sábado, 14 de março de 2015

VW Brasilia (Hot Wheels 2011 series)




The Volkswagen Brasilia is a rear-engined compact car, manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen in Brazil between 1973 and 1982; in Mexico from 1974-1982; and as knock down kits in Nigeria where it was marketed as the Igala from 1976-1980.

Designed to replace the Beetle (or Fusca) in the Brazilian market and originally available in a three-door hatchback body style (subsequently also as a five-door hatchback), the Brasilia combined the air-cooled engine of the Volkswagen Beetle, the chassis of the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia and styling reminiscent of the Volkswagen 412.

Developed by Volkswagen do Brasil (Volkswagen of Brazil) and internally designated as the Type 321, the Brasilia was named after Brazil's capital city and by the end of 1982, over one million examples had been manufactured.

In September 1970, Volkswagen of Brazil's president, Rudolf Leiding, challenged the company's designers to recreate the Beetle with the Brazilian market in mind. At that time, the Beetle, the Bus and the Karmann-Ghia were the only air-cooled VWs that proved successful in Brazil. For Leiding, the new Volkswagen should be practical, economical and larger than the Beetle.

In three months, more than 40 prototypes were developed. The prototypes were expensive and VW was looking for a new cheap car, to compete with the brand new Chevette, from Chevrolet.

Sales began in 1973, with the Brasilia originally marketed as a commercial small van to take advantage of the lower tax rates on "trucks" — a classification and marketing approach that may have hampered initial sales. The Brasilia was the first Brazilian hatchback with five doors, a version ultimately manufactured in small numbers.

Total production reached over one million vehicles including exports to Chile, Portugal, Bolivia, Perú, Ecuador, Venezuela, Paraguay, Uruguay, the Philippines, and starting in March 1976, in CKD kits of the 5-door to Nigeria, where it was renamed Igala. The Brasilia was also assembled in Mexico from 1974-1982.

The Brasilia's introduction received notoriety, when a reporter photographed preliminary test vehicles near the factory and security personnel fired shots — triggering Brazilian media attention, an official apology from Volkswagen, increased sales for Quatro Rodas, the magazine which purchased the photographs. The reporter, (Cláudio Larangeira), who was immediately hired by Quatro Rodas.

At its debut, the Brasilia had a 4-cylinder, air-cooled boxer engine with single carburetor. The rear-engine, rear-wheel drive had a gearbox with 4 speeds. In the 1980s, Volkswagen also offered an alcohol-engine option, with 1300 cc and 49 hp. The 1974 Volkswagen Brasilia, with dual carburetors, could run 10.4 km with one liter of gasoline on a highway. The urban fuel consumption is around 14 km/L.

quinta-feira, 12 de março de 2015

Volkswagen Beetle (Orange, blue and purple cabrio of Maisto, purple seda Jada)




The Volkswagen Beetle, officially the Volkswagen Type 1, or informally the Volkswagen Bug, is a two-door, four passenger, rear-engined economy car manufactured and marketed by German automaker Volkswagen (VW) from 1938 until 2003.

The need for this kind of car, and its functional objectives, were formulated by Adolf Hitler, leader of Nazi Germany, wishing for a cheap, simple car to be mass-produced for the new road network of his country. He contracted Porsche in 1934 to design and build it to his exacting standards.[8] Ferdinand Porsche and his team took until 1938 to finalise the design. This is one of the first rear-engined cars. With over 21 million manufactured (21,529,464) in an air-cooled, rear-engined, rear-wheel drive configuration, the Beetle is the longest-running and most-manufactured car of a single design platform, worldwide.

Although designed in the 1930s, the Beetle was only produced in significant numbers from 1945 on (mass production had been put on hold during the Second World War) when the model was internally designated the Volkswagen Type 1, and marketed simply as the "Volkswagen". Later models were designated VW 1200, 1300, 1500, 1302 or 1303, the former three indicating engine displacement and the latter two being derived from the type number and not indicative of engine capacity. The model became widely known in its home country as the Käfer (German for "beetle") and was later marketed as such in Germany,[3] and as the Volkswagen Beetle in other countries.[1][2]

The Beetle was designed for sustained high speed on the autobahn. It ultimately gave rise to variants, including the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia and the Volkswagen Type 2 bus. The Beetle had marked a significant trend led by Volkswagen, Fiat, and Renault whereby the rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout had increased from 2.6 percent of continental Western Europe's car production in 1946 to 26.6 percent in 1956.[10] The 1948 Citroën 2CV and other European models marked a later trend to front-wheel drive in the European small car market, a trend that would come to dominate that market. In 1974, Volkswagen's own front-wheel drive Golf model succeeded the Beetle. In 1994, Volkswagen unveiled the Concept One, a "retro"-themed concept car with a resemblance to the original Beetle, and in 1998 introduced the "New Beetle", built on the Golf platform with styling recalling the original Type 1.

