.
[upbeat music]
- Wow!
- Buckle up and step into a world of magical wonder.
- This is like a kid's paradise.
- Tonight's Hot Wheels superfans, Arushi and Felix,
get the chance of a lifetime,
transforming nostalgic cars from their past...
- Yo, Hot Wheels has, like, a time machine?
[horn beeps]
- Into the life-size Hot Wheels of their dreams!
Judged by our panel of experts...
- This thing is weird. But I love weird.
- Dualies on a Camry?
That's crazy. That's Hot Wheels.
- And from the "Fast & Furious" series,
Sung Kang.
- As we say in the street, pimpalicious,
because it is a Cadillac.
- Who will be crowned the winner...
- Have you seen anything like this ever?
- Who takes home $25,000
and a key to our finale,
where one lucky superfan will get their design
made into an actual Hot Wheels die cast that you can buy.
This is "Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge."
* *
[engine turning over, revving]
[dramatic music]
* *
Hello, and welcome
to "Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge."
Tonight two more Hot Wheels superfans
will turn cool cars from their past
into life-size ultimate Hot Wheels
that embody the magnitude and magic of the toy brand
that's kept kids, adults, and car culture
captivated since 1968.
Let's meet our superfans.
[upbeat music]
- Hi, I'm Felix Arguelles.
I'm 53 and a former pro skateboarder
from Los Angeles, California.
When I was a child, me and my friends
would play for each other's Hot Wheels cars.
Whoever nudged their car closest to the end
without falling off
used to win the other guy's car.
* *
- I'm Arushi.
I'm from Houston, Texas.
I grew up in India.
I was born and raised in Rajasthan,
and I'm very proud of my Indianness.
I'm a mom to a six-year-old who,
of course, loves Hot Wheels.
I can't wait to show my son a real, life-size Hot Wheels.
- You know, everyone has that one car
that means something really special to them.
Arushi, what is that car for you?
- I don't know if you've ever seen
the Maruti Suzuki minivan from India.
- I have.
- This is a very special car for me
because I got to make so many amazing memories with my dad
and my family back in Mumbai.
I lost him when I was 14.
That car brought so much joy in our lives.
I remember those games.
I remember him singing songs in the car.
We made so many fun memories.
- Wow, what a story.
I mean, and the van you're talking about,
it looked a little something like this one, right?
* *
[engine turning over]
* *
- Oh, my God.
[engine revving]
Wow.
That's amazing.
Thank you so much.
This is exactly the same car.
Just give me a flashback of everything
that has happened in that car.
Wow.
This is so cool.
[horn beeps]
- [laughs]
- When I was young,
my dad would allow me to sit in his lap
and have my hands on the steering wheel,
and I could just, like, hoo-hoo!
- [laughs]
- It's just bringing all these memories,
just sitting in this car.
I wish he was part of my life journey.
Today where I am is because of all those experiences
in Mumbai with my dad.
- Now, I know you're ready to transform this van.
But first, we gotta see Felix's car.
- Yes, we do. - Let's go. Come on.
- What is that special car from your past?
- So some people grew up in a crib.
I grew up in a Cadillac.
My father, his first major purchase
was a blue early '80s
Cadillac Coupe DeVille.
My dad was actually a celebrity in Cuba,
and he left being a celebrity
to clean floors in a factory in New York City
so I could be born free to live the American dream.
We'd wash it together.
We'd road-trip in it.
And then even turned professional
driving that same Caddy.
- Wow. - Yeah.
- Now, I know you haven't seen that Coupe DeVille in years...
- [laughs] - But I'm magic.
Here's one just like it.
[engine turning over]
- Are you kidding me right now?
[engine revving]
Yo!
Yo, Hot Wheels has, like, a time machine?
I'm completely blown away.
I grew up right there.
This was, you know, the flag of honor.
Like, wow, it's so awe-- I'm shaking.
[emotional music]
Oh.
I turned pro skateboarding in 1990.
I mean, I could take a cruise. It's not a--
- If you feel like it.
- It was at least a dozen friends
crammed into that Cadillac with our skateboards,
pulling up to skate spots, pulling up to contests.
- Oh, that's awesome.
