Legend has it that one of America's most famous brands got its start when its founder was challenged to build a better car.

His response? "I will." And he did.

Thus was born Packard, the late, great luxury car firm whose products are still hotly sought after by collectors willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars or more for one decades after the company closed its doors.

On a much smaller scale, Brian Dunning, a former used car salesman and owner of a body shop, did much the same thing when he founded West Coast Precision Diecast, which sells highly detailed ¹/₂₄-scale model cars.

"I was tired of problems with other people's model cars and decided to improve upon what others did," said Mr. Dunning, who founded his company 2^{1/₂ years ago. "I took that idea further and put more and more detail into my models to make them more realistic. I ended up putting my life savings into it."}

_{As the name would imply, West Coast Precision Diecast is based in California, but its design engineer, Paul Kravchak, lives in a suburb of Philadelphia.}

_{"People from the other companies would say, 'You will never be able to do it. You won't be able to compete,' " said Mr. Kravchak. "Brian's response was, 'We'll just see if that's true.' "}

_{Most collectors who posted comments on model car Web sites think he's succeeded grandly. The current model portfolio includes 1959, 1961 and 1962 Impala hardtops and convertibles in a variety of colors, engines and equipment.}

_{"The fit and finish on my model is flawless. The paint is gorgeous and glasslike. Color, lines, detail -- it's all there," said one collector.}

_{That attention to detail is especially noteworthy considering the models are ¹/}24-scale, not the larger and more popular ¹/₁₈-scale.

_{The Impala series includes ash trays and glove boxes that open, folding seats with authentic fabric designs, readable gauges, steel brake and fuel lines, steel clamps on soft hoses for the engine and removable hubcaps that come in two styles. There also are removable fender skirts and both "up" and "down" tops for convertibles.}

_{Each model comes with a history of the car it replicates, along with an "owner's manual" with operation tips, cleaning, storage and display suggestions.}

_{There are 1,500 or fewer models being built for each color available in the Impala collection. The cars are each priced at $150, plus shipping costs.}

_{As model car collecting gains momentum, it's easy to see why some of those collectors might want to start a model-making business.}

_{But if they do, they had better have deep pockets, said Mr. Dunning and Mr. Kravchak. "A good estimate would be about a quarter of a million dollars for each model you want to produce," Mr. Kravchak said.}

_{The process starts with a selection of the car that will be reproduced, followed by 300 to 500 photographs taken of almost every inch of the car. Then ¹/}12-scale body shape molds -- clay mockups -- are made, followed by construction of ¹/₁₂ scale working models that have every operational feature planned for the production model. From that steel molds are made, and eventually production can begin.

_{"The production companies that actually build the cars want a minimum order even to produce them. They just won't make 100 model cars for you to sell. They want you to commit to several thousand model cars for them to build before you even have start-up of a production line," Mr. Kravchak added.}

_{Given the expense, it's fair to wonder why Mr. Dunning didn't choose to do a ¹/}18-scale model, which is more popular and easier to sell than the smaller scales -- and they cost about the same to produce.

_{"It's mostly because Brian's store sells Danbury and Franklin Mint models, and they're ¹/}24-scale. Brian believes that most of the high-end collectors these days are still collecting ¹/₂₄-scale," Mr. Kravchak said. "We also found on surveys that most of the guys collecting the ¹/₂₄-scale are older, and it reminds them of the model kits that they built up."

_{Not that there aren't problems with ¹/}24-scale modeling. For example, the steering rim can't be done at the scale or it would break, so it's a little larger. The emblems are bigger, too, just so it's possible to see them.

_{Mr. Dunning also found other challenges running his business, in part because "I thought the marketplace was larger than it really is.'' Sales of toy cars and trucks, a category that includes model cars, fell 10 percent last year to $1.8 billion, according to a study by The NPD Group for the Toy Industry Association.}

_{Part of the issue is that younger people "are into computers and other things,'' Mr. Kravchak said. "If they want [car] models at all, they want the larger ¹/}18-scale.''

_{Still, Mr. Dunning is encouraged by the reaction to his models -- so far.}

_{"I'm just lucky that we're sitting high on the list of most collectors,'' he said, "but I know that can change if I make one mistake or slip."}