Because it’s too late for Teutonic Tuesday.
The headline sounds more unique anyway since the car being showcased was born from that specific town in Germany. The ultra sleek and ultra competitive Porsche 962.
The 962 was an upgraded version of Porsche previous prototype class racer, the 956, which was the replacement of the racetrack king Porsche 935. The 962 got a slightly increased wheelbase to the 956 by moving the front axle forward so mechanical bits such as the pedalbox can be kept inboard improving balance without sacrificing anymore of the already minuscule cabin space. The engine was changed too from 956's original 2.6 liter twin turbo flat-six to a 2.8 liter unit from the successful 935 due to regulation on single-turbo engine only. There were a couple variants of the 962 built with various engine sizes to accommodate different races and continue to be competitive as the current mill being used was starting to fall behind competitions from Jaguar, Mercedes, and, Nissan. Engine variations of 2.8, 3.0, 3.2 liters were used with the 3.0 liter released in 1987 helped Porsche won the 24 hrs of Le Mans that year.
For a racecar, the 962 was built in pretty high numbers with 75 units sold to private owners and 16 went to factory backed racing teams making a total of 91 cars. Some racing teams went to great lengths to transform their 962s from simple cosmetic upgrade like different nose to fabricating a completely new chassis that were more rigid than what Porsche made but order and install the running gears and official parts from Porsche. There were even racing teams converting 962s to a open-cockpit style to suit the race category they want to enter.
Overall, the 962 enjoyed a relatively long racing career with 10 years in the running with the car claiming its last victory in 1994.
The execution of this car by Hot Wheels from the latest Car Culture series dubbed Race Day was incredibly well done. They captured the overall shape of the 962 extremely well and the ride height is perfect. They also premiered their latest wheel design that I call them turbine wheels which was appropriate since the real 962 did use similar wheel on a couple of occasions whether on all corners or just for the front. The livery on the cast is crisp and relatively accurate with a 962 was indeed numbered 99 owned by Team Trust/Greddy. The Hot Wheels casting represent a longtail version of the 962 but the one owned by the team its depicting was always a shorttail and never a longtail and the front headlight tampos are missing. Other than those two foibles which one of them which is the representation of the longtail version can be justified for potential broader livery choices in future re-releases, it’s an awesome cast and I highly recommend this cast to grab out of the assortment if nothing else catches your eye.