- Seeing that Caddy again, it's like
a long-lost family member being reunited.
- Now, I'm not the only judge choosing this week's
ultimate Hot Wheels, oh, no.
I brought two friends along.
Let's get them out here.
[energetic music]
She's our Hot Wheels brand ambassador
and a visionary designer for the Ford Motor Company.
It's Dalal Elsheikh. - Hi, everyone.
Hi.
- He's a major influence in car culture
and makes some of the most insane cars you've ever seen.
It's Hertrech Eugene Jr.
- Whoo!
- Oh, get it!
Boom! - How you guys doing?
- Spicy. - Hi. Hi.
- Let's talk about what us judges
are gonna be looking for in your builds.
- We are looking for originality,
execution, and hotness.
I'm looking for a build that looks like it's moving
300 miles an hour standing still.
I want to see loud colors.
I'm talking wild exhaust.
And as the ultimate Hot Wheels superfans,
I want to see your story incorporated
all over this design.
- I'm here to talk about execution.
You coming from the world of skate,
I know you're all about style.
And I know you have a wonderful six-year-old to impress.
So I expect heavy execution from you guys.
Fit, finish, paint-- every little element
that you put into this thing needs to make sense.
- Yeah, for me, it really is all about originality.
There's no one else like you two in the world.
So make sure that these don't look like anything
we've ever seen before.
- No pressure. - Right? Simple. Well, good.
Well, now that you've heard what we're looking for,
let's start designing.
Step one: our superfans must use inspiration
from their own lives and the magic Chrome Zone,
packed with the most legendary Hot Wheels ever.
It's the perfect place to create their winning design.
- This is so cool.
My son would just lose his mind.
This is like a kid's paradise.
- There's been 50 different styles of Cadillacs
since the beginning of Hot Wheels.
So Hot Wheels and Cadillacs go hand in hand.
But that means the pressure's on
to do something that no one's ever seen before.
- So to me, I see me skateboarding right here.
- Oh. - And kind of carve
over the license plate and come down.
It's way cool to have a quarter pipe inside a Caddy.
I'm not seeing any graffiti. - OK.
- So I'm feeling like there might be a little lane
here for the idea.
- Oh, I like that.
- I'm thinking that the graffiti
will emphasize the hot.
The goal is to kind of just pay tribute to my journey
to a professional skateboarder
and then just create a community hub
where a mobile skate park just pulls up,
and the skate park's the actual car.
- That's awesome.
- I want my car evolving
to a completely new car in itself,
like, more sporty.
Maybe, like, because the Maruti van--
it's a minivan,
and I see, you know, the van being much longer.
- Are you thinking a maxi minivan?
You want to make it bigger?
- Yes. Yes.
But definitely I want to make sure
I capture the colors of India in the best way possible.
- OK, so if we pick.
This is a '67 Austin Mini.
You know, that car really screams,
"I'm from England. Look at me!"
- Yeah.
And so I want to encapsulate those colors of my life
in my Maruti van, which, you know, is very basic.
- Sure. It's time to get to work.
Follow me.
- As a mom, there's a lot at stake.
My son said, "Mom, do your best, but please win."
- Now, Arushi, Felix, you've got your plans.
I figure a week is plenty of time
for you to just turn that car into a life-size Hot Wheels.
What do you think? - Do you have a genie?
[laughter]
- Our Car Pools are here to help you
turn your Hot Wheels dreams into reality.
These are some of the best car builders in the business.
- I didn't come here to play.
I come here to win.
I want my superfan to win.
- Arushi, you're gonna be with the Blue Garage.
- Whoo! - Whoo!
- What's the name of your build?
- The Jaipur Jewel.
- Oh, all right! - I love that.
- Jaipur is also known as the Pink City in India.
I grew up there, and so I want to bring
inspiration from my roots.
- What about you, Felix?
You're gonna be working with the Red Garage.
- I'm keeping it fun. Skater Boy.
- Oh, Skater Boy! There we go.
All right, everybody, your teams have one week
to turn these two cars into incredible Hot Wheels.
You guys ready? - Let's rock.
- Yeah! - They don't seem ready.
- Do they look--do you think they're ready?
