1988 Porsche 962 C #17 (LM24)

Hot Wheels Premium 1/64

Car: Porsche 962 C #17
Series: 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans
Class: C1
Team: Porsche AG
Drivers: Derek Bell, Klaus Ludwig, Hans-Joachim Stuck
Result: 2nd overall, 2nd in C1

Hot Wheels has released multiple versions of their Porsche 962 casting in their premium line. All of the versions released so far have been based on real cars. However, of all these released versions, I think just about 3 of them would actually fit in my collection (24 Hours of Le Mans and 24 Hours of Daytona versions).

This Shell liveried #17 car is based on the factory Porsche team that competed in the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans. The factory team had 3 cars, all of which were sponsored by Shell. The Le Mans race that year was expected to be a showdown between the Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche teams. The Mercedes-Benz team withdrew their entries after one of their cars suffered a tyre blowout while traveling above 200 mph in the famous straight during qualifying if I remember correctly. This left the factory Porsche and Jaguar entries to compete with each other with the Porsches taking the top 3 spots in qualifying. During the race, however, the Jaguars quickly captured the lead. This battle would continue towards the end of the race with the leading #2 Jaguar suffering some gearbox problems but they were able to hold on to victory with the #17 car finishing second. The #17 car came close to winning but one of the drivers unfortunately ran out of fuel on the track and lost some valuable time.