A wild, Cyberpunk-themed MX-5 has won the 2023 Hot Wheels Legends Tour

The winner of the 2023 Hot Wheels Legends Tour has been announced and it’s… a 1990 Mazda MX-5 nicknamed ‘Chimera’. Though this particular MX-5 is nothing like the ones we’re used to seeing.

Put together in a shed in northern New Zealand, owner Chris Watson said that his inspiration for the car’s styling came from mixing the Cyberpunk theme with today’s Japanese ‘Kaido racer’ culture. The result is a MX-5 from a dystopian world far, far away…

To visualise this mixed personality, Chimera has been given a futuristic new rear light bar, a custom shark fin spoiler and huge 100mm wheel arches to enable the use of 15in turbofan wheels. An airbrushed finish ties the MX-5's refreshed look together.

Very little remains of the car’s underpinnings, and this becomes even more evident inside where the makeover includes a smoked-acrylic switch panel, an all-new ‘cyberdeck’ in place of the passenger seat, and LED lighting aplenty. The interior actually looks like it's been lifted wholesale from deep inside one of Microsoft’s server labyrinths.

However, these changes were clearly enough to convince a stern panel of judges - which included Jay Leno - to crown it as this year’s champion ahead of some seriously strong competition. As a result it will be immortalised as a 1:64 Hot Wheels die-cast model and sold globally, in addition to being inducted into the Hot Wheels Garage of Legends.

Chris and Chimera have been on quite a journey to get here, with the Legends Tour visiting 16 countries across five continents and receiving thousands of entries along the way. Does it get your vote of approval?