Matchbox Superkings 1960’s Race Car Transporter

The biggest news at Hot Wheels in the second half of 2018 will be the Car Transporters.  No, not the plastic, generic, built for kids models but the metal-on-metal trucks that even if they are generic look like the real trucks and with them comes a car that will fit on or in them.  It is one of the nicest truck sets to come out of Hot Wheels in a long time, and one of them is a car transporter that will fit a vehicle inside the box van type.  That vehicle might have grabbed some information from this Matchbox Superkings version made in the 1960’s so I decided to check out the original Matchbox to see how it is.

For starters this truck is not cheap as values are high and can reach $100 when equipped with mostly mint parts, tires intact, and the two Lotus grand prix race cars that fit inside the truck.  Unlike the upcoming Hot Wheels version this car transporter from Matchbox is actually 1:43 scale in size (though probably more like 1:64 in real-time scaling) so that it can fit not only in the SuperKings line but also to accommodate two 1:64 race cars inside.  Like the Hot Wheels trucks this one is generic but draws influences from the real car transporters; back in the day you need a team to travel to different tracks and race the cars and with that you need a van that can do it all.  There was barely any sponsors to go by and getting in the race is cheap yet to maintain a team is not.  While today’s trucks are likely tractor trailers or lorry’s, there was an option to use a box van to carry cars and supplies with the team.  Inside you can fit two vehicles in the truck, along with tools and any other supplies, some trucks even have a roof rack to handle more supplies that could not fit in the truck.  Sleeping space was minimal though the cab in this truck can handle seating for six with two bench seats and a steering wheel on the right-hand side.

The green is classic and matches well with the Lotus brand as they use the same color, along with BP fuel as it is the only sole sponsor on the sides of the truck along with the Racing Transporter and names of the tracks of Le mans, Nurburgring, Silverstone, and Sebring.  The front has a nice grille that I decided to carry on the silver trim to the sides for a classic look, and with it includes quad headlights, detailed louvers in the grille, and round bumper billets above the front bumper.  The windshield is flat and one piece and with the two clear panels on the roof affords lots of light and viewing space inside the truck.  The sides have detailed handles for the front doors and side storage compartments while the red wheels sit on rubber tires and they are not the best:  The tires come off too easily and give a crude roll to the truck.  At the rear is a large silver plastic door and taillights to the sides of the door; the door also has a tab where the metal ramp hooks to keep the ramp up and when the door is open it reveals two spots to store vehicles with a ramp dividing the slots.  The ramps are made of metal and the top one is spring loaded with two arms to the sides where the top ramp rests on.  Pulling the ramp back releases the ramp from the arms and lowers the ramp to allow the first vehicle to go up.  Once the vehicle is on the ramp slides back up and right on the arm rests ready for the next vehicle.  Now this seems cool and being a SuperKings can accommodate two 1:64 vehicles (preferably cars), but that is not true as the space between them is built for the low-slung and small Lotus racing cars as I had a hard time getting even normal and low-slung modern 1:64 castings to fit inside the trailer.

It’s a very nice piece that is classic Matchbox and has the ability to hold two race cars, but today the casting has some crude tires and if the truck comes without any race cars holding anything else is very limited.