Not that Japanese models are anything new in the Hot wheels line. The first I remember is the Z Whiz 240Z, followed by the 200SX and the 82 Supra. Mattel has churned out dozens of variations on the Mazda Miata. Former CEO Jill Barad got her Lexus SC 400 in the line, although the SC's complex lines never translated well in small scale. Mattel has managed to keep the various iterations of the Z car in the line as well, from the 300 ZX to the Nissan Custom Z, which was probably the last Mattel designed model to have opening doors. These have now been joined by a very stock looking 350Z in last year's first Editions. But "looking stock" is not really the idea behind the tuner cars, as the recent Accord and Celica would attest. The Tuner formula calls for dressing up an otherwise ordinary coupe or compact sedan and making improvements to the drive train and aerodynamics. In fact, Hot Wheel's first Tuners, the Sho-Stopper and the MST Suzuka took generic coupe bodies and applied the Tuner formula in liberal proportions.

Naturally the Tuner car is anathema to the V8 Detroit Hot rod purists, and this is no less true in 1:64 scale. Those who believe the only true way to go fast is to apply more cubic inches have been derisive of the Ricer's and their techno-rockets. But wasn't the original Hot Rod formula to take a cheap old ordinary car and fix it up to go fast and look cool? You can't tell me that if the original Hot rodders had had access to multi-valve technology and computers they wouldn't have used them. And the definition of cool changes with each generation. The tuners define cool today for young performance builders the way muscle cars did a generation ago and the home-built hot rod did before that. And for the small scale collector, Tuner models are as much an indication of this era as the hoodless muscle-bound Spoilers were in 1969.

At this point one has to assume that Tuners are not a passing fancy. Despite hisses from the V8 drivers about too much rice on the pegs, Hot Wheels is joined in offering Tuners by Revell, RC/Ertl, Jada, Muscle Machines and now, Johnny Lightning. Well, no one says that anyone has to collect cars he doesn't like. As for me, I like anything on four wheels that goes fast. And while my heart will always belong to rumbling V8 warriors, I can see tuners as the latest iteration of the Hot rodder's art. And I can see some twenty years hence when all the current rice-boys will be paunchy and graying too, driving their carefully preserved and restored Acuras, Celicas, and Accords to vintage events. I can imagine them snorting at all the young upstarts in their hydrogen powered gas-boxes. Real speed, they'll snort, comes only from a hot multi-valve four and a timely shot of nitrous. Maybe so, but I bet the Hot Wheels will look really cool.