“To Each His Jide”

When you scratch the surface of car culture and go beyond the big names of motorcar manufacturer there are thousands of brands that are relatively unheard but have played huge parts in the history of our four wheeled friends.

Let’s not forget that there was a time when some of the greatest marques had humble beginnings in a barn or a shed and most often than not in some mad man’s head. But there were others, many others that had limited or no success. Jacques Durand was a French gentleman who had partial success but blinding love for building machines.

JIDE The Brand

The brand JIDE ironically started out building engines for scale model airplanes boats and cars as early as 1943. After meeting the father of a racing driver while inspecting his ALPINE A106, Durand began to formulate his own ideas of real car designs. It would be several years and projects later before Durand settled down to build the car that revived his original production name JIDE’

Group 4 Racer

This 2 Door Coupe had a bit pf success in the rally circuit due to its amazing curb weight of 670kg and weight distribution of 44/56% front/rear. It was propelled by a Renault 807 Cleon-Alu series engine that had a paltry 86Hp.

But, this naturally aspirated, rear wheel drive rocket was about the size of Kylie Minouge and with that weight made it possible to throw around sharp corners and wrangle dirt tracks with ease. Its also worthy to note that when tested for homologation it turns out that this is a very safe little car.

Otto Mobile 1/18

I found out about this little wonder when it was released as a model in 1/18 scale by Otto Mobiles. Being curious about virtually unknown brands I was excited to get my hands on this and then dig up some history.

You can see many influences at play here by Durand. He was obviously taken up by the design of the FORD GT40 which was ripping up LeMans at the time. Then there is a touch of the Alpine 110 , nuances from Renault. Being a resin model its surprisingly light (laughing to myself at the irony of that statement.)

Sadly, being resin means sealed body and not being able to enjoy the detailed interior, but what a great piece of motor history to own from a time when super cars of that era were hand built. True accomplishment and what a great way to represent the sentiment.

Beautiful reproduction of the wheels. Slightly deep with the dark gold 6 spoke centre and disc brakes mounted behind them. The Rallye fog lights in front a pair in whit and a pair in yellow. Otto Mobile have a great command and supply of Rally cars in its arsenal and this one is really nice.

Conclusion

I really love how this little gem popped out from the blue and this is one of the reasons I like Otto Mobile. They have a good selection of rally cars and very adventurous in their selection. French design in cars can go either way and has caused many debates in the past. The JIDE is daring but plucky and that’s what makes it so popular in real life and I think as a scale model it still holds a lot of character.