Hot Wheels designer Fraser Campbell discusses the fabulous new Lotus 49

Hot on the heels of the Elite 64 Bugatti Type 59 (read about that here) comes another Grand Prix classic from Hot Wheels, the Lotus 49.

(find Hot Wheels Lotus 49 on eBay)

There is plenty of material to read elsewhere online about what made the 49 special, but as I’m sure many readers will know, it set the template for modern F1 cars – a monocoque chassis with a rear-mid engine as a stressed member to mount suspension and gearbox, the introduction of the Cosworth DFV engine that dominated into the 1980s and, from ’68, the first use of front and rear wings in F1.

[Side note – It’s sometimes written that the Lotus 49 pioneered using the engine as a load-bearer in F1 but the Lancia-Ferrari D50 back in the 1950s was responsible for that ‘first’. About 20 years ago I made that mistake in a magazine article and was quickly corrected by LJK Setright, with whom I was working at the time. Wise as he was, he also said something along the lines of, “It’s not doing it first that matters, it’s doing it right!”]

Anyway, the Lotus 49 did it right. For more info, look for the classic documentary Nine Days in Summer about the gestation of the Lotus and its Cosworth DFV engine (available to buy from Duke Video or on eBay) as well as this shorter documentary on YouTube about the car’s debut win at Zandvoort in 1967.

Let’s talk about the model. The ’67 Lotus 49 has been introduced to the Hot Wheels mainline for 2024. Designed by Fraser Campbell, it measures 75mm (3 inches) long, making it roughly 1:53 scale, although it’s proportionally narrower than it should be, as we’ll see.

Clearly, this is an unusual choice for a Hot Wheels mainline. Fraser has kindly answered some of my questions so here’s an exclusive, behind-the-scenes story of how the Lotus 49 came to be.

“I’ve wanted to add this to the line for many years now,” says Fraser. “Thanks to Dima [Shakhmatov], my manager at the time, we both agreed it had to be included. I had a Tri-ang Lotus as a kid back in the 1970s but never realized the 49’s significance until I drove it in sim racing game called ‘Grand Prix Legends’ many years later. I fell in love with that DFV Ford Cosworth sound and since realized the incredible history and dominance that the DFV had for nearly 20 years. It was only fitting to immortalize the 49 as a Hot Wheels racing legend. Also, as you know, Jim Clark is a legend too.”

(find Grand Prix Legends on eBay)

Fraser’s Tri-ang, shown here with the Hot Wheels 49, was a generic F1 car from the Hiway line, roughly 1:24 scale, called the Silverstone (model number TM6555). It was available in different colours to represent teams from different countries – there was no licensing, but the Silverstone’s green and yellow are clearly Lotus colours.

This was a simple, chunky toy compared with Tri-ang’s earlier, detailed line of Spot-On diecast models and its box promised “Built-in Strength” from a “Pressed steel body on a diecast chassis”. You can read more about Tri-ang here.

(find Tri-ang Hiway Silverstone on eBay)

Fraser was ready to start on the 49 in 2022 for a 2023 release, but the need for additional time on the licensing contract with Classic Team Lotus – a new licensor for Hot Wheels, and one of two on the car with Ford – meant that the modelling process didn’t start until around May 2023 for the 2024 line.

“Licensing is usually at least a six-month process but these things are difficult to predict,” he explains. “Once we get the go-ahead from our licensing team that the contracts are in place, we’ll spend about a week to create direction for our sculptors.”

He then worked from photos, models and scans to create the sculpt direction for Mattel’s in-house sculptors. If you’ve ever wondered how the design process evolves from there, read on.

“The sculptors have two weeks to deliver but it’s usually 2-3 rounds of comments with hopefully a couple of 3D prints to review,” Fraser says. “Then we prepare for the ‘Turn Over Package’ to our tooling engineers in Malaysia. The Turn Over requires interior/exterior 3D models, exploded views, part break direction, deco plan, photo reference, chassis legal direction, and an Excel coversheet with technical and costing data for the plant.

