The Hot Wheels Legends Tour is a series of car shows spanning the U.S and Mexico. The judges are looking for the most creative and coolest cars to turn into a Hot Wheels miniature.
All the winners of the regional car shows meet up at SEMA, in Las Vegas, for a final showdown, judged by the likes of Jay Leno and Richard Rawlings, to see which car will become immortalized in diecast.
I was lucky enough to be able to head to SEMA this year, and was able to get a good look at the Hot Wheels booth.
The Hot Wheels booth was not only host to the Legends Tour, but they also had a display of cars that were full size replicas of some of their toy cars.
The most interesting of these for me was the Twin Mill built by Chip Foose.
This abnormal machine runs on two supercharged Chevrolet big-block V8s which produced a combined output of 1400hp. Yes, it actually runs and drives. The two engines are mated to a single automatic gearbox, which leads back to a single, clearly visible, rear diff. Quite how the two engines are mated to the gearbox is a bit of a mystery I’m afraid. I assume it’s chain or belt driven?
Deora II is a car that I had, and loved, as a kid. This was also built by Chip Foose and runs a Cadillac Northstar V8 on what I believe to be a Dodge A100 van platform.
The Midas Monkey is actually a fairly new tooling in diecast world. Hot Wheels wanted to collaborate with Richard Rawlings of Gas Monkey Garage and this was the result. I think it fits in with Hot Wheels’ unique aesthetic really well!
The famous Darth Vader car. This started out as a Corvette C6 and has been heavily modified. Jay Leno did a great video about the car which I will link below.
‘The Boneshaker’ was rebuilt last year as a part of Hot Wheels’ 50th anniversary celebrations.
‘Rip Rod’ is powered by a 1.0 Ford Ecoboost engine, which was a brand new release when Hot Wheels built the car. It sounds surprisingly good for 1.0 four cylinder.
Then there are the cars from the tour themselves, which are hugely varied and unique.
Renaults are really rare in the U.S!
The work and detail that goes into a lowrider is just incredible! Again, we don’t really see that many in the U.K. We have a lot of cars that would look good in this style though.
The red truck just screams Hot Wheels to me. It really has the aesthetic right.
Shortened Beetle looks like a lot of fun!
Toyota Land Cruiser with a BMW V12.
This is one aggressive looking Civic!
Another vehicle that really gets the Hot Wheels aesthetic. I’d love to see this in 1:64.
There were a couple of V8 S2000s at SEMA. You may see another in a future blog post.
I really like this Opel Manta too! It’s pretty much all S13 underneath.
The car that took the prize and will become a Hot Wheels die-cast, was the Nash Metropolitan: ‘Nashole’
The Nash Metropolitan is a really obscure little car from the 1950s. It was originally built by Austin here in the UK, but was brought into the States under the Hudson/Nash name plate. It was built by Greg Salzillo and Greg Ford and has a 300bhp small block Chevy V8 in that tiny engine bay.
It’s a truly mad thing, and I bet it’s great fun to drive! I’ll look out for it in stores soon!
One of the other judges, Collete Davis, was able to show off her new FC RX7 drift build. I think that it would look good as a Hot Wheels car too! It’s super bright and has a lot of interesting detail in both the livery and the build itself.
Inside is a little simpler. The base colour is white and then bits of pink and yellow have been added where suitable. The seats are lovely! Far too nice for me, I’d soon get them covered in grime haha!
I thought the lightning bolt hydraulic handbrake handle was a cool touch. It was made by Otsuka Maxwell Design.
Thanks for reading!
If you would like to stay up to date with all my blog posts please subscribe to the blog via email (from the box at the bottom of the page). There’s a lot of content from SEMA coming up!
Follow me on the following social media platforms:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/motorsportformentalhealth/
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-francis-b45025137/
Twitter: @richardmsfmh
Instagram: @motorsport4mentalhealth
Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ-j8broFg4i2rWIBy6W82Q
By Richard Francis
