Hot Wheels Porsche 911 Carrera 2

Last year was big for Hot Wheels and Porsche fans when Urban Outlaw creator Magnus Walker created three Hot Wheels Porsche's for the brand.  One was the popular 356 Outlaw coupe, then the group of racing Porsche's in the Car Culture line, and now this all-new 911 Carerra 2 casting.  It doesn't look much special in this form so it's time to find out what's so special about it.

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The 911 was introduced in 1964 to replace the 356 with a more practical and modern car that has more power thanks to a flat-6 motor.  Over the years the 911 has always had a consistent look when it comes to the exterior, performance, and value.  The whale tail craze that started with the high-performance Turbo and then enhanced to lower 911's helped stability at the expense of style.  For the 964 series released in 1988 it was a smoother look that not only helped with styling but also with aerodynamics.  The front and rear bumpers are smoother and eliminate the impact bumpers that plague 911's for two decades.  The rear spoiler is now a retractable unit that only comes out at speeds above 70 mph leaving a clean rear profile when parked.  The interior offered more creature comforts though the dashboard design was starting to get dated.  This was also the last generation of the air-cooled 911's before a major change in 1998.  The engine is a 3.6L air-cooled flat-6 that makes 270 horsepower through a 5-speed manual transmission.  Also this was the first generation of 911's to feature the all-wheel drive system on 4-badged models based on the unit in the 959.

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This Hot Wheels casting started out in the Car Culture Track Days series with a gray metal body with an unusual separate front and rear plastic bumpers that are red, while the base is metal and in dark blue.  The front has a black hood with round headlights and signal/foglights in the front bumper.  The sides have the lower Porsche stripe and 964 door numbers, while the rear has a smooth trunk with taillight bar that is part of the window trim.  The multi-spoke wheels on slick rubber tires look good on this car, but with a mismatch of colors and a rather stock look this 911 looks uninspiring at first.  Inside is where most changes happen with a rollbar replacing the rear seats and front seats with 5-point seatbelt harnesses.  The dashboard is stock and has the 3-spoke steering wheel, a plethora of gauges that span half of the dashboard, and a shifter just ahead of the radio and long-reach-for-driver HVAC controls.

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If this was a real Urban Outlaw car the motor would probably have modifications to make this car faster, but unlike the 356 outlaw, for example, the modifications are modest.  This is no GT2, but what it is is a better track car with a wide stance that has neutral handling and this is for a car with a tendency to produce massive oversteer with too much throttle.  The car is smooth, handles well, and brakes well, and these are features you wouldn't know from the outside of this stock looking 911.  For those who prefer a more stock look with a uniform color wait for the upcoming 2017 Car Culture release in black.  While this is a nice casting this 911 will have a hard time distingushing itself from other 911's in the Hot Wheels line.

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Update 12/19/17:  For 2017 Hot Wheels released this Porsche 911 in the latest Car Culture series, "Cars and Doughnuts."  This time the 911 looks really good in all-black trim with a red interior, red PORSCHE on the sides, and the new turbine aero wheels.  It looks really good in this suit!