Lee Johnstone’s Volvo P1800 From the UK Crowned Winner of 2021 Hot Wheels™ Legends Tour Global Grand Finale at Jay Leno’s Garage
14.11.2021 01:41:00 EET | Business Wire | Press release
The winner of the 2021 Hot Wheels™ Legends Tour was selected today during a global livestream event at Jay Leno’s Garage. Hailing from Somerset, England, the 1969 Volvo P1800 built by Lee Johnstone will join a prestigious group of custom cars in the Hot Wheels Garage of Legends™ and will be forever immortalized as a 1:64 Hot Wheels® die-cast toy.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211113005258/en/
2021 Hot Wheels Legends Tour Winner - 1969 Volvo P1800 Gasser (Photo: Business Wire)
This Volvo P1800 "Aint No Saint" Gasser was originally registered as new in 1969. Its owner, 71-year-old English motor mechanic Lee Johnstone, acquired the vehicle as a rusty rolling shell before thoroughly restoring, modifying, and transforming it into the quarter-mile monster it is today. Sporting a Chevrolet 454 big block, its new power plant is capped with a 671 GMC supercharger and dual four-barrel carburetors. Finished in a fitting shade of Volvo green, it is a true culmination of more than 50 years of ‘race it, break it, build it better’ experience. Perhaps most importantly – and in true challenger spirit – "Aint No Saint" is also a family affair, with Lee's three daughters, Eleanor, Sarah and Victoria, sharing in the driving duties, and his wife, Sue, on standby to help crew.
Finishing its fourth year, the Hot Wheels Legends Tour is a worldwide competition spanning 11 countries and five continents, making it the world’s largest international traveling car show. Thousands of builds were submitted to compete in a series of in-person and virtual stops, which began in April 2021. Over the past seven months, some of the most unique and inspiring custom creations went head-to-head, all for a chance to become the next Hot Wheels die-cast toy sold – and played with by fans of all ages – across the globe.
This year’s global Grand Finale was co-hosted by celebrity car enthusiast Jay Leno and motorsports ambassador Jarod DeAnda during a virtual livestream event, where they were joined by an array of automotive and design experts from around the world to complete the task of choosing the 2021 winner. Joining them on stage were Ted Wu, Global Head of Design for Vehicles, Mattel; Bryan Benedict, Director of Vehicles Design, Mattel; Brendon Vetuskey, Vehicles Designer, Mattel; Henrik Fisker, automotive design icon; Elana Scherr, senior editor of Car and Driver; car customizer and automotive electronics guru Mad Mike; and automotive content creator and drifting enthusiast Sara Choi.
“The Hot Wheels Legends Tour has truly become a global celebration of custom car creations,” said Ted Wu, Vice President, Global Head of Design for Vehicles, Mattel. “With the addition of five new countries in the Tour, we have been able to reach and interact with millions of new fans and builders from around the world. The Volvo Gasser is a wonderful expression of authenticity, creativity and, most importantly, garage spirit. We look forward to welcoming Lee Johnstone and his 1969 Volvo P1800 into the Hot Wheels family and presenting the world with our newest Hot Wheels Legends Tour die-cast toy.”
“Having my family here with me for this moment was so special,” said Lee Johnstone. “I am excited to have my car become a Hot Wheels die-cast toy and to be able to share my passion project in 1:64 scale with the world. It’s amazing to be the first U.K. winner.”
The 2021 Hot Wheels Legends Tour was made possible in collaboration with Walmart and Mobil 1.
To learn more about the Hot Wheels Legends Tour, visit https://hotwheels.mattel.com/explore/en/legends-tour.
ABOUT HOT WHEELS
As a 53-year old brand more relevant today than ever before, Hot Wheels is the world’s leading vehicle franchise which represents and unites all segments of car culture. For decades Hot Wheels has proven its influence in automotive and pop culture with legendary design and epic performance. Through unparalleled collaborations with global leaders in streetwear, fashion, luxury, entertainment, action sports and motorsports, Hot Wheels is the #1 selling toy in the world* with over 8 billion vehicles sold. The brand engages fans of every generation through immersive live events, global competitions, theme park attractions, world-class digital gaming, consumer products and film and television content.
About Mattel
Mattel is a leading global toy company and owner of one of the strongest catalogs of children’s and family entertainment franchises in the world. We create innovative products and experiences that inspire, entertain and develop children through play. We engage consumers through our portfolio of iconic brands, including Barbie®, Hot Wheels®, Fisher-Price®, American Girl®, Thomas & Friends™, UNO® and MEGA®, as well as other popular intellectual properties that we own or license in partnership with global entertainment companies. Our offerings include film and television content, gaming, music and live events. We operate in 35 locations and our products are available in more than 150 countries in collaboration with the world’s leading retail and e-commerce companies. Since its founding in 1945, Mattel is proud to be a trusted partner in empowering children to explore the wonder of childhood and reach their full potential.
