I have to admit I had forgotten this existed until I visited my parents and found this languishing at the bottom of a small box. But I’m glad I did find it. A rather unique subject and a good one for Single File: The Hot Wheels B-Engineering Edonis.
The Edonis was made by a small Italian engineering company called B-Engineering, mainly compose of former Bugatti employees. The Edonis sits on the carbon fibre chassis of the legendary Bugatti EB110 and shares the same twin-turbocharged V12, albeit enlarged to 3.8 litres and with the 671bhp driving the rear wheels only. Two prototypes were built and production versions were seemingly still available (by special order only) in 2018.
It was a car I was familiar with from the website supercars.net, which used to be my Bible for discovering the myraid of 90s and early 00s supercar makers: Isdera, Jimenez, Vector, Gillet, Vemac, Mosler, Panoz. I sat in awe of all these machines and memorised bhp and top speed figures. Buying the diecast version was therefore a no brainer. A low volume supercar from a relatively unknown European maker is perhaps a surprising choice for Mattel to put into the Hot Wheels mainline, but a scale version designed by Mark Jones entered the line-up in 2004. A few variants were made until the car disappeared in 2006. The first versions mirrored the colours of the real show cars, starting with the first release in gold, and then wheel and interior variants of a metalflake red. The last to be seen on the pegs was the rather anachronistic Spy Hunters version, covered in unnecessary decals and with blue tinted windows. It was a bit of a sad end to an otherwise cool diecast.
This early gold car probably entered my collection in about 2004/5, when I was in my first phase of collecting. It was a bit aged from being sat unceremoniously in a box in the loft. Moisture had got in and rusted an axle, and had managed to creep into the interior and onto the window. This meant I decided to crack it open to clean it up. And in the process I noticed something rather curious…. the diecast body is actually in two pieces.
The engine cover and rear spoiler are moulded in one seperate piece, riveted onto the body. Was it intended to be an opening piece which was then canned before production? Or was simply cheaper to do it this way? Either way it came as a surprise, and maybe someone could shed some light on it…
And it still looks great 15 years later. A lot of these small supercar manufacturers have disappeared now meaning we’re probably unlikely to see things like the Edonis or indeed other unicorns like the Zender Fact 4 on the pegs soon, but there are always surprises in the diecast world, and I’ve been proved wrong many times before! But its always good to give these somewhat forgotten castings another airing, and I’ve enjoyed this one thoroughly.
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(Find the Hot Wheels Edonis on Ebay)
Yeah I noticed the two separate pieces of the casting when I got one and drilled it apart. I don’t know why it’s there, but it’ll make a great custom!
I’ve long considered B-Engineering to be the true legacy of the Bugatti brand. It was formed by many former Bugatti employees, as mentioned in the article, and the “B” stands for Bugatti, after all. The cars Volkswagen produces for the new Bugatti brand are incredible feats of automotive technology, but we must give credit to B-Engineering for continuing on with the work of the original independent brand.
I have this gold version in my collection, and have always wondered why the engine cover is a separate piece but doesn’t open. It’s very interesting to see that it’s actually riveted to the body. I guess I’ll stop trying to pry it open.
I wonder how many they have sold over the years?
And yeah! I was trying to pull it it open also, I’ll maybe give it a drill out later, see how satisfying it is to be able to remove it!
I don’t really have a distinct memory of the Edonis as a real 1:1 car. I mean I knew it existed, but it had to have been a quick blip on the supercar scene. A quick “hey look at this”, then on to the next thing. Nor to I recall this gold first edition. I wish I did, because it is quite the looker! I suppose there may be one squirreled away in my carded collection that I’ve forgotten about. I can say however that I own the later release in a distinct dark red or wine color on black wheels. I must say it is a really well done casting, capturing the proportions and distinct features of the Edonis perfectly. I happy to say I have this lesser known model in my collection.
I personally think the plain red version is better looking than this, but once I found it I knew it would be going on Lamley!
I used to had this(until now) even with the rear got M.I.A.