1970 Hot Wheels Speed Shop

How do you keep the “Fastest Metal Cars in the World” speeding along? Take ’em to a Speed Shop for tuning.

For 1968 and 1969 the Speed Shops were Pop-Up Play sets.

1968 Pop Up Speed Shop

1969 Pop Up Speed Shop

But in 1970 Mattel gave us a Speed Shop with tools that we could use to work on our cars.

Side view

Other side view

Back view

Open view

Work bench and diagnostic area.

Fluid and fuels on the pump island.

Speed Shop and contents

Closer view at some of the contents.

An even closer look at the contents.

Speed Shop tag

Here are the instructions for the 1970 Speed Shop.

Instructions – page 1

Instructions – page 2

Instructions – page 3

Instructions – page 4

The unusual part of this set is found in the tools.

The tools: a wheel wrench and a lube gun.

Every instruction set in the early redline era said: Do Not Oil Wheels and Axles!

Yet, here we have the only set that every carried a working lube gun.

Cap on.

Cap off. The fiber wick is saturated with oil. Lubing only requires touching the axles.

So what kind of lube did Mattel put in the lube gun? For that matter, what type of lube did they use at their factories when manufacturing redline vehicles? Today we have dry lubes (eg: Graphite and Teflon) and a variety of wet lubes (including synthetics) to use. But back in the late 60s and early 70s it is  more likely that Mattel used a highly refined white oil (also called mineral oil). Here’s a modern day example of this type of oil.

So, I loaded up the lube gun with this model racing oil and looked for a car to lube. What car? A really slow one of course. Here’s what happens when you lube a poor performing Hot Wheels car.

So there you have it. The 1970 Hot Wheels Speed Shop. Making Hot Wheels still fast. Still fun.