Can You Hear The Wind?

In 2010 Jun Imai captured the Mazda Furai as one of Hot Wheels new models.  Though only a concept car the Furai is a fully functional car featuring a 3-rotor Wankel motor pumping out 450bhp and has been put through it's paces on various race tracks including Laguna Seca. I think the Furai was well deserving of some racing shoes. Zoom Zoom.

Real Riders on One Hot Jeep Scrambler

Cruising Wal-mart the other day and I came across this awesome Larry Wood Jeep Scrambler from Hot Wheels new Hot Ones series.  I did have to put some Real Riders on to bring back the off-road appeal.  Overall, a very cool truck, a new favorite.

Swap Shop - Renault Megane Trophy

In 2011 Hot Wheels added the Renault Megan Trophy to their ranks.  A race version of the Megane RS, the Megane Trophy was built to take on the Renault Eurocup, though it has also been spotted on the touring car circuit as well as the Toyo Tires 24 Hour in Dubai.  As the track is the natural setting for the Megane Trophy I decided  to throw on some high performance wheels and tires. Pretty sweet!

The Datsun Bluebird 510: Soaring with Eagles

Known as the 'poor mans BMW' the Datsun Bluebird 5120 has a die-hard following even to this day.  Hot Wheels 2012 Faster Than Ever series introduces an awesome Datsun Bluebird 510.  Jun Imai really captured the excitement of this little sports coupe and I am happy to be able to add this latest paint scheme to my collection.  I do have one issue though.  Many of you may share my sentiment when I say, the new Faster Than Ever wheels are, indeed, uglier than ever.  It is with much rejoicing and no sorrow that I can show off the Datsun 510 with its new wheels and I shiny new set of Goodyear Eagles.

Is it a Crime?

I really like the graphics on the Hot Wheels 2009 Ford F-150, but a question remains.  Is it criminal to load up some Matchbox wheels underneath?  If so I'm guilty as charged, but she sure is a beauty.

Real Rubber on a Hemi Challenger

I love collecting cars with racing graphics.  In the case of the '70 Dodge Hemi Challenger this only makes a good thing even better.  A perfect example is the Challenger from the 2010 Hot Wheels Mystery series.  The only thing missing was some nice racing rubber to help keep the shiny side up.

Some sweet Goodyear Eagle tires donated by an old Revell stock car finishes things off nicely.

Livening Up the Dewart Lancer Evo X

The Dewart 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X appeared in the 2009 Hot Wheels Faster Than Ever series.  Unfortunately I do not have a white version (if you are willing to part with one or two send me an email), but that doesn't mean I can't spruce up the dark red version I do have. 

After I had the car drilled and Dremel'd I started things off by swapping out the funky tinted windows for some nice clear ones.  Next I ditched those FTE wheels for some chrome Y5's.  Last but not least was a Z-bar to give it that mid-drift look.  Sweet.

Swap Shop - Top Secret Nissan 350Z

Just tricked-out my Hot Wheels Nissan Z with some nice 10-spokes and a Z bar.

Swap Shop - '70 Camaro Road Race

In the late sixties a road racing series began in the United States.  While the muscle cars dominated the straight line of the quarter mile, these road racers had to due something that muscle cars were notoriously bad at - turn.  Even today there are some who would think that a smaller engine, bigger brakes and a bigger suspension is just lunacy, it was the perfect recipe for what became perhaps the greatest road racing series this side of the Atlantic - the Trans-Am.

For 2011 Dave Weise put together the '70 Camaro Road Race.  Based on the 1970 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 race car, built in the Trans-Am's golden era, to take on Ford's Boss 302 Mustang which began dominating the Trans Am race series in '69.  I think DW did a great job in capturing the spirit of one of the US's greatest road racing cars.

In line with its racing heritage I swapped in some wheels from an old Racing Champions NASCAR model I scored off of ebay a while back. Oh yeah, she's a real looker now!

Look Down On Your Prey with a Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Lift Kit

I have been wanting to lift the Matchbox Ford F-150 SVT Raptor for quite some time now.  Thanks to my recent experience making the Z bars for my drift cars I had an idea.  In the past my 'lift kits' had consisted of multi-piece chassis that frequently involved more than a bit of cutting and grinding to accomplish.  Another down side with that technique is that it is very hard to find a donor that has wheels that align properly with the wheel-wells on the new truck.  Even then, you may think you have it right only to find that you have just spent an hour grinding away on something destine for the junkyard.

Now that I was almost certain that my Raptor would not end up in the junkyard I set to work.  I carefully drilled the pilot holes in the posts, taking extra care to not break through the plastic floor of the truck bed.  Once I had Dremelled through the mushrooms and cleaned up the posts I set to work making Z bars from .032 brass rod that would accommodate the massive tires I planned on stuffing under the Raptor.

The only modification that I had to make on the chassis was to file some channels for the Z bar to rest in so they would not float about. This was done using a triangular file.  Once the Z bars were mounted I pinched the chassis and the interior together to keep the axles from moving as I mounted the wheels using the .031 crimp tubes I had picked up from the craft store.  This time around I added the slightest drop of super glue gel to help hold the crimp tubes in place.  In mounting the full size spare I did have to do a bit of grinding and drilling but I figured that the results had been so good that I had no problem committing to finish the overall look of the truck.

Z Bar Drift Battle!

I spent some time making Z-bars for a couple of my drift cars today so I figured that a battle was in order.

On the first pass the Hot Wheels Nissan 350Z started things off.  For the second pass the Hot Wheels 24/Seven custom Mazda RX-7 took the lead.

You can Countach on it!

Check out the new kicks on my Lamborghini Countach!  The Johnny Lightning wheels really spruce up the Hot Wheels casting.

I really like the racing tampos but I think this one needs a spoiler.  Or should it get two ala Cannonball Run?

Z Barring the Evo X

After watching a video from one of my favorite peeps on YouTube I decided to give it a shot myself.  'Give what a shot?', you say.  Well making my very own Z bar, of course!

I decided to test it out on a Hot Wheels Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X that I had in my parts box.  I thought the Z bar would be the perfect thing to give my drift cars the look of counter-steering through the corners.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

To see how I did it, you can watch the video that inspired me here.  The only thing I did differently was to use  .032 brass rod for the axles.  For some reason I didn't need any superglue because the crimp tubes had a pretty snug fit on the brass rod, maybe just a fluke.

Breaking Baja

I have a kind of love-hate thing with the Hot Wheels Baja Breaker.  I love the off-road van schtick and the little details like the round portholes and window louvers.  The thing I don't like, nah, even hate is that the axles always seem to be way too long.  When the wheels stick almost completely outside of the wheel-well it is not a pretty thing.

So after drilling and tapping (an all that) I opened up the Baja Breaker and I face another problem.  In most modern die-cast that I have worked on there are posts that hold down the axles in addition to the small clips folded over the axles.  The Baja Breaker is an exception, the only thing retaining the axles are the plastic clips folded over the axles.  This required a bit of ginger manipulation but I was able to flex the chassis enough to squeeze the axles past the clips.  Truth be told I would be reluctant to perform a swap on one of these in the future unless I could find a more sure-fire way to secure the axles.

So here you have it, the Baja Breaker with some nice Matchbox wheels.  A thing of beauty.