“After Turn Over, usually within a month or so, we’ll receive a parted-out 3D tooling model which we’ll print and review. After 3-4 rounds of markups with both tooling and plant engineers and a month or two later, we’re ready to send the sculpt and deco plan to the licensor for approvals. Once all is approved, the blue images [base image views] are prepared for the graphics team for e-sheets.”

You can see from the images here, courtesy of Fraser, that reviews in July 2023 led to a reshaping of the body sides to reflect the real car’s more rounded profile, and a repositioning of the side mirrors (part of the wraparound screen part) further rearward. Due to tool restrictions, the team was unable to fulfil a request to move the slide part line further up the driver’s body to remove the fill where his arms should be separate from his body.

“I wouldn’t say there were too many challenges on this model,” he continues. “The only issue I had was that I’d originally wanted the wider, 1.3-inch axles [instead of 1-inch] just to get the proportion a little more accurate. I’d been convinced to go narrower so it would meet the rolling distance requirements but since this wasn’t a track performance car, I wish I had challenged that. I’m still happy with it.

“We try to maintain as much authentic detail as possible. Side detail is simple to add since we have side slides in the tool, but we also need to allow for good deco coverage so keeping raised details minimal helps with the graphics.

“I was quite happy we managed to keep the small yellow window as these days we need parts to easily drop in to place during assembly. I thought it might have been too small at some point. I’m also pretty chuffed with the white colour break for the ceramic headers from the chassis.”

The metal base part incorporates not just the headers but the driver as well, a nice throwback to a time when metal drivers were common in diecast race cars from Corgi, Dinky and Matchbox. Indeed, it’s rare to see a metal base on a mainline at all.

“Weight and diecast cost is a factor,” says Fraser. “It would have been too light if only the body was diecast. The only extra was the added Ransburg paint process [for the body and chassis, similar to powder coating], but it was still all within cost as it’s such a small casting.”

Ex-Graham Hill, John Love 1967 Lotus 49 at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, UK

Then there are the wheels. As you can see from this image that I took in the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, UK this summer, the L4 wheel design looks like it could have been made for the Lotus 49.

In fact, it was! The wheel had already been designed to be released with the Lotus in 2023. When the car was delayed, a new home for it was sought – and found in the form of another of Fraser’s designs, the Alfa Romeo GTV6: “It was perfect for the GTV6,” he says.

While the Alfa used L4 Medium, the L4 Large now makes its debut on the rear axle of the Lotus 49. It took several rounds of changes to reach the desired tire profile.

“The wheel itself was a particularly challenging project,” says Fraser. “Limiting factors in tooling, and part release from the tools, meant we could only have a totally flat inner surface (see any Hot Wheels wheel). I know it’s not that noticeable straight away, but I think [the profile] really helps the overall look and feel of that particularly bulbous tire.”

The ’67 Lotus 49 appears with two different decos in the HW Race Day segment of the 2024 mainline. The two machines represent the cars of drivers Jim Clark (#5) and Graham Hill (#4) during the 49’s debut season. At that time, F1 race numbers changed from race to race, and I can’t find a record of the team-mates using #5 and #4 at the same event, though both numbers were used more than once. Fraser comments, “Andrés Andrieu did a beautiful deco. There was some back and forth with the licensor, but we got there.”

(find Hot Wheels Lotus 49 on eBay)

Predictably, I like this model a lot. Hearing from Fraser, it’s clear that this was a passion project that resulted in much of the attention to detail that appeals to me so much. One of my favourite details is the coolant pipe down the left-hand side (radiators were at the front until the Lotus 72 of 1970). I agree that the axles should be a little wider, but for a couple of bucks, who’s complaining? If I get around to writing a sequel to 20 Great Race Cars, my children’s book about race cars, it’s going in – only the lack of a suitable model led to the Lotus 49’s omission first time around.

To finish, I’ve photographed the 49 with some relevant F1 contemporaries from my collection.

(find Hot Wheels Redline Brabham-Repco on eBay)

(find Tomica Honda F-1 on eBay)

(find Majorette Lotus on eBay)

(find Kyosho Lotus 72 on eBay)

Thanks to Fraser Campbell for answering my questions. Happy collecting!

(find Hot Wheels Lotus 49 on eBay)

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