Our friends at Hot Wheels originally built this beautiful ’66 Pontiac GTO for the 2006 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. They asked Steve Strope and the crew at Pure Vision Design in Simi Valley to build a car that could cruise to Southern California events, car shows and Hot Wheels themed conventions, and it had to make an impact. After a few years on the road with show car suspension, the Hot Wheels marketing department decided they wanted to replace the entire suspension system with a new setup that would provide the same killer stance, but with better road manners on the street and killer performance in the corners.

After asking around at local shows, they decided Hotchkis Sport Suspension was the way to go and called us up. The irony is that we were busy basking in the glory of the recently released “Hotchwheel” ’69 Camaro, and the GTO’s caretaker didn’t even know that car was on the market when he called and asked for suspension help. A fast friendship was forged and we invited him to bring the candy apple red GTO down to the shop.

A few days later the old stuff was stripped off and replaced with a complete Hotchkis Total Vehicle System (TVS), including upper and lower Geometry Corrected A-Arms, Upper and Lower Rear Control Arms, front and rear Extreme Sport Sway Bars, Sport Springs, HPS1000 Shocks, Rear Control Arm Braces and a complete Steering Rebuild Kit. After a performance alignment the car drove like a modern sports car, and Chris Bouman from Hot Wheels drove down from Hot Mattel HQ to pick it up. After Chris and his crew took the car for a spin they were all smiles, and the car is now capable of tackling any long-distance road trip, local cruise or quick jaunt through the canyons with ease, yet it still has the same hunkered-down ride height that was on display at SEMA back in 2006.

The Goat is powered by a 421 Pontiac big block with with ram 400 heads and is topped with an Edelbrock carburetor and intake manifold. Hedman Hedders breathe into to Flowmaster pipes and mufflers and an MSD Ignition system fires everything off. The wheels are 20” Hot Wheels™ KMC 68 Custom Rims wrapped in Nitto Tires, and Wilwood custom disc brakes slow everything down. Inside is a Year One interior that replicates the original, with gauges by Redline Gauge Works and a Plant Audio sound system.

Now that the GTO is equipped with a full complement of Hotchkis Sport Suspension, we hope Chris and the Hot Wheels crew decide to take it to a few local driving events, maybe even the next GoodGuys Auto Cross. If we can convince the GoodGuys folks to paint the track bright orange, the big Hot Wheel will look right at home.