2025 Hot Wheels Legends Tour Global Champion
Mattel, Inc. a global leader in toys and family entertainment and owner of the Hot Wheels™ brand, has crowned the 2025 Hot Wheels Legends Tour Global Champion: a wild, rally-inspired custom FIAT 126B built by Polish enthusiast Paweł Czarnecki. The winning car, which first claimed victory at the Poland stop of the Tour, went on to take top honors at the virtual Global Grand Finale on November 15. As part of its prize, Czarnecki’s build will be inducted into the Hot Wheels Garage of Legends™ and recreated by the Hot Wheels design team as a 1:64 scale die-cast model to be sold to collectors and fans around the world.
A Group B–Inspired Rally Weapon from Poland
Although Poland never hosted an official Group B rally in period, Czarnecki set out to imagine what a homegrown rally monster for the Carpathian Mountains might have looked like. Starting with a humble Fiat 126P Bis, he spent more than 2,500 hours on fabrication and over 800 hours designing and 3D-printing unique components. The result is a compact but brutal machine that perfectly reflects the “Garage Spirit” ethos that defines the Hot Wheels Legends Tour.
The car wears an aggressively widened body, extended by 18.5 inches (47 cm) for a planted, purpose-built stance. Its flip-forward front end, deep aero pieces, and functional ducts echo legendary 1980s rally icons while delivering real-world performance. Every detail — from the stance to the bodywork — was built not just to look fast, but to dominate tight, technical tarmac and gravel stages.
Small Footprint, Big Performance
Despite its modest dimensions, the Fiat 126B delivers serious performance credentials. Power comes from a Fiat Uno 1.4 Turbo engine tuned to 200 horsepower and paired with a Nissan 200SX GT28 turbocharger. That power is fed through a strengthened Fiat Punto GT gearbox, giving the car the punch and durability needed for rally-style driving.
Underneath, a custom coilover suspension setup keeps the little Fiat composed on rough surfaces, while period-correct HTN Motorsport three-piece wheels and Fiat Uno brakes complete the performance package. The flip-forward hood makes trackside servicing quicker and easier, and a full roll cage brings safety and stiffness in line with its motorsport-inspired ambitions. Altogether, the build is a fusion of classic rally flair, modern engineering, and obsessive craftsmanship — exactly the kind of creativity Hot Wheels seeks to immortalize in die-cast form.
A Global Community, A Polish Champion
“From its roots in the U.S. to stops across 16 countries, the Hot Wheels Legends Tour has grown into a truly global celebration of creativity and the automotive community,” said Ted Wu, Global Head of Vehicles and Building Sets at Mattel. He highlighted that Polish enthusiasts have consistently supported the Tour, and Czarnecki’s Fiat stands as a showcase of the talent and imagination that builders from Poland — and across the world — bring to the competition.
For 2025, the Hot Wheels Legends Tour introduced a refreshed structure for selecting its Global Champion. Instead of a single global field feeding directly into the final, regions held their own concluding rounds. The United States, Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA), and Latin America (LATAM) each crowned a regional champion, with those three finalists advancing to the Global Grand Finale. This format emphasized local scenes while still building toward one ultimate global winner.
Standout Runners-Up from the U.S. and LATAM
The 2025 Tour also shined a spotlight on two standout finalists who finished as runners-up to Czarnecki’s Fiat:
- United States Finalist – Clint DeVine’s 1990 Chevy S10 (Kansas City):
Influenced by his grandmother’s love of antiques and his Texas roots, DeVine created a unique fusion of old-world charm and American truck culture. His Chevy S10 wears a distinctive patina and is transformed into a western-inspired hauler, with a custom bed that looks ready for a cross-state run on dusty back roads. - LATAM Finalist – Jesus Daniel Payan Gastelum’s VW Beetle Pickup (Mexico):
Gastelum’s entry takes the beloved VW Beetle and reimagines it as an off-road pickup truck. The conversion includes an upgraded suspension and towering 37-inch tires, giving the car substantial ground clearance and an aggressive stance. The result is an eye-catching, go-anywhere machine that blends classic Beetle personality with rugged utility.
