The world’s largest travelling car show, the Hot Wheels Legends Tour, has concluded with the crowning of its 2023 winner at the Global Grand Finale. Originally a more local event across the USA, the tour has expanded comprehensively and is now in its sixth year. The 2023 tour was the largest yet and spread across five continents and 16 countries with the Hot Wheels team and guest judges reviewing thousands of entered vehicles.

The panel this year featured Mercedes-Benz designer Dalal Elsheikh, TV host and car enthusiast Jay Leno, renowned automotive photographer Larry Chen, actor Noel Gugliemi, NASCAR driver and model Toni Breidinger, along with members of the Hot Wheels Design Team, Bryan Benedict and Craig Callum.

This year’s winning car was a 1990 Mazda MX-5 roadster and will now be made into a 1:64 scale Hot Wheels toy as well as inducted into the Hot Wheels Garage of Legends.

Built and owned by Chris Watson from New Zealand, the car takes inspiration from Japanese ‘Kaido Racer’ car culture and Cyberpunk genre science fiction - with a cyberpunk style interior makeover and LED lighting. Strongly sticking to the theme and looking like something you’d see in Blade Runner, the entire car has been airbrushed to give it a weathered appearance and a wasteland-style RX-7 front-end conversion has been made.

Watson designed some of the features himself, like the 100mm wide arches which fit over 15x13 inch turbofan wheels and a custom carbon fibre shark fin spoiler that distinguishes the car from your regular MX-5 roadster.

“Every year the competition gets better, and 2023 definitely didn’t disappoint,” said Ted Wu, vice president and global head of design for vehicles at Mattel. “Chris’ journey from rural New Zealand to securing a spot in the Hot Wheels Garage of Legends is truly inspirational and embodies what this tour is all about. Chimera is a great addition to the Garage of Legends, and we can’t wait to create the die-cast version.”

Words: Mike Booth
Pictures: Mattel UK Ltd