Tiny Group B-Inspired Fiat To Be Immortalised As Hot Wheels Model

It’s always a fun time when the winner of the annual Hot Wheels Legends Tour is announced, selecting an outrageous custom car build to be immortalised in 1:64 scale as a die-cast model from the ever-popular toy manufacturer.

Now in its eighth year, the Legends Tour invites owners of custom cars from all over the world to submit their builds for various regional competitions, which are gradually whittled down to a series of finalists. This year, the winner hails from Poland and started life as arguably the country’s most recognisable homegrown car, the locally-built Polski Fiat 126.

In its normal life, this little rear-engined runabout never received anything more potent than a 704cc inline-two, but this car’s creator, Paweł Czarnecki, set out to imagine what the little Fiat would look like if developed for the wild Group B era of rallying in the 1980s.

As such, its standard engine has been junked for the 1.4-litre unit from a Fiat Uno, while a Nissan 200SX turbocharger helps bolster power to around 200bhp. It also gets a Fiat Punto GT gearbox, full coilover suspension and three-piece wheels from HTN Motorsport.

The centrepiece, though, is the car’s bodywork, widened by a total of 470mm and given a suite of functional aero parts, plus some gigantic air intakes on the rear flanks. It’s all been topped off with a livery which we’re sure, for legal reasons, is definitely not inspired by the iconic Martini colours worn by various Lancia rally cars.

Christened the 126B, it joins past Legends Tour winners, including a Volvo P1800 modified into a gasser-style drag racer, an Autozam Scrum kei truck turned into a monster truck, and last year’s victor, a 1960s Ford Falcon from Chile cosplaying as a Group C endurance racer. Before long, you’ll be able to get your hands on an even tinier version of this already tiny Fiat and add it to your presumably vast, sprawling Hot Wheels collection, too.