Today, I present to you my favourite Hot Wheels Elite. Not only is it my favourite in my Hot Wheels Elite collection, but it's a model of one of my top favourite Ferrari's ever. Within that list would probably include the 458 Italia, F430 Scuderia and the F40 (obviously).
The 599 GTB Fiorano was Ferrari's flagship GT car for the time being and only recently was replaced with the F12 Berlinetta. The 599 was a great platform, but there was something missing. It looked really beautiful and a great Gran Tourer, but it just didn't seem hardcore enough for me. The body lines of the car and the grunt was lacking something insane.
Up comes the GTO version. At the time, the Ferrari GTO was their fastest road car ever. It was even faster than the Ferrari Enzo. Previously, the "GTO" namesake was provided to cars that Ferrari produced for homologation in racing series. These were cars that they wanted to enter into very specific classes of motorsports and one of the requirements to enter these segments was a minimum number of the factory version of the cars had to be produced. So Ferrari would produce these hardcore versions of their road going cars designated with "GTO" and produce the minimum required so that they could enter the race version of that car in the homologation segments.
Overall, the car was just a beast and I can't quite put my finger on what attracts me to this car. it just seems like a great package overall and something I feel I could live with.
Onwards to the model review. Up until this one, the Elite's were pretty good. But this model takes it to another level. The Elite's made after this one seem to not even stack up against it. Very few mistakes were made a lot of details were added.
First, the overall shots of the car. Unfortunately my camera skills blow and I couldn't capture the liquid classic Ferrari Rosso Corsa Red. It looks really drowned out. But I can ASSURE you that the color is amazing in person.
The first thing that sets this model apart is the carbon fiber decal's. The car's entire skirt and under tray is littered with these fine decals. It's not molded, 100% applied or pressed onto it. Also the interior has carbon fiber to match where it is on the real car.
Another nice touch is the photo-etched metal license plate and the rear emblem. They are cut and shaped very finely. You can see the 599 GTO embossed into the license plate metal. The GTO emblem is on the right side and they bothered to paint the Prancing Horse logo a matte black.
The front of the car shows some great parts too. The grill is absolutely stunning. It's 100% photo-etched and the pattern is very specific. If you look on the top left there's even a hole cut differently to resemble the real car. The purpose of this hole, I have no idea.
The wheels also look great. The brakes are molded very well and you can even see the brake dust cover/shield over top of half the wheel. I'm surprised they bothered to put that in, but it is a very noticeable detail on the car!
One thing I've felt that has been lacking are the Elite's cars tail pipes. The exhausts just aren't that nice and look very plasticky. Fix this up, Hot Wheels!
Trunk is small. Barely opens up. But probably not putting shit in there anyways.
Interior looks awesome like all the elites so far. Above and beyond. The metal plate on the floor, carbon fiber interior. I particularly like the tachometer in this one.
More carbon can be seen in the center console and cup holder area.
Hood vent detail and dash shot:
Engine bay is pretty good. Lots of metal is used throughout to bring the realism out of the big intake covers. But over all, the real car doesn't have much to show in the engine bay because of the massive cooling plate.
Speed holes.
ReplyDelete