‘Falcon’ wins 2024 Hot Wheels Legends Tour
After sorting through more than 5,000 entries submitted by custom car builders from all over the world, Hot Wheels has announced the winner of the 2024 Hot Wheels Legends Tour presented by Mobil 1. At the virtual Global Grand Finale, a home-built race car, nicknamed ‘La Liebre’ (The Hare), beat out nine other finalists.
Along with La Liebre, the Global Grand Finale included cars from the UK, France, Germany and the UAE, as well as four from the USA. Base vehicles covered everything from a 1957 BMW Isetta to a 1960 Chevrolet Apache pickup, 1976 Lancia Beta HPE, a classic Mini, Porsche 944 and even a DeLorean.
From this group of ten finalists, a judging panel was tasked with picking one car that best represents authenticity, creativity and garage spirit. The panel was made up of members of the Hot Wheels design team, along with car collector Jay Leno, actor and comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, automotive experience designer Dalal Elsheikh, automotive photographer Larry Chen, NASCAR driver Toni Breidinger and Juca Viapri, a Mexican automotive influencer and car customiser.
La Liebre, the winning car, was created by Giuseppe Casagrande and Maurizio Moschini, who co-founded Cars and Coffee Chile in 2013 as a nonprofit organisation to grow the car community and automotive culture in the South American country.
While it looks nothing like it now, La Liebre started as a 1968 (US) Ford Falcon, which was stripped of its body and had much of its chassis replaced with a tubular frame and roll cage from Baufer Garage.
An all-new fibreglass body, with the look of a Le Mans or Can Am racer from the 1970s, was developed to maximise aerodynamics and reduce weight to under 2,000lb (907kg). For context, a 1968 Falcon weighs a little over 2,830lb (1280kg) in four-door sedan form, so La Liebre is around 30 per cent lighter.
Power comes from a custom-built Chevrolet 350 V8 producing 600hp (447kW), matched to a Saenz 910 five-speed transmission with straight cut gears. Michelin racing tyres, an NRG carbon racing seat and several aftermarket gauges in a fully customised interior are other features.
Along with Giuseppe Casagrade and Maurizio Moschini, the Cars and Coffee Chile team behind the creation of La Liebre included Pablo Olmos, Omar Aguilar, Nicolás Orellana and Jose Ignacio Barra.
The car’s blend of vintage style and modern performance, designed for pure speed, impressed and inspired the judges, not only with its looks, but also its role in the Chilean automotive community.
“This year’s Hot Wheels Legends Tour brought out so many incredible builds, making it difficult to select just one,” said Ted Wu, senior vice president and global head of design, vehicles and building sets at Mattel. “However, the mission behind the La Liebre built by Cars & Coffee Chile was emblematic of what the tour is all about.
“Not only is it an extremely impressive build, but it was created to help grow the car community in Chile and inspire others to participate. That’s what makes this vehicle, and the team behind it, deserving of the win and entry into the Hot Wheels Garage of Legends.”
As the seventh winner of the Hot Wheels Legends Tour, La Liebre will be immortalised as a 1:64 scale diecast toy in 2025. The Chilean creation will join previous Legends Tour champions, like the 2018-winning ‘2JetZ,’ 2019’s ‘THE NASH,’ the 2020-winning 1970 Pontiac Firebird, 2021’s Volvo P1800 Gasser, the 2022-winning ‘Texas Toot’ custom 1992 Autozam Scrum kei truck and last year’s champion, a one-of-a-kind 1990 Mazda MX-5 nicknamed ‘Chimera.’