- They don't really seem ready. - Go!
- Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
- Ah, it weighs a ton.
[horn beeping] - Whoo-hoo!
- Aha! - And there we go.
- All right, we're taking this Cadillac Coupe DeVille
and we're turning it into a mobile skate park.
- Oh, yeah. - Oh, OK.
- That's gonna be awesome. - I need rails.
I need ramps.
The game plan is quarter pipe right here, maybe.
- That's gonna be cool.
- Out the trunk, and then just color.
- Color.
- Pull some colors, maybe, from the flag
and the Cuban heritage and make it vivid.
- We got you.
- I've waited almost 40 years to be able
to skateboard on my dad's Caddy.
So to my father, it would be like, are you nuts?
What are you doing to that Caddy?
This is like every kid's dream.
- Yeah.
- We are going to go long.
This is really small.
And I'm from Texas, and everything is big in Texas.
- It should be really cool once we stretch it.
- Chop the baby off, extend.
- Yes. - We've got a van in our parts.
So what we could do is, we could cut
the rear section off and literally put it
onto the back of your little bus.
We could keep the other axle, so it would have six wheels.
- That's a great idea.
- Let's get a van! - Let's get the van.
- So my goal here is to extend the van.
I definitely want it to look sporty.
I know my son really would love it.
- Yeah! [laughs] - Check that.
- Arushi's six wheels is not new for Hot Wheels,
with models like the Six Shooter.
But I love her Indian Hot Wheels fusion.
- It should come out easy. - Should.
- My word today is "should."
[tools whirring]
- Stay tuned for wild and magical rides.
- Get some colors in.
- Oh, my God.
- There'll be no coming back
from what's just about to happen.
- Ree! [tool squealing]
- I'm very worried.
[banging] - Get on there.
- Got on there?
- That's bad.
- Can our superfans keep their cool
like celebrity guest judge
from the "Fast & Furious" series, Sung Kang?
- As we say in the street, it is pimpalicious.
- All right, let's do this.
.
[upbeat music]
[hammer tapping] - [grunts]
- The Maruti Suzuki van, for a lot of people,
is not the coolest car in the world.
But I'm gotta tell you all a secret.
I have one of those at home.
I love them.
Now, mine's a little bit different.
Of course, mine's, like, painted crazy.
It's got cool wheels on it.
I love all vans. They're people movers.
It's a party on wheels.
- So you're a big van guy.
- Big little van guy.
- [laughs]
In step two, the Car Pool teams
transform their wild designs into life-size Hot Wheels.
Now, over in the Red Garage, Felix is transforming
his Cadillac Coupe DeVille.
And he's gonna try and make a mobile skate park
to throw back to his life as a professional skateboarder.
They're actually gonna cut the whole top off
so it'll be a convertible.
So it's gonna change the look of this car a lot.
Everything inside is right there.
It's an open book. - Yeah.
- Scary steps.
Starting to mark out where I'm gonna start
cutting the back end open
to make the clearance for the ramp.
Need as much space as possible,
so I'll go right to the very, very, very edge
of what I can achieve without ruining the line of the car.
- Rails, ramps, Cadillac.
- How do you bring those elements together
to make a cool Hot Wheels?
- That's tough. - It's tough.
- Yeah, 'cause when I think of Cadillac and the brand,
I do not think of skateboarding.
[rock music]
- Down.
Mind the plastic bits.
- As somebody who's designed a lot of hot rods,
I really care about the lines of the car.
And I think about putting the ramp
between those big quarter panels.
We can keep those classic Caddy lines
and still give Felix a place to jump.
- And then boom.
Right in? - Yeah.
- Hello. - Hello.
- Got a visit. - Blue Garage.
- So am I understanding this correctly that you guys
are going to take parts of this one
and attach it to your original Maruti?
- Yes.
- And the plan is to use this whole rear section
on the back of that van to make sort of, like,
a six-wheeled super Maruti.
- Oh, nice. - Wow.
But this is a Suzuki Carry.
This is a Maruti.
Are they exactly the same, or...
- The whole shape's different, so...
- Everything's different. - That's where we're at.
- So we're right on track.
- And we're gonna have to, yeah,
modify the sides, the top, the bottom.
