Collecting F1 models was approaching its peak in the early 00's and so the competition for limited editions was becoming more fierce and resellers were starting to catch on. That being said the competitive hunt for LE's was still fun if you had a shop that kept you in the loop about upcoming releases and - most importantly - if they would get stock. 

So when word got out in early 2002 that there would be an "Event Car" release for that years Canadian GP there was a mild fever amongst collectors. That low temp didn't last long as once actual details of the model got out, die hards and collection completists were frothing. 

The model was commissioned by Canadian toy distributor Borgfeldt Canada giving them creative control over both the livery and decision to limit the production to 2002 units. But most importantly it would make them the exclusive Minichamps distributor with the model. This apparently caused panic for UK/EU collectors because for the first time their shops would have to secure stock from Canada. 

A month or two later the livery drawings were released and it was clear that with The GPF1 Group (former organiser of the Canadian GP) logo being featured so prominently, in addition to branded Michelin tyres, there would be promotional loss on the overall numbers availible to the public. 

Hype around the release would hit it's high not long after when it was announced that Honda Canada would be taking a large percentage of the production for promotion. The story goes that Honda was very wishy washy with Borgfeldt when approached to be a corporate sponsor on the car, and actually waited until after the livery released to say they wanted in. Requesting their logo be featured on the car's nose, they were informed the model was already in production and it was too late. Discovering they couldn't get the cars stamped anywhere in time, Honda bought an initially undisclosed number of models to "stamp" themselves. 

It would eventually come out that Honda hired people¹ to hand paint their logo on the nose as well as their name on on the outward facing side of the air cover. More interesting was the disclosure that only 180 were completed in time for the race, so not only was the promotional loss better than expected, but there was an even **rarer** version out there for hardcore hunters. I myself haven't come across one in person, but apparently there's quite a range in the quality of how 'Honda' is written across the 180. 

One of the cool Easter eggs from these old Minichamps "Event Car" releases was each individual car got stamped on the bottom of the floor with its production number. This gave number hunting maniacs some real gems, I remember one guy on a forum desperately trying to find №420. 

Anyway that's all I got, hope you enjoyed a little background story to the most hyped non-team specific model release I can remember. 

¹there was also a rumor that it was actually entry level staff from Honda Canada's PR department. If anyone reading ever got confirmation on that I'd love to know. 

The Most Hyped Model Ever*