Hot Wheels® comes to Los Angeles! For this final event
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MotorTranscript
00:00 If you look at the judging criteria, the first item is the right spirit, right?
00:04 Anyone can do or can try to build something, right?
00:07 Versus a guy who's experienced professional builder.
00:10 Hey guys, I'm Magnus Walker here at the final Hot Wheels Legends Tour in Santa Clarita.
00:24 This is the last one, so you should be here because if you win, you go to SEMA and if
00:29 you win at SEMA, you get your car made into a Hot Wheels.
00:32 Hello, my name is Daisy Czajwik.
00:45 I'm Stanley Czajwik.
00:46 And this is our Buick Chafer 1933 IndyCar.
00:49 Everything started in 2003 in Czech Republic, where we established our company, Hot Rod
00:53 Czajwik, and we started to fabricate all these IndyCars, race cars and Hot Rods.
00:58 So, we opened a new branch of our company here and started doing the dream work.
01:04 We built this car in Czech Republic and brought it here.
01:07 And the car is handcrafted, made of aluminum body, everything set up together.
01:11 It's a tribute car, 1933 Buick Chafer.
01:16 It's a 500-speed racer from Indianapolis.
01:21 It's exactly the same as it was, but the car never touched the race.
01:26 Yes, I built everything from scratch.
01:28 Engine, exhaust, intake, seats, tank, floor, everything.
01:32 My name is Rick O'Donnell.
01:44 I have a '74 Opel Manta.
01:47 So I bought a Nissan 240SX and I cut the top of the 240SX off, cut the bottom of the Opel
01:52 Manta off, and then welded the two cars together.
01:54 I bought an LS3 500-horse crate motor and new transmission and radiator, and it just
01:59 went from there.
02:00 I live very close to Willow Springs Raceway, so I go out and drive the car at the track
02:04 every chance I get.
02:05 It runs with Porsches, Vipers.
02:07 It's very light, 2,600 pounds, and 525 horse, so it's a very fast car and it handles good.
02:12 It's still a work in progress just because I kind of reached peaks at the track where
02:16 I couldn't go any faster.
02:17 So I started doing suspension tuning and I added a wing to it and some more aero in the
02:21 front.
02:22 It's a lot more fun when you're improving.
02:25 My name is Tony Quinones and this is the Viper trike.
02:29 It's one-off.
02:30 It all started with a blank sheet of paper and a 10-cylinder Viper motor.
02:34 One of the key components is the center hub steering.
02:37 That allowed me to get away from the motorcycle front end.
02:39 It's backed up by a two-speed Powerglide fully built for drag racing, and that runs an independent
02:44 rear end.
02:45 It's coil-overs all the way around, and it's a one-off chassis, all built on a jig table,
02:50 engineered in CAD and laser cut.
02:53 The body is one-off carbon fiber.
02:55 When you're sitting in the back and you're looking down the nose of it, you see the V10,
03:00 you see that tiny little wheel, and you're just thinking, "What did I get myself into?"
03:13 So it's been a nice, warm day, guys, and I think there's some deliberation to be happening.
03:18 So where do we lean?
03:19 Because so far it looks like we have a lot of contenders and no clear vision, right?
03:24 Yeah, we're both like the Opel.
03:26 So it's an Opel body on top of a Nissan S13 chassis, built the whole thing in his backyard,
03:32 and races it all the time.
03:33 The first time I ever saw it was at Willow Springs, chasing down a bunch of Vipers.
03:37 That's unfair because he tries to please everybody here.
03:40 Yeah, no, no.
03:42 American muscle car, you know, the GM, everybody.
03:45 Because Opel was a GM, German car.
03:48 And he found the car in a field.
03:49 Like, this car was abandoned, rusting in a field.
03:52 It was used as a car that people tested paint on, you know?
03:56 And he owned that look.
03:57 He just shaved some of the paint on, owned it, cleared it, and rocked it.
04:01 I'm going to bring up the Trike.
04:02 That thing is absolutely unbelievable.
04:04 I think that's one of my favorites.
04:05 The Viper Trike is by far.
04:06 The craftsmanship and everything else about that car.
04:07 How he figured out the steering, though.
04:08 It's just mind-blowing.
04:09 So I guess we came to a conclusion.
04:10 We've got two cars.
04:11 Let's go to work.
04:16 Hey, guys, say hi to the Hot Wheels team.
04:22 Hot Wheels!
04:24 Thank you, Hot Wheels family, for showing up here.
04:28 Really, really happy to see you guys here to support our brand.
04:31 Nobody knew a year ago when we celebrated our 50th anniversary that this will become
04:36 the biggest national traveling car show.
04:39 400-plus cars registered.
04:41 This is the biggest one this year.
04:43 This tour is a great tour, but it wouldn't be possible without any of our partners.
04:47 Thank you, Model 1.
04:48 They lubricated.
04:49 Lubricated.
04:50 Thank you, Dickies, for really great support.
04:54 And thank you, our host, Walmart.
04:56 Mechanics, because this is the headquarters of mechanics, are actually located here.
05:00 So yes, one more, mechanics.
05:04 Thank you so much.
05:06 As you can imagine, this was a tough one.
05:08 We had about five cars, narrowed it down to three, and then we got to two.
05:12 So this one is Opel Manta with the 240SX chassis with an LS motor in it.
05:19 Hi, my name's Rick O'Donnell, and this is my 1974 Opel Manta.
05:24 What inspired me to build this car is having something that was a little different, mainly
05:27 to take out to the track and drive high-performance driving events.
05:31 I absolutely went overboard on the roll cage, just did a whole bunch of cage work to really
05:35 make the car stiff.
05:36 The motor's actually mounted to the frame rails, not to the crossmember anymore, because
05:39 it's mounted so far back.
05:41 You basically drive it as hard as you can, wide open, corner to corner.
05:44 I kind of hit a couple of spots where I couldn't go any faster at Willow, so that's when we
05:48 started doing some aero.
05:49 We added the front splitter and the wing, then went back to suspension tuning to get
05:53 the car to grip a little better and not be so violent.
05:55 It was a total backyard build.
05:56 I don't have a lift.
05:57 Most of the car was done with a MIG welder and a four-inch grinder.
06:00 And it does have a gas gauge, which is great, because it gets about two miles a gallon on
06:04 track.
06:05 The car really shocks a lot of people.
06:06 It doesn't look like much from the outside, but when you get to the track and they see
06:09 the car go, it's pretty impressive.
06:11 We just finished up our last stop of the Hot Wheels Legends Tour here in Los Angeles, California.
06:20 We picked an amazing winner, and our final stop is at SEMA, so we will see you there.
06:24 [MUSIC PLAYING]