These builds stood alongside Czarnecki’s Fiat in the Global Grand Finale, underscoring the variety of styles and creative visions that the Tour attracts — from patina’d American pickups to radically reworked off-road icons.
Judging the Legends: A Panel of Global Car Culture Voices
The 2025 Hot Wheels Legends Tour Global Grand Finale was hosted by motorsports ambassador Jarod DeAnda and centered on three highly distinctive builds. To determine which car deserved to be immortalized as the next Hot Wheels legend, a diverse panel of judges evaluated each finalist by three key criteria: authenticity, creativity and garage spirit.
The judging panel brought together personalities from across car culture and entertainment:
- Jay Leno – TV host and renowned car enthusiast
- Michael Cimino – Actor and car culture fan
- Therese Lahlouh – Race car driver
- Nhu Tran – Automotive content creator
- Hert Life – Automotive content creator
- Juca – Automotive content creator
- Bryan Benedict – Hot Wheels key principal designer
- Craig Callum – Hot Wheels senior designer
This mix of professional drivers, designers, creators, and collectors ensured that the winning car would appeal not only to hardcore gearheads, but also to the broader global Hot Wheels fan base.
A Tour That Spans Continents
The 2025 Hot Wheels Legends Tour once again proved its global reach and cultural impact. Over the course of the year, the Tour traveled to 16 countries, including 11 regional stops in the United States alone. Fans across North America, Europe, Latin America and beyond had the chance to showcase their unique builds, meet fellow enthusiasts, and experience Hot Wheels culture in person.
New markets joined the action for 2025, with Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg), Peru, and Turkey added as fresh Tour stops. At each location, Hot Wheels designers and local automotive experts evaluated thousands of vehicle entries, searching for builds that captured the essence of Hot Wheels: bold imagination, authentic performance, and a true do-it-yourself spirit. Millions of fans attended live and virtual events throughout the Tour, reinforcing its status as a global phenomenon that celebrates not only cars, but the people who build them.
From Local Walmart Parking Lots to the World’s Largest Traveling Car Show
The Hot Wheels Legends Tour presented by Mobil 1 has come a long way since its 2018 debut, which coincided with Hot Wheels’ 50th anniversary. What began as a U.S.-based series of events held primarily at Walmart locations has transformed into the world’s largest traveling car show, blending live gatherings, virtual events, and a global community of builders, collectors, and fans.
Each year, one winning real-life vehicle is transformed into a 1:64 scale die-cast model, letting enthusiasts park a piece of that year’s Tour on their own shelf or track. Previous champions that have earned a spot in the Hot Wheels Garage of Legends include:
- 2018 – 2JetZ™: A wild, jet-fighter-inspired custom build
- 2019 – THE NASH™: A compact, character-packed Nash Metropolitan
- 2020 – 1970 Pontiac® Firebird™: A heavily modified, track-focused muscle car
- 2021 – 1969 Volvo P1800 Gasser: A Swedish classic turned high-riding drag-style gasser
- 2022 – “Texas Toot”: An ultra-custom 1992 Autozam Scrum micro truck with massive presence
- 2023 – 1990 Mazda MX-5 “Chimera”: A radical, track-bred roadster with a fusion of styles
- 2024 – 1968 Ford Falcon “La Liebre”: A custom-built Falcon with serious race heritage influence
With Paweł Czarnecki’s rally-flared Fiat 126B joining this list as the 2025 Global Champion, Hot Wheels adds another unique chapter to its ongoing story of turning real-world passion projects into small-scale legends. Soon, fans across the globe will be able to hold a piece of this Polish-built dream in their hands, launch it down orange track, or display it proudly as part of their collection — proof that a home-built vision from a garage in Poland can become a Hot Wheels icon seen around the world.
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