About Mobil 1
Mobil 1™ motor oil is the world's leading brand of synthetic motor oil. Our advanced technology allows Mobil 1 motor oils to meet or exceed some of the industry’s toughest standards and to provide exceptional protection under even extreme driving conditions. Mobil 1 motor oil is designed to help protect critical engine parts, maximize engine performance, and extend engine life. For more information, visit us online at www.mobil1.us or and follow @Mobil1 on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
*Source: The NPD Group/Retail Tracking Service
MAT-W
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211113005258/en/
Contact information
Scott Shaffstall
Mattel Global Communications
scott.shaffstall@mattel.com
310-252-3610
Michael Haas
Extension PR
mhaas@extensionpr.com
949-838-4116
Taylor Vande Beek
Extension PR
tvandebeek@extensionpr.com
310-982-0242
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Icon Solutions Showcases How Banks Can Accelerate Digital Asset Innovation with IPF9.6.2026 12:30:00 EEST | Press release
Icon Solutions – the UK fintech enabling banks to design and implement state-of-the-art payment systems – has released a reference implementation showing how banks can use the Icon Payments Framework (IPF) to accelerate support for payments processing using distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based digital assets. As IPF is agnostic to both the type of digital asset and the DLT network on which they are issued, the risk of fragmentation is reduced as adoption scales. There is growing momentum for digital assets such as stablecoins, tokenised deposits, deposit tokens and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) to enable faster, cheaper and smarter payments. Yet the emergence of different digital asset types and DLT networks – which must also work with existing financial infrastructure – creates fragmentation and operational complexity for banks. This is compounded by legacy vendor solutions that limit choice and lock banks in, making it slow, costly and risky to make the changes require
monday.com Appoints Ben Barnett General Manager of EMEA to Drive Next Phase of Regional Growth9.6.2026 11:00:00 EEST | Press release
monday.com (Nasdaq: MNDY), the AI work platform that turns strategy into execution at scale, today announced Ben Barnett’s appointment to General Manager (GM) of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, marking a major milestone in the company’s global expansion. Ben, who has been with monday.com for five years, brings a decade of experience in senior B2B sales roles at software companies and has overseen significant, sustained growth at monday.com in the UK and Ireland since joining in 2021. In his new position, Ben’s priorities include delivering the monday.com’s EMEA go-to-market strategy, fostering key partnerships, and bolstering its newly announced AI work platform. He is based in London. Ben’s promotion comes as monday.com builds on a period of rapid regional success, with EMEA revenue up 26% year-on-year in 2025. Last year, monday.com expanded its regional EMEA headquarters in Fitzrovia, London, now occupying 80,000 sq ft across three floors where more than 370 employees are based,
Interactive Brokers Launches Commission-Free iShares ETFs from BlackRock through Recurring Investment Feature Across Europe9.6.2026 11:00:00 EEST | Press release
Interactive Brokers (Nasdaq: IBKR), an automated global broker, today announced the launch of Commission-Free ETFs within its Recurring Investment feature for eligible individual investors across the European Economic Area. Investors can now access more than 500 commission-free iShares ETFs from BlackRock spanning a broad range of asset classes and strategies, including bonds, equities, themes and sectors. The iShares ETFs available on the IBKR platform give individual investors an accessible, cost-efficient way to build well-diversified portfolios. Since investors pay no trading commissions, more of their capital stays invested and compounding over time, while a broad selection of funds across asset classes makes it straightforward to construct and rebalance portfolios. iShares ETFs are available commission-free through IBKR's Recurring Investments feature, allowing investors to automate their periodic ETF contributions. Clients can select individual ETFs or ETF portfolios, set a cont
Forrester Reveals The Top 10 Highest-Performing Brands In Its 2026 Global Total Experience Score Rankings At Its CX Events9.6.2026 10:30:00 EEST | Press release
According to Forrester’s (Nasdaq: FORR) 2026 global Total Experience Score rankings of 375 brands evaluated across Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America in 2025 and 2026, 41% improved their scores while only 3% declined. A compelling total experience — calculated by combining Forrester’s Customer Experience Index (CX Index™), Brand Experience Index (BX Index™), and, for the first time, the new Employee Experience Index (EX Index™) into a unified view of performance — can drive outsized growth for brands. While brand experience and customer experience can each drive revenue independently, the impact multiplies when they are orchestrated together as a unified total experience. In the US, for example, companies delivering a strong total experience see significantly higher returns from retention and enrichment: Automotive firms achieve a 2.6x revenue lift and retailers see a 3.8x increase. The new research finds that CX scores improved in North America, European brands remained mostly st
IQM Announces Novel Quantum Error Correction Approach Toward Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing9.6.2026 10:00:00 EEST | Press release
IQM Quantum Computers, the global leader in superconducting quantum computers, has developed a novel quantum error-correcting code that achieves up to three orders of magnitude lower logical error rates than the surface code, also requiring up to eight times fewer physical qubits. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260609533201/en/ IQM´s breakthrough technology, called barbell codes. Unlike many alternative high-performance quantum error-correction approaches, the new code also maintains a comparatively low hardware complexity, marking a significant advancement toward scalable fault-tolerant quantum computing. Quantum error correction remains one of the defining challenges in the race toward practical quantum computing. Errors introduced by noise must be corrected faster than they accumulate, a requirement that previous approaches demanded either complex hardware or significant performance trade-offs, which IQM's
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom