Let’s take a look at the car that Mika Hakkinen won his first F1 championship and constructor’s championship for McLaren since 1991 with Ayrton Senna.
Mika Hakkinen claim the 1998 World Championship beating out Michael Schumacher with his colleague David Coulthard finishing Third.
Not only does Mika Hakkinen display “Sisu” or “Courage”in Finnish winning 8 races during the 1998 season but the McLaren MP4/13 designed by Adrian Newey provided the last piece for a winning team. The aerodynamics Adrian Newey implemented was more efficient than any other team with the V10 Mercedes engine producing 780hp is also the highest output engine of the season.
The MP4/13 also held the record for the fastest time up the Goodwood Festival of Speed hillclimb of 41.6 seconds piloted by Nick Heidfield up until three days ago on July 5 beaten by the VW I.D. R with 41.18 seconds.
I never would’ve believe that Hot Wheels was the one that made these and to be honest I never knew such set existed. I acquired these from our friend Doug (Dek34) who picked it up at a local diecast show.
The amount of details on these are astonishing. Every little feature are there and totally unique to this casting such as the wheels and groove tires, the tampos are excellent if you look closely you can see the flag of Finland with the name Hakkinen next to it on the side of the airbox.
I couldn’t find too much information on the web about this set but what I did found out that a few handful of these sets were released with the West cigarette logo printed on the rear wing and sides of the car just like in the races and the rest represent the demonstration cars with the sides and rear wing left blank. Its unclear whether its a licensing issue or having tobacco related branding on a diecast being unfriendly to kids the reason few were released with the full livery for this set.
It will be an absolute crime for me not to include the soundtrack of this thing from F1's “V10 Era.” So here’s a bonus for getting this far and start your Monday right.
Once again huge thanks to Doug for this wonderful set.