A Man Loved His Toy Car So Much He Spent 17 Years Making It Real, Now It Can Be Yours

Countless kids, likely including you when you were little, grew up playing with and collecting tiny diecast cars and dreaming about a high-octane future. A number of today’s enthusiasts owe at least some of their car love to Matchbox and Hot Wheels and today, you have a rare chance to make your dreams a reality. This 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk ‘Dream Roadster’ is a real-life toy car based on one of the tiny diecast hot rods from decades ago. It’s time to be a kid again as you can buy this real working car with some famed video game history.

The Dream Roadster is going to roll across the Mecum Harrisburg 2024 auction block on Friday, July 26. So, you have some time to gather the big dollars this vehicle will probably command. You’ll be getting an award-winning hot rod that started life as a Studebaker before getting parts from Fords, Chevrolets, Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, and more. Readers who play Xbox will recognize this car from its appearance in Forza Horizon 4 from the Hot Wheels Legends car pack. You may have also seen it in countless car shows.

What I love most about this car is that it’s a labor of love that took over a decade to turn into reality. Now, it’s time for someone else to be the car’s steward.

When Bold Is Cooler Than Realistic

Back when I was a kid, I found there were a couple of camps of diecast car kids. Some of us, like myself, adored the scaled-down real-life cars of Matchbox, Maisto, Johnny Lightning, and the like. Then there were the kids who loved the wild fantasy custom creations of Hot Wheels. Regardless if you like your diecasts as scaled-down real cars or the hot-rod stuff, they helped plant the seeds of car enthusiasm and many adults still collect these tiny rides today.

Paul Jurewicz is one of those fans of Hot Wheels and his love goes back to the very start.

As the story goes, Mattel co-founder Elliot Handler was looking for a way to improve the diecast toy market. It was the late 1960s and he felt that the diecast cars of the day were just too realistic. As Hagerty notes, there was an additional problem. Handler and his wife Ruth brought some 1:64 scale cars home from Europe. It’s not known what exact cars were brought back, but it was likely one of the scale real cars from Corgi, Lesney, or Matchbox. Either way, the grandkids the vehicles were given to weren’t happy with how poorly the toys rolled.

The look of what would become Hot Wheels was the work of Harry Bentley Bradley, a designer from General Motors with another portfolio of designing California Custom-style hot rods. Bradley is the reason the original Hot Wheels cars were adorned with massive tires, custom wheels, exaggerated proportions, chromed-out custom engines, and bold Spectraflame colors.

That alone was enough to give Hot Wheels cars the punch they needed to stand out above the comparatively plain European diecasts, but there was another trick. Mattel director of product development engineering Harvey La Branche was the lead inventor of a new way for diecast cars to roll. The typical diecast car of the day used solid steel axles that were hard-mounted to the car. Branche’s idea replaced those steel axles with flexible pieces of steel wire. These wires, which were guitar strings in the prototypes, were mounted in a way that gave the cars a durable sort of suspension at the axle ends.

The wheels were then made out of plastic, given bushings inside, and were given just enough camber so that a minimum amount of plastic tire actually touched a surface. The plastic wheels were then aligned so that the cars “drive” straight instead of wobbling all over the place like the competition. Hot Wheels cars didn’t just look fast, but they were engineered to blow the other diecasts out of the water.

The Dream Roadster

The original 16 Hot Wheels cars were inspired by the hot rods and muscle cars of the era and are very collectible today. One of those originals is the 1968 Python, a diecast based on the Car Craft Magazine ‘Dream Rod’ penned by publication staff in 1961:

Paul Jurewicz, an experienced hot rodder in Michigan, had an original Hot Wheels Python growing up. He also had a 1978 MPC Tiger Shark like the one above before selling it. The Tiger Shark was also based on the Car Craft Dream Rod but on a larger scale than the Hot Wheels version.

Like any lover of tiny diecast cars, he wanted to drive a real version of his youth. According to WWJ 950, Jurewicz’s build wouldn’t be a direct replica of the Hot Wheels Python, but his own idea based on a mix of six different designs with the Tiger Shark as a base. Much like the California Custom hot rods so many know and love, his Dream Roadster has a little bit of everything but the kitchen sink in it.

