BRE for Brock Racing Enterprises is one of the best known racing team in California during the 60s and 70s is again being introduced to a new generation by Hot Wheels when they released this latest set under their Car Culture series.
Pete Brock the founder had used other cars early in his career to compete in car racing but he is best remembered for the Datsun 510 which competed in the SCCA Trans Am series in the 1970s. The car 46 was driven by John Morton to two consecutive championships in 1971 and 1972.
Here is the photo of the actual Datsun 85 borrowed from the web. It was driven by Pete Brock in 1972 at the Pomona Drag Strip. Bobby Allison drove the car in 1972 in the Trans-Am 2.5 series.
Here is the actual car of the Datsun 46 driven by John Morton that was borrowed from the Larry Chen YouTube video.
Notice that below the C pillar the actual car has the name ‘Simoniz’ instead of ‘BRE Datsun’ shown on the Hot Wheels model.
At first I thought it was a licensing issue until I found out from an interview with Randy Jaffe from youtuber Larry Chen who knew the backstory said that it used to have the ‘BRE Datsun’ which he pointed to a larger replica model that it wasn’t till 1972 when Simoniz decided to become a sponsor and was replaced.
I love the artwork shown on the package. The livery, wheels, and tires on both cars, although not 100% identical with the actual cars, they are still great representations of them.
One complain I had with these Hot Wheels models are the quality of the tampo/paint job in areas like taillights, license plate, and areas that simulate chrome as they look grainy when enlarged. Even the numbers on the side has jagged lines.
Still I don’t regret having this in my collection.
Info of the 2 cars borrowed from three web.
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