- So they cut the back of the van off,
and they're chopping the back off of another van
and welding it to the back of her van.
But it's 4 inches wider, 4 inches taller.
It's a bit concerning.
But I also appreciate the commitment.
Arushi wants to win.
- Get back to work, you guys.
- Thanks, guys. - Thank you so much.
So keep it going. - Thank you.
[tools whirring]
- Will. - Hey, Will.
Look who's here.
- Hi, Will! - Ah!
- What's up, buddy?
What's the plan here? What are you doing?
- So right now, we're cutting the whole trunk out.
- OK.
- And we're gonna bring a quarter pipe
up from the ground
all the way up to where the roof is.
There's a lot of pressure on the team
because the entry has to feel a certain way.
The ramp can't be too steep, but it can't be too mellow.
The more I think about it, the more nervous
I'm starting to feel.
- But how do you work the fold in?
I mean, dude, that's--
you gotta get real precise... - That's gonna be tough.
- Because if you go to drop in...
- Yeah, we got a kink there.
- And there's a gap that's not smooth...
- Yeah. - Dude, it's face on ground.
- The most intricate part of the machining is that hinge.
- This seems real ambitious...
- Thank you. - For a week.
Y'all got a lot of work to do.
I'm gonna quit slowing you down.
- We got good insurance. Don't worry about it.
- Good luck, fellas.
Let's get our celebrity judge out here.
You've seen him in the Fast & Furious" franchise.
Give it all the way up for movie star Sung Kang!
[applause] - Wow.
- Yeah!
Right? - Oh, my God!
- Oh, what's up, brother? - Rut, how are you?
- How you doing, man? - Cool dude, man.
- Well, it's great to be here.
- So exciting.
- Sung Kang is here, OK?
This is amazing.
- Obviously, coming from the "Fast & Furious,"
I'm a huge car guy.
But I'm also a huge Hot Wheels guy too.
You know, I've had the privilege
of a couple of my personal cars being made into Hot Wheels.
- It's crazy you say that.
I mean, I happen to have those right here--
the Fugu Z.
Wait, do you have a pen or--
- No.
- Cool. Cool, cool, cool.
Cool. - [laughs]
[engines revving, tires squealing]
- That's how we do it in this garage.
- The quarter pipe is the biggest part of this build,
and it's the key feature.
It has got to function.
It's gotta be strong enough.
It's gotta be safe enough.
It's gotta be the right shape.
And, of course, with ours, it's gotta fold up too.
- Completely remove the top.
- Boom, lose the top.
My bad, Pops.
[tools whirring]
Almost there. - Right in.
- So we got the room for the quarter pipe?
- Felix and the Red Garage, how are we feeling so far?
- They took a Cadillac Coup DeVille
and they added a quarter pipe in the back.
- That's looking pretty spot-on.
That's where you can really see the perfect transition.
I'm thinking about jumping on the car, grinding the car,
and sliding on the car.
I want every piece of the car to be skateable,
so I have to reinforce it to make sure it works that way.
- Come on, quick, 'cause we are short of time now.
Oh, yeah. That's looking good.
- The fit's good, but I'm a little concerned
about right here.
I'm gonna be coming in hot... - Oh, no.
- And just fall right through. Look at that.
- We have got a problem there.
- Back it back up, Sam.
Gotta go that way.
- Let's talk about the Blue Garage.
They chopped off the rear of the car.
But that parts van is actually taller
and wider than the original.
- It looks a lot wider than...
- Yeah, slightly. - What I'd have thought it was.
- Just--just a little.
- Any way you cut it, Arushi's team is up against it.
And to make the different lines of these different vans work,
I'm nervous for them.
- Is it on there?
- Little bit more.
- Get it in there?
That's bad.
- We gotta roll it back.
- I don't think it's coming off.
.
- Oh, Sung, you are never gonna believe the day I have had.
Listen, I'm on my way to work, right?
Just a normal day.
And this guy out of nowhere starts, like,
bobbing and weaving.
And he thought he was faster than me.
But then I had to slow down, right?
And then he shook me about a mile from here.
But look, I've got some great video of this guy.
Here's the crazy thing. Look at that.
It's a cool silver Nissan R34 Skyline.
And you know what's funny?
It actually looks--it actually looks just like this car.
Oh, I'm sorry, you're on the phone?
OK. I'll see you in there.
All right, I love you. I'll see you later.
I feel so much better now.
[dramatic music]
- Get it in there?
That's bad.
- It's the stands.
- We've spent all this time cutting the van in half,
and the thing falls off.
We need to get some weld on this ASAP.
- Honestly, if that hit the floor,
it would have been game over for this build.
Are we lined up on that side or no?
- Yeah, it's pretty good.
[tools whirring]
- We got the roof section welded on Arushi's van.
But now we have a gap the size of the Grand Canyon
in between the two.
So now we need to graft box flares on this car
and hide the gap that we created by adding the piece.
- Box flares work best on a car that's a little
more boxy to start with.
They're really trying to change the shape.
It's also gonna hide the difference in the body lines
of the newer van on the back.
That's huge.
- I'm trying to get a basic design
to flow with the theme of the car.
Once that roof come off, you know,
everything is gonna be exposed,
so I gotta make sure this thing looks pristine.
He had a nice Cuban flag on the inside,
so I'ma take a little bit of the swoop from the flag
and try to incorporate it on the seats as well.
So what you think of the colors?
- Yo, my man. I see the diamonds here.
- Yeah, we used some 1-inch diamonds...
- Mm.
- Give it that plush look for you.
- I love that there's some of the old car.
But then you brought that in new, huh?
- That's right. - Yeah, this is beautiful.
Cuba, to me, is like a dream.
It's part of my creativity.
It's part of the way I express myself.
- Gotta be careful around these curves, boy.
Might end up in a ditch.
- Felix and the Red Garage.
- For a lot of these really cool elements
that they're adding to this vehicle,
I'm not sure that I see the Hot Wheels yet.
I'm not sure that it's going to look like it's moving
300 miles per hour standing still.
- They're doing all the kinds of things
that don't necessarily complement a car stylistically.
But if it all comes together nice,
it might actually surprise me.
- Now, over in the Blue Garage,
Arushi is transforming her Maruti van
into something that's really gonna pay homage
to not only her Indian heritage
but the memory of her dad.
- Welcome to my boutique.
I want to show you one of the panels I'm working on,
and then I have a lot of panels to complete.
Time is of the essence.
I want to pull from the textiles of India
and make it a really, really cozy space.
- Her interior is very loud and vibrant.
But what I want to see is her taking the passion
she has for that interior and bringing those colors
to the outside of this build.
- I'm gonna show you right now something.
I'm just taking, like, all kinds of colors right now.
- I love the thought of mandala.
That's very core to our culture.
- The mandala is very Indian,
which I have all over my house.
I'm gonna make it spin. Ready?
That's gonna be so cool.
- I love it.
I definitely want our roots reflected...
- Yes.
- Through this beautiful mandala.
- Yes.
I wanted to put the mandalas in the middle of the van,
turn it into a Hot Wheels.
- I really want the spinning mandala to pop out,
because it gives something extra to the car.
It also brings out a very important
piece of the culture.
This van has been a very important part of my life
when my dad was driving it
because, you know, he was such a ball of energy and joyous,
and I just want to, like, capture that energy.
- You say "he was." - Yes, he was.
- He passed? - Yes, when I was--
- I'm so sorry. - And that's--that's all right.
When I was 14. - How old were you?
Oh, you were 14. - Yes.
- My dad passed when I was 10, so I--
I understand.
- Yeah, it's just--
oh.
- Are you OK?
Do you want to talk about it?
I mean, I'd like to listen about--aw.
- Yeah, it's just hard, you know?
- What's your dad's name? - His name was Anshu.
- We should think about his name while we do this.
- Yeah. Yeah! - Anshu, this is for you!
[laughter] Give me a hug.
- Aw.
- We're halfway through the week, y'all.
[alarm blaring]
- Oh. - Oh, boy!
Oh, man.
The Inspirationator 5000.
* *
[engines revving]
Oh, here it comes.
- Handle on the right turn.
- Here we go. Come on, baby.
Whoo!
Oh, this is one of my favorites right here.
What a cool Hot Wheels--
the Deora II.
- Of course! I love this thing.
The Deora II debuted in 2000 as a modern twist
on the original Sweet 16 Deora from 1968.
Design cues for the front of this die cast
were taken from the rear of a 1996 Ford station wagon...
- Wow.
- Taking the rear of one vehicle
and making it the front.
Inducted into the Hot Wheels Hall of Fame
in 2003 by Jay Leno,
it's one of the most unique Hot Wheels designs.
And because of that, it's in our Garage of Legends.
- All right, friends, so here is the twist.
To win this challenge and earn a key to the finale,
y'all have to remove at least one part from its original
location on the car and put it somewhere else
or infuse the Deora II body shape in some way.
Arushi, Felix, you each have one
of these Hot Wheels in your garages.
When the lights flash green, get back to work.
- Go! - Go!
- Oof, we got it.
- It is very odd-looking.
- So what we gotta do is, we got to take something
from the back of the car up to the front.
- And put it in front.
- We have that trunk lid from the back,
which could make a ramp for your skateboard on the front.
- Boom.
- We just gotta find a way to attach it to the front, though.
- That's got Will's name on it. - Yeah. Exactly.
- I feel good about the Deora Hot Wheels twist
because I already freed the entire back of the car
and I have all this material to work with.
So we're taking the trunk of the car
and we're attaching it to the front fender
to make a wall ride ramp.
So this thing's almost good to go as it is.
'Cause if we drop this down to the ground,
we already got a little ramp right there.
- Oh, yeah. - Pkew.
- So obviously, at the moment, we've got a really long bus.
That's kind of like a long bus
that's had the roof chopped off.
- If we cut the roof off, it would mimic this car.
So we-- - Exactly.
- We're getting two out of one.
- What do you think?
- Getting the roof off is not going with the process
that I came in with.
But to win this competition,
I need to soak in what the judges just shared.
Go for it.
One, two, three.
all: Chak de!
- Let's go.
- Red Garage, what's up?
- What's happening? - Hi.
- What are you incorporating from the Deora II?
- So we're gonna take the back to the front.
- Oh, nice. - OK.
- And I'm gonna use the trunk lid
for a little kicker, a little ramp,
and that's what's gonna get me on here.
- Well, you have to remember those Hot Wheels elements,
like looking fast, like being loud and bold.
You know, you really have to implement those
into this build.
- Hey, Blue Garage. What's up?
Your van got so big.
- Can you believe it?
- It looks like you're making so much progress.
Why not have a little twist, shake it up a bit?
- That one has no roof. - Right.
- So if we cut the roof--
- So, you know, when you cut the roof,
are y'all worried at all about what
that means for the interior?
- Over here, got some amazing fabrics
and, like, really jazz it up with some colors.
- I love that.
And so you are responsible wholly for the interior, then?
- Yes. - OK, very cool.
- There's a lot of pressure on you.
- If there's no top of the van,
the interiors are gonna be even more exposed.
And I was doing that project,
and now it is going to be kind of centerpiece.
.
- So I know we need more Hot Wheels.
We need the car to look flash, fast--
- Yeah. I love the drag pipe.
- Yeah, it's cool.
- What about if we double up on each side?
- What? - You got enough time
for four drag pipes out the back?
- You are a good team member, mate.
- Dalal wants this car hot, so we're going double exhaust.
But we also want to make the double exhaust skateable.
I'm hoping the judges see the balance
between the creativity and the hotness of the vehicle.
I believe it's true to both.
- When did you start playing with Hot Wheels?
- Since I was a little boy.
I mean, I didn't have a lot.
I had a Hot Wheel, not Hot Wheels.
- [laughs]
- You know, you use our imagination.
So that's where that seed was planted for me to be an actor,
play pretend for a living...
- No kidding. - But with real cars.
- Well, let me get you up to speed on what's
going on with these real cars.
So Felix in the Red Garage.
- They're repurposing the lid of the trunk
and actually using it as a ramp in the front
to incorporate the Deora II twist.
So that's pretty cool to see.
But I'm not sure that I see the Hot Wheels yet.
