From the endless internets Indy 500 division of Clunkbucket comes this collection of directly and somewhat Indy 500 related Hot Wheels, culled from the vast and apparently growing archive of the Hot Wheels Wiki. Before the days of instantaneous all decades, all the time, on demand information, watching the Indy 500 on the Zenith color TV was the giant motor racing event of the year for kids and adults alike. Following the nationwide coverage of the race were wide-eyed kids running their own version of Silent Sam, a Gurney Eagle, or the Lotus turbine car down and or around what seemed like miles of speedy orange track. This miniature racing bonanza came thanks to the marketing genius of Mattel, and the art of Hot Wheels designers like Ira Gilford, who not only designed the Gurney Eagle Hot Wheel pictured here but also the legendary Twin Mill, a Hot Wheel so famous it was later built into a full-size 1400 horsepower functional repli-car for the 2001 SEMA show. The miracle of Sizzlers aside, there is vague memory of some sort of lever and rubber wheel contraption that sent cars around the orange track at ridiculous speeds. There is no recall if that particular orange track had anything, or everything, to do with the greatest spectacle in racing.
Thanks to Alex Nunez for the tip and the Hot Wheels Wiki for the photos!
MB
I’ve got a few of these oddballs … but missed the best one ever, I saw it at the Pomona Swap many years ago .. It was a 1/43 M-B W196 streamliner F1 car WITH GOOFY DRIVING, It was not a made-up thing, it was production … they wanted like 15-20 bucks for it … I walked away planning to come back neare the end of the day with a crisp tenner and … (thou hast guessed it) the little sucker was G-O-N-E. dammit! I still want one more than ever now.
-Stokes
Ahh, the “Supercharger”! Didn’t work on the open wheel cars, though… those rollers bent the axles.
I had not one, but two Shelby turbines. I think I painted one red…Hey, I was seven!