Toymaker Mattel has announced the winner of the 2019 Hot Wheels Legends Tour.
A Nash Metropolitan custom built by best friends Greg Salzillo and Dave Ford is joining the Hot Wheels collection as a 1:64 scale die-cast, according to the company. The Nash is the second fan car to become a die-cast and will hit shelves nationwide in 2020.
“The second year of the Hot Wheels Legends Tour brought more cars, more fans and more competition—it’s hard to choose just one winner to be made into a die-cast car,” said Ted Wu, VP, global head of design for vehicles, Mattel. “We chose The Nash as it represents the true garage spirit by bringing generations together and creating an impressive car that’s built, not bought. You see it and instantly know it’s meant to be a Hot Wheels with that color, the shape and the dice.”
The announcement was made at the 2019 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, where all the finalist cars were displayed alongside the Hot Wheels fleet of life-size vehicles.
Salzillo and Ford’s build was chosen from almost 5,000 custom cars entered in the Hot Wheels Legends Tour, which visited 20 cities throughout Europe and North America. Selected for its embodiment of Hot Wheels’ high standards of performance and design, the custom build is completely unique to any die-cast cars that the brand has built in its 51-year history.
A team of judges, including Hot Wheels designers and automotive influencers chose the Legends Tour winner for its authenticity, originality and garage spirit. The final team included celebrity auto aficionados Jay Leno, Adam Carolla, Richard Rawlings, editor-in-chief of MotorTrend Ed Loh, international auto influencers Juca and Sidney Hoffmann, founder of Gumball 3000 Maximillion Cooper, legendary auto designers Dave Marek and Peter Brock, Speed Channel’s Car Warriors host Brad Fanshaw, CarCast co-host Matt D’Andria, racecar drivers Jackie Heinricher and Collete Davis, YouTube personality Tanner Fox, VP of SEMA Warren Kosikov and more.
The Legends Tour winner’s life-size car and die-cast version will also join the Hot Wheels Garage of Legends, a collection of one-of-a-kind cars immortalized as Hot Wheels die-casts that meet the brand’s high benchmarks of style and performance, according to the company.
The Nash features a small-block Chevy 305. The car originally came stocked with 40 hp and now touts a high-performing 300 hp. The build has custom headers coming out of the fenders, old-school stock steel wheels and original bias ply tires.
“We’re extremely overwhelmed, proud and excited over what Dave and I created with The Nash,” said Salzillo. “I can’t wait to see my kids’ faces when they see their dad’s car turned into a real Hot Wheels toy.”
