Loading…
Worlds & Stories
Road icons, racing heritage and the details that make a miniature unmistakable.
Toyota GR86
Bigger engine. More power. Fine, that fits comfortably on a launch poster. The GR86’s more interesting change is where the torque arrives. I went looking for the number with an rpm beside it, because that is where this upgrade starts explaining itself.
Read the deep dive
Toyota MR2
The little green MR2 has a wing that has clearly appointed itself team captain. It is a Hot Wheels ’Tooned interpretation, so literal proportions were never the assignment. The real MR2 made its own, rather more consequential rearrangement: the engine went behind the occupants.
Read the deep dive
Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione
The dark Hot Wheels 8C has a curved bonnet, full wheel arches and the unmistakable triangular grille. It remains recognisably an Alfa at a size where subtle brand strategy would be quite difficult to read. I went back to the design history to see which older cars were in that face.
Read the deep dive
Lamborghini Revuelto
A V12, three electric motors, a battery and a new gearbox. The Revuelto’s component list sounds like everybody arrived at the same party with luggage. The packaging is where this Lamborghini’s hybrid story becomes more interesting than simply adding up the power.
Read the deep dive
Ford Mustang GTD
Usually a car’s rear window is there to show you what is behind it. The Mustang GTD has an additional view concerned with what is happening inside. Its rear suspension sits where Ford thought it deserved an audience. I can understand the impulse. There is quite a lot of Mustang being rearranged back there.
Read the deep dive
Ford Mustang Dark Horse
A suitably ominous name is useful if the car’s main job is appearing on a T-shirt. The Dark Horse had a more demanding assignment: keeping a road-going Mustang interested in repeated track use. I went past the badge and found a fairly substantial conversation about heat.
Read the deep dive
Shelby Cobra 427 S/C
The silver Hot Wheels Fatbax Cobra looks as though the rear tyres submitted the design brief and everybody else had to fit around them. There is still a tiny open roadster between the rubber. I wanted to know how much of the real Cobra story survived this rather enthusiastic exaggeration.
Read the deep dive
Chevrolet Corvette Stingray (C8)
A mid-engined Corvette is an excellent headline. A Corvette that remembers a troublesome driveway is a smaller headline, but I think it explains something useful about the project. The C8 needed dramatic performance and a workable relationship with very undramatic bits of pavement.
Read the deep dive
Bentley Continental GT3
A Continental GT3 carries a recognisable Bentley face into a rather different workplace. The broad coupe becomes a racing car developed around rules, tyres and repeated laps. I wanted to know what remained of the grand tourer once the job description changed.
Read the deep dive
Land Rover Defender 110
The Mini GT box says Defender 110 and 1985. The shape is familiar enough that the name hardly invites a question. The date does. I checked it, and the little County Station Wagon belongs to a part of the story before Defender became the name.
Read the deep dive
McLaren Senna
The rear wing is the obvious place to look. It is large, high and not especially interested in blending in. But the road-going McLaren Senna also uses active aerodynamic surfaces at the front. I wanted to follow the conversation between the two ends instead of letting the largest part monopolise it.
Read the deep dive
Ferrari Testarossa
The horizontal lines are enough to identify a Testarossa long before the badge becomes legible. They are also attached to a less glamorous subject than an eighties poster usually discusses: moving heat out of the car. I followed the radiators, and the wide body started to make more sense.
Read the deep dive