Tuesday, January 27, 2015

2015 Hot Wheels Speed Test: '69 Chevelle SS 396


The '69 Chevelle SS 396 is a Hot Wheels casting based on the production car of the same name.  The Chevelle weighs in at 36 grams. he Chevelle finished in a time of 1.8976 seconds.  Check out the video below and then click here to see how it compares to the other 2015 cars.


2015 Hot Wheels Speed Test: '69 Dodge Charger 500


The '69 Dodge Charger 500 is a new model for 2015.  It weighs in at 40 grams. The Charger finished in 1.8972 seconds. Check out the video below then click here to see where that ranks among the 2015 cars.

2015 Hot Wheels Speed Test: Corvette Grand Sport Roadster


The Corvette Grand Sport Roadster is a new model for 2015.  It weighs in at 35 grams.  For the official timed run, the Corvette flew down the track and finished in 1.8426 seconds.  Check out the video below and then click here to see where that ranks among the 2015 cars.



2015 Hot Wheels Speed Test: Morris Mini


The Morris Mini weighs in at 43 grams. For its official timed run it was matched up against Twinduction.



The Morris Mini finished it's run in 1.98 seconds while Twinduction finished in 1.99 seconds.  Click here to see where that ranks among the 2015 cars.





2015 Hot Wheels Speed Test: 1971 Buick Riviera


The 1971 Buick Riviera is based on the actual General Motors production vehicle. It was sometimes called the "Boattail" because of it's elongated rear window. The Buick comes in at 40 grams. The Buick finished in 1.8780 seconds. Check out the video below then click here to see where it ranks among the 2015 cars.


Saturday, January 24, 2015

Hot Wheels AcceleRacers

Hot Wheels AcceleRacers is an animated series of movies by Mattel. It is computer-animated, produced by Mainframe Entertainment out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which also produced ReBoot. Available on DVD and VHS, it has also been shown on Cartoon Network's Toonami. The show takes Mattel's Hot Wheels toy cars and puts them in a ReBoot-like situation, with racing somewhat reminiscent of Tron. This is a sequel series to Hot Wheels Highway 35. Both shows take place in California.

There are four DVDs in the series. They constitute one continuous story. In story order they are: Ignition (60 min)
The Speed of Silence (60 min)
Breaking Point (60 min)
The Ultimate Race (60 min)














Sunday, January 4, 2015

Larry Wood




In the 1970s Howard Rees was tired of designing cars. He wanted to work on the Major Matt Mason action figure toy line-up. Rees had a good friend by the name of Larry Wood. They had worked together at Ford designing cars. When Wood found out about Hot Wheels at a party Rees was holding, Rees offered Wood the job of designing Hot Wheels. Wood agreed, and by the end of the week, Larry Wood was working at Mattel. His first design would be the Tri-Baby (1970). After 40 years, Larry retired to his garage. He was inducted in the Diecast Hall of Fame's inaugural class of 2009 and is widely known as Mr. Hot Wheels.

Larry Wood has created some of the most well-known and unique Hot Wheels cars, including the '49 Merc, the Boyd Coddington collector set and the Ramblin' Wrecker (which originally featured Wood's phone number on its sides). He has been with Mattel/Hot Wheels team since 1969. He's originally from General Motors. His initials have been featured on some 2009 cars, such as the '41 Pickup and Hiway Hauler. Each one bears the name "Elwood". Elwood is identical to L.Wood in pronunciation. Larry Wood has made a new car series, Larry's Garage. This series features many of his popular designs, such as Dairy Delivery, Metrorail Nash Metropolitan and the infamous Bone Shaker. The car, Cabbin' Fever, bears a close resemblance to Larry Wood's truck.

2015 Hot Wheels Speed Test: Lotus Esprit S1


The Lotus Esprit S1 is based on the James Bond car from The Spy Who Loved Me.  It is pretty light, coming in at 29 grams.  For the Lotus Esprit's official timed run, it was matched up against the Pagani Huayra.


The Lotus finished in 2.11 seconds while the Pagani Huayra finished in 2.05 seconds. Click here to see where that ranks among the 2015 cars.



The Lotus if fairly narrow as well as light, and as can be seen in the slow motion video, was bouncing all over the track.  It may perform slightly better on Hot Wheels orange track as it is a little more narrow than the Dragtracks track used for the speed test.



Hot Wheels 2015 Speed List


What is the fastest 2015 Hot Wheels car?  Well here's the list.

UPDATE: I've changed some things for the 2015 Speed List.  I've decided to run the cars on a different track with a more accurate timer.  The track has a bit higher drop and is Hot Wheels orange track.  I've re-run all the cars and the times and order on this page are up to date.  I will be working to update the links to the cars and their race, but they may still be linked to their old race on the "Drag Tracks" race track.  I've left the "old rules" and info below as a reference and will do so until everything else is up to date.  


The Rules:
  • Each time we get a new car from the 2015 line, we'll run it on our track, get a time on it and put it on the list.  
  • All cars will be run on the same track.
  • Cars are opened and run 5 times down the track to 'break them in".
  • The 6th run is timed.
  • For interest, cars will be raced against a random car from our collection.
  • The new 2015 car will always be raced in lane 1.
Some cars from our collection
Things to consider:
  • Every car is different, multiple cars of the same casting can run faster or slower, but some castings are definitely faster than others, so this list should give a general idea as to which cars are the fastest.
  • The track is not Hot Wheels orange track.  It is a Dragtracks race track.  The lanes are slightly wider than normal Hot Wheels orange track.  However, most cars that are fast on orange track are fast on the Dragtracks and vise versa.
  • Don't put too much stock in the times of the challenge cars from our collection.  They are played with daily by my son and I and aren't always in the best shape.  So a car that may normally be fast might not be as fast in our speed tests.
  • Click on the car for the race video.

THE LIST




Be sure to tell us what your fastest 2015 car is down in the comments!

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