will walk directly past a row of Corvettes to seek out a 1977 LTD Landau, 1970 Valiant or 1979 LeBaron Town & Country, so that’s just par for the course for me.

The detail is very good for a Matchbox-sized model, and at about 5-7 bucks a pop, a pretty good deal for an offbeat model. Seriously, who else but Greenlight, or perhaps Auto World, would make a scale model of one of these?

Anyway, they’re out there on the pegs, or on the various diecast websites (like Diecast Direct) as of this writing. If you’re intrigued, seek them out.