These Hot Wheels-Inspired Wheels Turn Your Car Into a Life-Size Toy

The Drive

4 days ago

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The quintessential old-school Hot Wheels wheels, shiny discs with six little lines carved into the chrome, are from a line of the toys called 'Ultra Hots.' I'm sure some of you fondly remember racking up miles on them as you played with 1:64-scale cars as a kid. Now, a creative car customizing house is taking inspiration from the design to a big range of sizes for real cars.
A few weeks ago, an outfit called Concept Car Studio caught my attention with some images of these true-to-toy style wheels, so I reached out and got some details from the man behind the product, Brent Lawson.
The idea's pretty straightforward—upsize the look of the classic Ultra Hot wheel design so it could fit on a range of actual cars. CCS is planning to make these in a huge range of sizes, from 14s to 28s, in bolt patterns that fit vehicles with between four and eight lugs. That means you could fit them under almost any somewhat modern machine. You can still find Ultra Hots at Walmart, Amazon, and elsewhere. Mattel
Lawson told me the Ultra Hots were his favorite Hot Wheels toys, and had been thinking about making a life-size version when he saw a now-old Reddit thread asking if such a thing had ever been done. He shared some more context on bringing this idea to life, and some images, via email [sic]:
'The fact that it took so long for someone (us) to come in and design this wheel for actual cars just shows the amount of opportunity there STILL is when it comes to aftermarket car modification and wheel design,' he told me over email. 'It's great that brands like HRE, Giovanna and Rays are still around, but there has to be a brand that hasn't scaled and is just here to make cool custom wheels that remind people of who they are. The Ultra Hot is designed for anyone who played with toys as a kid. The UH is the wheel that got a lot of us into car culture, so fuck the Minimum order quantities, screw capitalistic trends and justifications – this product was designed for YOU.'
While he's not doing minimum quantities, the wheels are being made to order. So they will not arrive as cheaply or instantly as typical off-the-rack wheel options. Pricing's on a per-quote basis, and lead time would be six to eight weeks. This IG post has more details, and if you don't have Instagram and you're curious, you can get a quote by sending your wheel specs to [e-mail]. Concept Car Studio
I don't currently own a car that these would look quite right on, but I love the idea and can't wait to see a set on somebody's ride. Concept Car Studio rendered what it's calling its 'U-HOT' wheels on a Barbie-pink Ford Maverick, where they look incredible, and on an EF-chassis Honda Civic hatchback from the end of the '80s, where they also look awesome.
These would absolutely crush it on any minitruck or an old-school import car.
The U-HOTs are not the first wheel that Concept Car Studio's cooked up. There is also the Vector wheel, which has a similarly rad-era aesthetic, but it's a little more retro-OEM looking. It's like something you might see on an obscure '80s supercar (like, maybe, a Vector?), and would really suit anything with a wedge silhouette. A set of those has been fitted to a GR86 with a decidedly unique result.
Concept Car Studio is not purely a wheel shop. Lawson explained to me that it 'specializes in the conceptualization and implementation of experiential, social and strategic brand marketing … for the automotive, TV/film and fashion industry.'
'Our goal is to change the texture of modern car culture by adding to its history through artistic collaboration,' he added. Sounds a little bit like the vision our buddies at Donut Media started with, when they were trying to be a funky ad agency before the YouTube channel got big. (On a related note: Donut collaborated with Concept Car Studio on the lowrider Miata video.)
Lawson elaborated on that quite a bit via email, and I'll share a little more from him directly because these three paragraphs in particular are where I finally got my head around what this whole Concept Car Studio thing is about (edited for formatting):
'Our challenges lie within well-respected enthusiast communities like the Honda community and the hot rod and minitruck community. Those people are huge purists, but not every 30-year-old wheel you find is going to have the same structural integrity as something that was built this year. We aren't trying to change history, but we are trying to add to it.'
'People keep saying that our wheels are ugly—and it's intentional, we don't want to make cool wheels for your cool BMW or Porsche. Literally, I'm sitting at 8th and Santa Fe [in Los Angeles] right now writing this, and there's a speed yellow 997 sitting on staggered brushed silver BBS LM's. Next to it is a Hell Red E30 M3 on RSs, and in the very front of the shop is a Sebring Silver JDM NSX on BBS RGRs.'
'The market has been dictated by affluent car people who don't really have taste. It's the same reason why every luxury vehicle on aftermarket wheels is sporting a 24″ or bigger multispoke wheel or big face monoblock style wheel. Everyone is copying each other, and we are truly just here to try and break that up.' Concept Car Studio
Even if the U-HOTs or Vector wheels aren't quite your style, you've got to appreciate the injection of aesthetic diversity in the car scene. In fact, I'm feeling inspired to put some of my own jalopies back together. Can't let the boring rich guys have all the fun with cars now, can we?
Got a tip? Maybe you know about another boutique outfit building unique parts for the next generation of car modding? Drop the author a line at [e-mail].