MENTION the ‘Hot Wheels Commodore’ and fair chance the minds of many V8 Supercar fans will go to the wildcard entry driven by Sam Newman in the non-championship event at the 1999 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
However, that blue #99 car wasn’t the only Hot Wheels Holden that took to the Albert Park circuit at that event for the supporting event known as the ‘Hot Wheels V8 Supercar Showdown’.
At the time it was quoted that Mattel’s Hot Wheels brand sold about two million cars in Australia per year!
A Hot Wheels-liveried VT Commodore – complete with rear wing and front spoiler – with the #1 on the side and Hot Wheels Racing ‘Leading The Way’ signage, paced the field at the event.
Its pilot?
None other than nine-time Bathurst ‘Great Race’ winner, Peter Brock.
That leads to our question – what ever happened to this Hot Wheels Holden?
Brocky aboard the Hot Wheels Holden on track. Photo: an1images.com / John Morris, MPIX.
It appeared at a range of other events around this time but seems to have disappeared.
Does anyone know perhaps who built it or modified it for its Hot Wheels pace car duties?
Did it get re-wrapped down the track? Could it have been re-born for another endeavour?
Anyone out there have a timeline on what happened to it since this appearance?
We’re all ears, drop us a line here via the V8 Sleuth website with any tid bits you may have to share on this particular Commodore.
This came in 1999, two years after Brock’s last V8 Supercar appearance on the Grand Prix venue.
An Australian Grand Prix Corporation board member at the time, he’d raced with the backing of the AGPC in the 1997 AMP Bathurst 1000 at the wheel of one of Triple Eight’s Vectra Super Tourers.
The ‘King of the Mountain’ was also given the honour of waving the chequered flag at the 1998 Australian Grand Prix, won by McLaren’s Mika Hakkinen.