YAHOO AUTOS
By Zach Doell
At last year’s SEMA show, Hot Wheels wowed onlookers with a scintillating Ford Transit Connect van, and behind it, a trailer hauling a new-age-yet-retro roadster dubbed the “Rip Rod.”
But whereas last year it played second fiddle to the flashy Transit, this year it’s back, off the trailer, and already making quite the commotion.
Built and designed by Mattel and Los Angeles’ Bandito Brothers in 2012, the spaceframe-toting Hot Wheels Rip Rod boasts a Ford 1.0-liter EcoBoost three-cylinder engine, which is small enough to fit in a suitcase, but as you’ll see in this video – big enough to catapult the Rip Rod across the desert at impressive speed.
In January of this year, teams from Ford Racing in the UK and US pulled together and fired up the tiny turbo-three Rip Rod. And we’re assuming they’ve just been goofing off with the concept car since.
The gas-miser three-cylinder motor – usually found in the front of the Ford Fiesta SFE – nets 123 horsepower, 125 lb-ft of torque and a surprising 43 mpg on the highway.
Now it finds itself chucked in the back of the Rip Rod with fuel-economy probably less of a concern. Check out the Hot Wheels show car when it rolls onto the SEMA floor in Las Vegas on Nov. 4.
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