Cabbin' Fever Combo by Doug Breithaupt

Ready for vintage stock car races (above and below) An open-wheel racer on board looks good too (below)

Hot Wheels produced the Cabbin' Fever model in 2000 and I was not really tempted to add it to the collection. Like many Hot Wheels, it is a custom/fantasy vehicle that I can leave on the pegs. A recent 2 for $1 sale at the local Fred Meyer store tempted me to splurge and buy this curious model. When I returned home and opened the package, an immediate photo op idea came to mind. The Cabbin' Fever casting is a racing transporter. With it's black, orange, yellow and white colors, I had a difficult time thinking of a Hot Wheels racing car that would match. The solution was the 1973 Ford Torino Stocker, first produced in 1974. A later version came in those same four colors and the combination of the vintage stocker and retro-modern transporter seemed to work. As I took the Ford Torino images I thought of a second Hot Wheels race car in the same color scheme. Curiously, it also carries #3 and offers the variation of an open-wheeled racing machine. The Turbo Streak Indy racer from 1982 made another great match for the transporter. The transporter has a folding half-bed that allows the Stocker to balance nicely. The question of how the car would get on and of the transporter is best left to creative thinkers. Perhaps it could find a handy loading dock? This is not the first regular-issue, racing transporter produced by Hot Wheels. In 1994, the Ramp Truck was offered and a Hot Wheels Racing version was produced. Of course, matching it with any one of many race cars produced in the Hot Wheels racing colors is too easy. Even so, here is my favorite, the Ramp Truck and the Hydroplane. This seems especially appropriate as the hydroplane does not look right on hard surfaces (even though it has been given tiny wheels) and is too heavy to actually float. At least it is easy to see how the boat could be removed from the transporter.