Car brands are famously protective of their badges, which makes what Hedley Studios has pulled off genuinely unusual. The British start-up has secured official permission from Ferrari, Bugatti, Bentley, Aston Martin and — with its newest model — Porsche to build scaled-down electric recreations of their most iconic machines. These aren't toys. They're collector items for adults, many of whom already own the full-size originals.

The latest addition is the 550J, an 80 percent-scale nod to Porsche's 550 Spyder from the 1950s — the marque's first purpose-built racer, famous both for wins at the Carrera Panamericana and Targa Florio and, more grimly, as the car James Dean crashed fatally. Hedley built the junior version with the Porsche Museum's blessing: the museum supplied original technical drawings for the chassis and suspension, and a genuine 550 was 3D-scanned so the carbon fiber body reproduces those curves exactly. Even the badges are real Porsche parts.

Pricing sits well below the real thing — a proper racing-history 550 now costs around £3.5m, while the 550J starts at £69,500 before bespoke paint and trim, which make each car unique. There's also an RS Pack that nearly doubles output to 21 bhp, adds drilled discs and adjustable Bilstein dampers, and lifts top speed to 50mph with a 50-mile range. Weighing just 330kg, the little Porsche is reportedly genuinely fun to drive — wind noise and all.

The client list tells you how this niche works. One American couple race down their driveway each morning with a stopwatch and log times on a leaderboard. A Dutch owner road-registered his Hedley Bugatti and has covered 10,000km commuting and walking the dog. Another car had to be assembled inside a Manhattan apartment because it wouldn't fit up the service lift. Some owners match the paint to their 1950s Ferraris.

Hedley builds the cars by hand at Bicester Heritage, a converted RAF airbase in Oxfordshire that has become a hub for Britain's collector and competition car scene. Around 600 cars have gone to clients in more than fifty countries, and first 550J deliveries arrive from early next year, with bespoke builds taking three months to a year.

For travellers, this is a good excuse to add Oxfordshire to a car-themed trip through the UK. Bicester Heritage hosts events and is within easy reach of other motoring landmarks, and seeing these miniatures in the workshops where they're built beats any showroom visit.

Story via Elite Traveler.