In the 1960s a co-founder of Mattel, Elliot Handler, was in search of America’s answer to the United Kingdom’s already successful die-cast, Matchbox cars. By 1968 he would realize that goal when the first 16 Hot Wheels muscle cars were released. The following year Richard Rawlings was born on a trajectory which would one day lead to him making (lowercase) hot wheels at Gas Monkey Garage; unknown to him at the time, he would one day find his hot wheels crossing paths with Handler’s Hot Wheels.
That first batch of 16 in 1968 would consist of muscle car mainstays: Camaro, Firebird and Corvette. The latter of which would find new life in 2017 with Gas Monkey Garage’s 1968 Chevrolet Corvette known as the Midas Monkey. Needless to say upon laying eyes on both the real thing and its micro counterpart, the Midas Monkey has seen some extensive custom overhauls. The 427 was completely revamped to insure the air/fuel mixture a Weiand 871 blower and dual Holley 750s would not spell disaster for the nearly 50-year-old ‘Vette. Additionally, the car was given its House of Kolor gold flaked paint job which would give way to its Midas namesake for the Greek King Midas whose touch turned everything to gold.
The car and Hot Wheel would both achieve worldwide fame thanks to Fast N’ Loud and Hot Wheels and would lead to the sale of the Midas Monkey at Barrett-Jackson. And as the car found a new life and new owner in Arizona, the wheels of the team at Hot Wheels would waste little time in looking to the next car.
This time the team at Hot Wheels would raise the stakes on the GMG team challenging them to take on a build for their exclusive Red Line Club. Up to the challenge the Monkeys would start with quite the opposite base of their prior build, a 1963 Ford Econoline. The team would bore out a Ford 460 to 520-cubic-inches with a C6 transmission and rear-mount the engine, not typical of an Econoline. Also not typical, the center mounted seat and steering column. To mirror its sister car the Econoline, now dubbed Hi-Po Hauler, was painted a combination of House of Kolor Gamma Gold, MBC Pale Gold, DeBeer Vintage Copper and HOK flat clear to top it off.
Having lived at GMG most of its life the Hi-Po Hauler was purchased by the Midas Monkey owner and looks to finally move to its new home, most likely, in Canada in the coming weeks. However, it couldn’t very well leave without its brethren the Midas Monkey stopping by the garage for the first, and possibly last, time together before both heading their separate ways into the world.
The post Midas Monkey, Hi-Po Hauler Meet For First Time appeared first on GAS MONKEY GARAGE | RICHARD RAWLINGS | FAST N LOUD.
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