Hello diecast collectors! Welcome to another edition of Looking at. In today's post, I'm going to be going over all five of the vehicles from the brand new Car Culture British Horsepower assortment from Hot Wheels. This set overall is pretty cool, and it features some nice looking older vehicles. Now I should also mention that I was a little hesitant about getting one of them, but I will get to that a little later on in this review. For now, let's start with one that I got without hesitation.
The first vehicle for today's review, is the McLaren F1 GTR. As you all know, Hot Wheels has two versions of this casting. The original casting has a plastic wing, while the newer casting's wing is apart of the body. For this Car Culture release, the design team chose to use the original. It's kind of interesting how the newer version of this casting has yet to be released as a premium. Take the Nissan Skyline R34 for example, it's updated version is the only one that gets used for both basic and premium releases. At the end of the day though, I have no issue with the original being used for this assortment.
I want to now focus on how this release was given the Gulf livery. Some of the diecast community might be a little disappointed with this decision, and I can totally understand why. Back in 2019, Hot Wheels gave us a Gulf themed Car Culture assortment, and the McLaren F1 GTR is one of the cars that was apart of it. Now it's worth noting that there are actually multiple versions of the real Gulf sponsored car. In my opinion, it's nice to have diecast replicas of them. But I will admit that it's valid to want a premium one that's different.
The 2019 release was based on the dark blue one with the light blue design. This second release on the other hand, is based on the lighter blue one with the orange design. It also has a few design aspects that are different. Unlike the 2019 release, this one features the Union Jack flag underneath the F1 decal. This was made possible due to the design change of the number box. This detail is now slanted, and it was slid a little further back.
Now with the design, it's too bad they still didn't link the side with the top. Doing so would made the livery look more accurate.
Similar to the 2019 release, this too was given five spoke wheels. For this release though, the Hot Wheels designers chose to use the RR5SPM wheels. At first, I thought the RRE wheels might have looked a little closer to the real car's wheels, but my opinion changed after I took another look at the real car. I now think the wheels used for this release are much closer.
The next vehicle from this assortment, is the Jaguar Lightweight E-Type. I absolutely love this classic, and I'm so glad to see a third release of it. To be honest, it's my favorite car from this assortment. I really like how this one was given a different appearance. As you all know, the first two releases were given racing details. Now I'm not saying those details are bad, but it is nice to see one that doesn't have a number circle.
So for this release, the decision was made to make it white with blue stripes. Now obviously, I haven't seen a real one of these. As such, I once again had to turn to Google Images. Upon doing so, I came across an article talking about how one of these was sold at an auction for over seven million dollars. The one depicted in the photo was white with blue stripes like this release. So basically, I'm going to assume that this release is a replica. Even if it wasn't based on an actual one, I would still very much love this release. I feel white with blue stripes is a very nice color scheme for it.
The additional tampo details that were applied to this release, help to make it a good looking model. The front and rear have light details, while the sides were given some smaller details. I really like how they took the time to add details to the hood latch. This might be trivial for some, but details like this are a huge plus for me.
The Hot Wheels SRR wheels were once again used for this casting. Based on the real E-Type's wheels, this is was not a bad choice. But if the designers wanted to further make this release different from the last two, then they could have chose to use the RRS wheels.
The next vehicle from this assortment, is the Lotus Esprit S1. This was the one that I was a little hesitant about getting. Now I will admit that this is a okay release of this casting, but there is a specific reason why I was hesitant. In a recent Looking at review, I went over the Fast and Furious Euro Fast assortment. In that review, I made mention of how I'm starting to reconsider buying $5.47 models that are slightly better versions of what already I have.
Back in 2016, Hot Wheels released a Lotus Esprit S1 in the mainline. Like this release, it was also finished in yellow. However, the yellow used for this premium release is a different shade than the yellow used for the 2016 release. But it's still yellow nonetheless. So basically, I feel things are starting to get a little repetitive. It is worth noting that this could be a good thing for someone who wants a yellow Esprit S1, and was unable to get the 2016 mainline release.
