Hot Wheels Tuning Ultra Hots/Hot Ones Cars

The 1970 Hot Wheels Tune-Up Tower is an awesome piece of equipment. Actual testing and tuning of your toy cars…Amazing! However, this does raise one question today…”Which cars can be tuned on the Tune-Up Tower?”

There are 4 groups of Hot Wheels that work with the Tune-Up Tower.

1. Redlines
2. Ultra Hots
3. Hot Ones, and
4. 2002 – 2007 Hot Wheels Collectors’ Neo Classic cars.

What do these 4 groups have in common? They all have thin axles. Thin axles reduce friction at the hub of the spinning tire. This makes the cars faster.

Thick axle Super Stinger from 2015 on the left and a thin axle Custom Mustang from 1968 on the right.

Unfortunately, bending thin axles out of shape is easy, making Tune-Up Tower adjustments all the more important. Thicker axles are much sturdier and tend not to bend. Thick axles also resist manipulation efforts.

The small notch on the tune-up wrench only fits thin axle cars.

The tune-up wrench can’t accommodate thick axles.

Now for some tuning of Ultra Hots and Hot Ones cars. My test track is a Road Trials Set powered by a Super-Charger instead of a Rod Runner.

With the track ready, I’ll start by running two old Ultra Hots.

l to r: green Wind Splitter and purple Quik Trik.

Followed by 2 high mileage Hot Ones.

l to r: White Turbo Mustand and a red Front Runnin’ Fairmont.

Here’s my video for tuning Ultra Hots and Hot Ones cars:

So there you have it. Using the 1970 Tune-Up Tower to service vintage Ultra Hots and Hot Ones cars. Making thin axle vehicles still fast. Still fun.

The theme from the get go? “Go faster…roll farther”. From 1968 Collectors’ catalog. Copyright Mattel, Inc.

Quik Trik on the treadmill.