Remember when the only car you could pilot was three inches long and the only road it zipped down was the carefully balanced orange plastic tracks in your bedroom? If you're picturing a palm-sized shiny green Camaro with giant wheels and a Hot Wheels logo emblazoned on the side, we have some good news for you: at the SEMA show earlier this month, Chevy unveiled a life-size version of one of the most popular Hot Wheels cars of all time.

That's right. That iridescent green paint and fat wheels of Hot Wheels' 1968 Custom Camaro came to life at the Chevrolet booth a few weeks ago. It not only got a special paint treatment, Chevy also included a custom bodykit, Brembo brakes, a lowered suspension, a ZL1 rear spoiler and special Hot Wheels badging all around. Much unlike the original Hot Wheels from the 60s, this one has a real 6.2-liter V8 engine mated to a Tremec six-speed manual transmission.

The decision to turn Mattel's 1:64-scale Chevy into a full-size concept wasn't a difficult one, for sure. According to Phil Zak, Design Director at GM, "The Camaro has been a mainstay in the Hot Wheels lineup since 1968. Several generations of car enthusiasts grew up playing with Hot Wheels Camaros, while dreaming of driving the real thing, so this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make that dream a reality."¹ Felix Holst, VP Design, Mattel, agrees. He says, "The Spectraflame paint and redline tires of those first Hot Wheels cars have been the dreams of guys for generations, and it was thrilling to inject these elements into a Camaro for real."²

So far, Chevy has shown off this hot new concept at the 2011 SEMA Show and the LA Auto Show, and we hope to get more glimpses of it in the future. No word yet on if it could go into production. In the very least, we hope this will inspire future collaborations between the automaker and the toy maker!

If you're anything like some of us here at the Cole Krum Chevrolet showroom, news of this big-kid toy got your heart pumping just a bit faster. With that in mind, we invite you stop in and see us at 343 W Prairie St Vicksburg, MI 49097 to see all of the fun new Chevy models that are a bit more practical for your grown-up life. Questions? Contact us via our website at anytime.

Source; ^1,2http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/11/chevrolet-camaro-hot-wheels/1