NEW M ODEL BARMY We meet the model car collector whose
THE owner of one of the biggest private model car collections in the United Kingdom gives us a stark warning as we admire his vast miniature motor museum: don’t let it get out of control.
“Don’t do what I did – don’t collect everything!” adds Marian Gradus, as we’re allowed a privileged private tour of his lifetime’s passion. “Watch yourself, because this can grow like mushrooms after rain.”
Marian has owned 15 cars in real life, beginning with a Renault 10 and culminating in the unique gold Nissan Micra C+C on his driveway today. But shrink his love for all things automotive down 43 times and he’s owned some 5,000 examples and counting. It all started in his native Poland in the mid-fifties. The country was locked away behind the Iron Curtain and the motoring scene was gloomy, but his grandfather made his living by finding and
