Every boy, and even some girls, go through a happy phase where they love nothing more than collecting “Hot Wheels” miniature cars of every shape or form.

Local car enthusiast Greg Carlton has taken that passion one step further, using the frame of a classic piece of Aussie iron to design and build his very-own full-sized working street machine which he recently entered in a national competition run by Mattel.

The winner of the Australian leg of the 2026 Hot Wheels Legends Tour then had the chance for their own real-life motor to become immortalised in a Matchbox car available to children and collectors worldwide.

“There were five national finalists from Australia and New Zealand with the winner having the chance for their car to be made into one of the miniature Hot Wheels Cars,” Greg explained.

“My entry was an FJ Holden 1955 panel van that I spent five years building and which has been on the road for a decade,” he added.

Known in the distant past as “hot rods”, street machines essentially take the shell of an older vehicle and, rather than seeking to restore it to its original condition, instead integrate more modern engines and other motoring features to create a high-performance roadworthy vehicle that has its own aesthetic appeal.

“I’m a mechanic by trade and I used a supercharged six-cylinder set-up from a 2004 model Commodore; so it’s a street machine, legally-engineered and registered,” he said.

“It’s about taking an older model car and doing it to your own liking. We’ve got about 19 of them and my wife Josephine – ‘Jo’ – has got about three of her own,” Greg added proudly.

Part of the fun of owning a vehicle like this, Greg revealed, is that it is an on-road car that he often drives as well as displays.

“We go to shows with, it’s a social time for us, and I take it for a daily drive, we’ve been to events at places like Wollongong, Cobar, and Sydney.

“We collect Hot Wheels car ourselves, and that’s where we got the idea to enter the Legends Tour,” he concluded.

With their first-ever finals held at Sydney’s Rosehill Gardens Racecourse with the five finalists from across Australia, Tony Barron was ultimately announced as Australia's champion with his 1976 Holden Zeus Dominator.

He will now compete at the Regional Finale and then have the chance to face-off at the Global Grand Finale in November with the global winner being immortalised into a 1:64 die-cast, sold worldwide and be inducted into the Hot Wheels Garage of Legends.