In a 1999 international poll for the world's most influential car of the 20th century, the Type 1 came fourth, after the Ford Model T, the Mini, and the Citroën DS.

Photos of the minisinfoco or lamleygroup, best sites of the diecast, enjoy!

quarta-feira, 11 de março de 2015

Hot Wheels Thunder Roller - B. J. and the Bear (Pop Culture series).




B. J. and the Bear TV series NBC.
Greg Evigan stars as B. J. (Billie Joe) McKay, a professional freelance itinerant trucker who travels the country's highways in a red and white Kenworth K-100 cab over semi truck with his pet chimpanzee Bear (named after Bear Bryant, the famed football coach for the University of Alabama). He is constantly harassed by Sheriff Elroy P. Lobo (Claude Akins, (who had previously starred in the trucking series Movin' On), whose character eventually spun off onto his own show The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo along with guest character "Waverly" Ben Cooper). Episodes typically deal with B.J. uncovering or getting mixed up with crime in the area he's traveling through, and a local resident—usually, a young, beautiful woman—appealing to him for help.

Kenworth K-100 Cabover Truck.
Kenworth began its history in Portland, Oregon. In 1912, the company was founded by brothers George T. and Louis Gerlinger, Jr. as a car and truck dealership known as Gerlinger Motor Car Works. In 1914, they decided to build their own truck with a more powerful inline six-cylinder engine. This was the first ever put into a commercial truck. The Gersix, as it was known, unveiled in 1915, was framed in structural steel, which along with its power, made the truck ideal for the rugged Northwest,[1] where it was used for logging.[2] In 1916 the Gerlinger Motor Car Company moved to Tacoma, Washington. Seattle businessman Edgar K. Worthington was managing his mother's commercial building, where Gerlinger became a tenant, and became intrigued by the Gerlinger company. Worthington's tenant was doing quite well, or so it seemed, and the Gersix became a popular fixture in the Northwest.[3] In 1917 Worthington and his business partner Captain Frederick Kent bought the Gerlinger business, renaming it the Gersix Motor Co.[3]

In 1919 Kent retired from the business, and his son Harry Kent became Worthington's new partner.[3] In 1922, Gersix made 53 trucks at its factory on Fairview Avenue at Valley Street. Under the new name, the company moved to 506 Mercer Street and later to 1263 Mercer Street. Trucks and motor coaches were assembled in individual bays rather than on a conventional assembly line.[4] In 1923 Kent and Worthington reincorporated the business as the Kenworth Motor Truck Company. The name was a combination of the two names "Ken" and "Worth", the same as the surname "Kenworth". In 1926 they started making buses, and in 1933 Kenworth was the first American company to offer diesel engines as standard in their trucks.[3] In 1945 Kenworth was bought by The Pacific Car and Foundry Company.

In the 1989 James Bond movie Licence to Kill, James Bond drives a Kenworth Semi-truck as he duels drug dealer Franz Sanchez. In Licence to Kill, the producers had 6 Kenworth Trucks rigged for stunt work, but they only used one for the stunt which 007 raised the front of truck to protect himself from a fire.


The Model K and Model W buses looked quite similar, but all similarities ended there. The differences were their length, side window design, and the choices of available engines. The model W had a pancake underfloor Hall-Scott 190 engine, while the K was powered by an International Red Diamond RD450 in the rear of the bus. The shorter model K was capable of hauling 25-33 passengers, while its bigger brethren could haul anywhere between 31 and 41 passengers depending on configuration. The Model N, as announced, would have seated 36 to 44 passengers in an underfloor engine configuration, but in 1947 it was downsized to a 32 to 36 passenger bus when the original design found no takers. After 1947, Kenworth began assigning numerals to the model designations to signify evolutionary variants in the design.


As production orders for the interurban model Ks and model Ws waned, Kenworth focused its attention on special orders including an order of 10 "Brucks"[8] for Great Northern Railway in Montana, (an earlier version was built for Northern Pacific Transport, but was a split-level coach) and several Highway Post Office coaches. These "special order coaches" were based on the model T school bus, which entered production in early 1949, after additionally test-marketing a small 20-passenger bus known as the Carcoach (only one was built, but none entered full production).

'64 Pontiac GTO (Hot Wheels 2011 series)




The Pontiac GTO is an automobile that was built by the Pontiac division of General Motors from 1964 to 1974, and by the GM subsidiary Holden in Australia from 2004 to 2006.

