Focal Point By Steve Butler December 2025

Pictured are two 8-inch friction powered plastic stock cars made by Saunders circa 1952. Unlike today’s NASCAR “stock” cars, these were renditions of actual road going vehicles adapted for racing. Typically mostly older model cars were used, and many of them were Fords. These two seem to be 1937 Ford coupes despite others considering them to be 1936 and/or 1940 Fords. In addition to condition, the car colors and the presence of the removable hood are very important factors for these toys.

A search of prior reported sales turned up 65 of these stock cars. Of those 59 were red. That’s 90.8 percent. The remaining 6 examples were either blue or green (3 each) or about 4.6 percent each. The number of these stock cars still having their original hood was only about 21.5 percent. Continuing with the possibly boring numerical details, the number of other than red examples with the hood drops to less than 1 percent.

The pictured green stock car with its original box and being seemingly new old stock was acquired at a toy show in 1996 and was a very lucky find. Consider it to be very scarce. The red example was definitely new old stock. It was acquired from a former toy distributor (i.e. wholesaler) in 1992 and was part of a multiple toy transaction at his home where much of his leftover and unsold stock was stored. The seller had removed his examples of these stock cars from their boxes and had then repackaged them in clear plastic bags each accompanied with a side panel from their original box. Nevertheless, they were still new old stock and retaining their original hood.

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