Now most of the diecast community might not have a issue with this release being similar to a previous release. It is a premium version after all, and it does have some additional details that aren't present on the mainline version that I've referred to. The front bumper was given light details. "ESPRIT" was applied to the front half of the top, and "LOTUS" was applied to the back half. A black tampo was utilized for some additional details. One of those details for example, is this car's window trim.
Now the rear end has tail lights like the other yellow one that I have, but the colors used for them are a little darker. It's license plate section was given a black tampo coating with "SERIES 1" applied over it.
For this release's wheels, the designers chose to use the RREs. As you all know, these are five spoke wheels. This is another thing that's similar to the basic one that I have. The 2016 release was also given five spoke wheels. Now most of you might not care about this, since these wheels are better than the 5SPs. But I just can't find a reason to keep getting releases that are so similar.
This release's base color is one thing that helps to differentiate it from the yellow 2016 one that I have. The mainline one has black bumpers and a yellow base, whereas this one has black bumpers and a black base. Having a black base means that the lower half of this one's sides are black instead of yellow.
The Morris Mini is the next car from this assortment. What I like about this release, is that it was finished in a nice shade of orange, and given a cool looking racing theme. Now I should mention that it's somewhat similar to a 2015 mainline release that was also orange with a racing theme. However, unlike the Lotus, I feel this release has more than enough aspects that help to differentiate it from the aforementioned release.
The number box, as well as the decal placement, are only two aspects besides the color that make this release somewhat similar to the 2015 release. Aside from those two aspects, everything else is different.
Since this is a premium release, it features real-life aftermarket decals. Now there's absolutely nothing wrong with the fantasy ones featured on the 2015 release, but it's nice to see the decals of real companies. I think we can all agree that real-life decals add a good amount of realism to these little 1:64 scale models.
With the racing theme, I really like how it's designer kept things simple. In my opinion, a model race car doesn't always have to have a flashy livery. Sometimes, all a model race car needs is a simple paint job to complete the look. And that's what I like about this Morris Mini. It's designer chose to make the roof, as well as the bolt-on fender flares white. What I'm assuming to be a hood scoop is also white. In all honesty, orange and white is not a bad color scheme at all.
Multiple sections of this Mini were given additional details. The front was given headlights. The sides were given silver door details. The rear end has tail lights, and some extra silver details. "MORRIS COOPER" was also applied to the rear.
I really like the wheels that were pick for this release, and I think most of the community will too. The decision was made to give it white RR8SP wheels, which I feel looks nice with the racing theme. Now obviously, eight spoke wheels are a completely different wheel than the five spoke wheels that were used for the orange 2015 release. As such, they are one of the other aspects that helped to make this one different.
The Land Rover Defender 110 Hard Top is the last vehicle from this assortment. This casting made it's debut the Fast and Furious Furious Off-Road assortment, and this release is the second one in my collection. I don't have the previous two releases due to one being a special Period Correct release, and the other being one that I didn't quite fancy. Yeah... I didn't really care for the search and rescue theme that much.
This Defender overall is not bad, and I think it looks cool with the shade of green that was chosen for it. Further contributing to my likeness of the paint, is the fact that it's flat. In my opinion, these kind of rugged vehicles simply look great finished in flat colors. That's one of the things that I loved about the Fast and Furious release.
The roof being white, is one of the design aspects that I thought was interesting. Yet again, I had to visit Google Images to see a picture of this casting's real-life counterpart. In doing so, I found pictures of real Defender 110s with a white roof. So basically, this aspect seems to be realistic.
Now this release was also given a stripe design along it's sides, and thankfully it's not too wild. It's a simple white and black stripe with "DEFENDER" applied to the door section of it. Now from what I can gather, this stripe is actually the exact stripe that was available for this model's real-life counterpart.
The front and rear details on this model are not bad at all. The front features "LAND ROVER" and headlights. The rear features tail lights and some additional details that helped to complete it's exterior.
Black RR8DOT wheels are what was chosen for this release. All of the previous releases of this casting were also given these wheels too. Now since I like how this casting looks with them, I really don't have an issue with them being used again.
Alright collectors, that's all five of the vehicles featured in this Car Culture British Horsepower assortment. Like always, if you have any thoughts on these models, feel free to let me know down in the comments section. Okay everyone, that's all for this edition of Looking at. Until next time, happy diecast collecting.
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