The first generation GTO was a muscle car of the 1960s and 1970s era. Although there were earlier muscle cars, the Pontiac GTO is considered by some to have started the trend with all four domestic automakers offering a variety of competing models.

From 1964 until midway through 1973, the GTO was related to the mid-sized Pontiac Tempest/LeMans. The 1974 GTO was a one-year only optional package available on the compact-sized two-door Pontiac Ventura.

The GTO model was revived from 2004 to 2006 model years as a captive import for Pontiac, a left-hand drive version of the Holden Monaro, itself a coupé variant of the Holden Commodore.

The first Pontiac GTO was an option package for the Pontiac Tempest, available with the two-door coupe, hardtop, and convertible body styles. The US$295 package included a 389 cu in (6 l) V8 rated at 325 bhp (242 kW) at 4800 rpm with a single Carter AFB four-barrel carburetor and dual exhaust, chromed valve covers and air cleaner, seven-blade clutch fan, a floor-shifted three-speed manual transmission with Hurst shifter, stiffer springs, larger diameter front sway bar, wider wheels with 7.50 × 14 redline tires, hood scoops, and GTO badges. Optional equipment included a four-speed manual, Super Turbine 300 two-speed automatic transmission, more powerful "Tri-Power" carburetion (three two-barrel Rochester 2G carburetors) rated at 348 bhp (260 kW), metallic drum brake linings, limited-slip differential, heavy-duty cooling, ride and handling package, and the usual array of power and convenience accessories. With every available option, the GTO cost about US$4,500 and weighed around 3,500 lb (1,600 kg). A tachometer was optional, and was placed in the far right dial on the dash.

sábado, 7 de março de 2015

Porsche 911 cabrio (Siku)




The original Porsche 911 (pronounced nine eleven, German: Neunelfer) was a luxury sports car made by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. The famous, distinctive, and durable design was introduced in autumn 1963 and built through 1989. It was succeeded by a modified version, internally referred to as Porsche 964 but still sold as Porsche 911, as are current models.

Mechanically, the 911 was notable for being rear engined and air-cooled. From its inception the 911 was modified both by private teams and the factory itself for racing, rallying and other types of automotive competition. The original 911 series is often cited as the most successful competition car ever, especially when its variations are included, mainly the powerful 911-derived 935 which won 24 Hours of Le Mans and other major sports cars races outright against prototypes.

In 1981 a Cabriolet concept car was shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Not only was the car a true convertible, but it also featured four-wheel drive, although this was dropped in the production version. The first 911 Cabriolet debuted in late 1982, as a 1983 model. This was Porsche’s first cabriolet since the 356 of the mid-1960s. It proved very popular with 4,214 sold in its introductory year, despite its premium price relative to the open-top targa. Cabriolet versions of the 911 have been offered ever since.

quarta-feira, 4 de março de 2015

Mustang Mach 1 (Hot Wheels classics series)




The Ford Mustang Mach 1 is a performance-oriented option package[1] of the Ford Mustang, originally introduced in August 1968, as a package for the 1969 model year. The Mach 1 title adorned performance oriented Mustang offerings until the original retirement of the moniker in 1978.

As part of a Ford heritage program, the Mach 1 package returned in 2003 as a high performance version of the SN95 platform. Visual connections to the 1969 model were integrated into the design to pay homage to the original. This generation of the Mach 1 was discontinued after the 2004 model year, with the introduction of the fifth-generation Mustang.

Ford first used the name "Mach 1" in its 1959 display of a concept "Levacar" called the Ford Rotunda. This concept vehicle used a cushion of air as propulsion on a circular dais.

domingo, 1 de março de 2015

Hot Wheels Convoy Custom and Long Gone




Convoy Custom (green and white), is a Pop Culture version of Hanna Barbera.

Long Gone (black) 2013 Hot Wheels Boulevard
Released last year in the series The Hot Ones, Long Gone reaches its disputed second variation on the Boulevard series. He is a retool of Long Shot, gorgeous Larry Wood project launched in 1983 which, surprisingly, did not have more variations. Both reproduce a type of truck that we Brazilians usually call mechanical horse and whose inspiration seems to have been the Peterbilt 359, launched in 1967 as the first model of the automaker with the elongated nose to house the large 16-cylinder engine Caterpillar. Its production lasted until 1987 when undergoing constant improvements included in the 1977 model for example, a panel in the same style of Corvettes of the time. The quality of its design influenced his successors, including 379 that was successful in the film as the Autobot Optimus Prime in Transformers (2007) (http://carrogitinho.blogspot.com.br/)