I really hope that they incorporate
that long exhaust across the body
that they've been talking about.
- The Blue Garage.
- It's inherently not the coolest car on the road.
But what she's doing to emulate
the silhouette of the Deora II
is taking it to a whole new level.
- My, that's sexy.
- This is meant to be Hot Wheels on the outside
and a tribute to her Indian culture on the inside.
And I really hope they can pull it off.
- Oh, my God!
- There's no going back after that.
- Wow.
[playful music]
- You like it?
- Not yet. - [laughs]
We have more work to do. - We do.
- I just want to win.
So I need to get
my Arushi 3.0 rolling right now.
There is no time, girl.
No time to think.
Act.
We need a cool, kickass engineer.
Because I can imagine, like, my six-year-old
looking at this car and then seeing the engine, like--
- And go crazy, yeah.
- Are you seeing what they're up to?
- Arushi, did somebody steal the rest of your car?
- Chill, Skater Boy. Just chill.
- It's starting to look a bit like a--maybe a Jet Ski.
Will it float?
- Ooh. - Ooh, wow.
- You ever seen a Jet Ski with a V-8?
- Wow. - Yeah, OK.
- All right. All right. - OK.
Now you're back in town. - We're back in the game.
- You got nothing on us, Skater Boy. Bye.
- We have the amazing Ford racing engine
that, you know, we're gonna place in the back.
So I think we have something going on here now.
- The motor--this, to me, is the jewel
that makes this the Hot Wheels car.
It is just so crazy sporty.
We do need to reinforce it--
a lot of motor, a lot of weight.
I need it to work.
Fingers crossed this is gonna stay together.
Right there with you.
- The week is nearly done.
You're almost there, so keep pushing.
- Get some colors in.
- Oh, my God.
I want to hang in this bus.
- To keep it true to skate,
I want to get some graffiti all over it.
- Oh, man, I can do graffiti all day.
I'm a mural painter; I'm gonna do some cool
graffiti on this thing. - OK, OK.
I'm especially worried
about the graffiti paint job on the car
because I'm not sure what the guy with a cowboy hat
is capable of.
So I'm just hoping for the best.
All my favorite skate spots, they're blasted with graffiti.
- I'm gonna do it, man.
We're gonna get this thing started.
- Cool. - I can't wait.
[dramatic music]
- Hey, everybody.
It is time for paint.
Arushi and Felix, you have absolutely killed it.
But now it's time for your Car Poolers
to finish this thing strong.
- I love you, girl. - I love you.
- Thank you so much. - We got you.
- Just make sure the interiors are...
- Yes, I got your direction. - Bomb.
So much is left to do.
I'm nervous, but I'm trusting them.
One, two, three. all: Chak de!
- I know you got the interior.
- Too easy. - You got that paint?
- I got you.
- The next time I see this car,
it's gonna be my dream come true--
a mobile skate park.
- Roll out. Be safe.
- All right, fam.
- See you later, my friend. - [laughs]
- Step three is all about finishing touches--
adding wild colors and decorations
before the cars are reassembled.
- You ready, Will? - We're good.
- Let's go!
- Felix has been dreaming about this car for 40 years,
and he's put so much of his own personal story into it.
I'm so excited for him to see it.
But I really hope we've nailed exactly what
he dreamed this car would be.
- Don't scratch it.
I'm trying to push it, bring it all together.
I know that Arushi wants to make
this van special for her son, for her dad,
and for her culture.
- This part of the show is always
a little intense, right, guys?
- Just a little bit.
- I wonder where Sung is.
'Cause as an action movie star,
there's nothing that bothers that dude.
[rock music]
* *
- That snack setup is legit.
- You better believe it is.
- All right, guys, two minutes left--
two minutes.
- Yeah, they're gonna have to go faster and furious-er.
- Oh, wow. - [laughs]
- Hurry up! - Come on, you guys!
Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
- What are you doing? - Where you at?
[dramatic music]
- One minute, everybody!
- 60 seconds.
- Ha, ha, ha, we got problems.
This suspension is too soft.
If I don't lock it up at the back,
then Felix is gonna fall off the ramp.
[engine grinding]
- Are you serious?
It's not going on? - You guys are almost there.