The build book for his Studebaker Dream Roadster states that Jurewicz would also draw inspiration from the 1961 issue of Car Craft Magazine, where the Dream Rod was found and turned into a bunch of diecast toys and models. The car shown is the magazine’s Dream Roadster concept:

The book also notes that Jurewicz started small, building a scale model of his idea in 2001. The build began in earnest a few years later.

Jurewicz started with a 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk found in a junkyard. He scavenged the vehicle for its cowl, door frames, and A-pillar structure, including the windshield. From there, Jurewicz grafted on the front end and doors of a 1960s Pontiac, the rear end of a 1963 Chevrolet Corvair, and the hood of a 1959 Ford Thunderbird.

I’m sure you’re squinting right now and possibly not seeing where all of these cars went. That could be because Jurewicz got really creative here. The rear end isn’t just a Corvair, but he also scavenged the sunroof from an ’80s Audi wagon that serves as the vehicle’s trunk lid, and the right headlight door from a 1967 Oldsmobile Toronado is grafted onto the front end.

Those headlights? They were lifted from two Harley-Davidsons. There’s even a little Shelby in there, and I mean a little: the mirrors are from a 1965 Shelby Mustang. There’s even a little Lincoln Continental in there with the taillights. Even the interior is great with its black leather and wood Nardi wheel.

The platform underneath is an equally fascinating mix of parts. The vehicle rides on an independent suspension thanks to a 1980s-era Jaguar suspension in the rear and a Corvette C4 suspension up front.

A 4.6 liter Ford Modular V8 joined the chat from a 1996 Lincoln and it’s backed by a Ford C4 three-speed automatic. This engine has a custom intake, a Demon carburetor, and an MSD Ignition. Jurewicz never stated anything about engine output, but it could be in the ballpark of 300 HP.

All of this is stopped by four-wheel slotted and drilled disc brakes clamped on by Wilwood 6-piston calipers and sizable 20-inch Weld Evo wheels give the car that signature Hot Wheels proportions. Jurewicz spent 17 years building this masterpiece and he capped it off with House of Kolor Sunrise Pearl paint.

The car then went on to win award after award, from Mecum Auctions:

First in class awards at the 2019 and 2020 at Detroit Autorama.
Gene Winfield “Select Six” contender at the 2019 Syracuse Nationals in New York.
Fine Nine contender and Darryl Starbird’s Personal Choice award at the Darryl Starbird National Rod & Custom car show in 2020.
Judge’s Pick award winner at 2021 Eyes on Design Concours d’Elegance in Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan.
Featured in the SEMA Battle of the Builders.

The Dream Roadster also made an appearance at the 2019 Hot Wheels Legends Tour. If you don’t know what the Legends Tour is, Mattel hosts custom car shows around America where builders show off their work for the chance to have their vehicle immortalized as a future Hot Wheels diecast. The Dream Roadster lost the Legends Tour to the 1957 Nash Metropolitan “Nashole,” but the folks of Microsoft did something arguably just as cool.

The Dream Roadster was scanned, created as a 3D model, and inserted into the virtual world by way of the Hot Wheels Legends car pack in Forza Horizon 4.

A Real-Life Diecast

While the Dream Roadster didn’t become a diecast car, it’s still about as close as you’re going to get to driving a real Python. So, this is one of those rare opportunities where you as an adult can take a trip back and at least feel like a kid again. If you’re like me, you made engine noises as you tore up imaginary streets with your cars. Now you can do the real thing.

Jurewicz has decided to pass on his dream car to another Hot Wheels fan. Those with the kind of cash to play will want to pay attention to the Mecum Harrisburg Auction on July 26. Buying the car gets you the whole lot from the vehicle to a pile of magazines, awards, parts records, and the vehicle’s build book.

While I may have been a Matchbox kid, Hot Wheel cars were still a source of wonder. It’s awesome to see big ideas turned into something real and even better to see someone’s dream come true. Now, Jurewicz is passing on his dream to brighten up someone else’s day.