2008 Honda Hot Wheels Racer

2008 Honda Hot Wheels Racer
Honda Press Release

Honda
is announcing the arrival of the Honda Racer, a much-anticipated 1/64th
scale Hot Wheels car designed by Honda R&D Americas, Inc., in
Torrance. The Honda model, along with designs from five additional
automakers, were selected as part of the Hot Wheels Designer's
Challenge as a way to celebrate the die-cast brand's 40th anniversary.
The Honda Racer arrives on store shelves in May 2008.

"The Honda
Racer combines the excitement of Honda's racing heritage with Hot
Wheels' reputation for speed, power, performance and attitude," says
Guillermo Gonzalez, senior designer of Honda R&D Americas, Inc.,
and designer of the Honda Racer. "The core concept is built around our
idea for an 'ultimate racecar' and leverages the design freedom made
possible by a scale model car."

The key element to the design of
the entire car is that the body is in the shape of the Honda "H"
emblem. The exterior shape resembles an imaginative side-by-side
racecar of 1960s vintage that encloses a driver and a navigator. The
general shape, styling and paint scheme is further inspired by Honda's
early participation in Formula 1 racing and its 1967 RA 273 racecar.
The white and red paint scheme, the open cockpits, large exhaust system
and open wheels are all elements inspired by the historic Honda racecar.

A
powerful Honda V-10 VTEC engine sits between the piloting team. If
brought up to scale, the engine would displace an amazing 2.0 litres
per cylinder. A set of velocity stacks and an intake that receives air
through the body of the car sits between red DOHC valve covers to
provide a technologically-advanced look. The exhaust system is a giant
set of twisted, yet balanced tubes that reside high above the engine,
complementing the power plant design at the back end of the car. The
dynamic expression of technology, history and detail is evident
throughout the design of the car.

"Sure, it is awesome to play
with the cars on the orange track again, but I discovered that
designing a Hot Wheels car is very different and in some ways more
liberating than designing a production car," says Gonzalez, a native of
East Los Angeles who considers automotive design to be his dream job.
"For example, the primary design constraint is that the car had to fit
on the orange track and perform a loop. Aside from that, the
possibilities are without limit."

Mattel invited auto
manufacturers to participate in the Hot Wheels Designer's Challenge as
part of the die-cast brand's 40th anniversary celebration. The design
of the Honda Racer debuted at the 2007 Specialty Equipment Market
Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas in October as a 1/5th scale model.

Starting
in mid-August, the Honda Racer 1/5th scale model and other cars from
the Designer's Challenge will be part of the Hot Wheels 40th
anniversary road trip travelling along historic U.S. Route 40, stopping
at multiple cities along the way. The tour starts at the Mattel
headquarters in El Segundo, California, in August and ends at Watkins
Glen, New York, in early September.

Source: Honda Press Releases

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