- You got this. You got this.
- Do it for Sung Kang!
- Come on. - 15 seconds.
- What can you do in 15 seconds?
- Pray. - No!
- Whoo! all: Five...
[engine grinding]
Four, three, two, one.
[engine turning over]
- That's it! - Stop!
.
- Well, the car transformations are complete.
I am ready to see some life-size Hot Wheels.
Let's get our superfans out here.
Arushi, come on out!
[applause]
Felix, get out here!
[applause] Yeah!
Arushi, Felix, you and your Car Pools
have gone all in, transforming
a car you love into ultimate life-size Hot Wheels.
Now it's time to see if all the hard work has paid off.
- Oh, my God. - Arushi, you're up first.
Let's check out your brand-new ultimate Hot Wheels,
the Jaipur Jewel!
- Bring it on!
[engine roaring]
- Whoa!
- Whoo! - Wow.
- Oh, that's that V-8, huh?
- Oh, wow! You hear that?
- Whoo!
Whoo.
- It's so fun, but it's so loud.
[upbeat music]
- That noise is-- oh, here they are!
[applause]
- Oh, my God.
My beautiful, my gorgeous Jaipur Jewel,
all the smoke and jazz around it.
It's an unbelievable moment.
Have you seen anything like this ever?
[laughs] Isn't this amazing?
This is an homage to my dad.
We started off with a vision of,
you know, just having a van and making it
look sporty and cool.
But then we wanted to bring in some culture to it.
And so we added an axle and two more wheels.
Claudia did her magic and incorporated
the Indian culture through the mandalas.
And the boys did so much hard work
and added more body to give it the sporty feel
that I really, really wanted.
- Right now, what do you think your dad would think?
[somber music]
- [sniffles]
Oh, he'd be so proud.
I hope my family's very proud of me.
And I'm proud of you guys.
- You were incredible. - Thank you.
- You know, I really love this.
The colors are just so vibrant.
But most importantly for me, cars connect people.
And when you share what this car means to you,
that it's a homage to your father,
it's no longer just metal and plastic and fabric.
It's a beautiful memory.
And I'm very moved by it, so thank you.
- Thank you. Thank you so much.
- You know, as a dad looking at this and just--
I feel like I know who your dad was.
What a--gosh, what a beautiful thing.
- It's a lot to take in in that moment,
so it comes out with tears.
And I swear I don't cry that much.
- I am in love with this thing.
It's so much fun.
I want to sit inside and, like, drink chai
and just have a good time.
I love ornamentation, OK?
More is more, like this massive engine
and all these sharp lines.
But I do need to talk about this paint job.
It shows off speed.
It's so edgy. It's so cool.
I do think it's really distracting me.
I wish almost that we got more subtlety on the exterior
so I could really focus on that cool interior
and that massive engine.
- In terms of execution, I think you guys did
a fantastic job at taking a Maruti van,
adding another part of it from another van
that was bigger and taller, and making it flow.
You added box flares in the front and rear
and made them flow.
You added accents to the box flares--
all hand-built.
It's absolutely ridiculous.
You guys did a fantastic job.
- Thank you.
- If I'm honest, I was a little upset
once the twist happened and I saw y'all cutting
the back of the van off.
But to be fair, I did not know the plan
was to stick a V-8 back there.
I feel much better about it now.
There have been a couple of small kei truck
Hot Wheels before, but there has never been
a Maruti van Hot Wheels
and certainly not a wide-bodied, six-wheeled,
V-8-powered Maruti van
with a gigantic mandala in the back.
This is 100% original.
- Yes.
We really changed that vehicle.
It has transformed to something never seen before.
I hope that the risk pays off.
- Now, we've seen Arushi's ultimate Hot Wheels.
- And it was awesome.
- Felix, are you ready to feast your eyes
on your souped-up Coupe DeVille?
- Let's go!
I'm so excited to see the car.
But I've already seen it in my head for so long.
- Let's check out the Skater Boy!
[tense music]
[applause]
.
- Now, we've seen Arushi's ultimate Hot Wheels.
Felix, let's check out the Skater Boy!
[tense music]
[engine revving]
- Yoo-hoo!
[laughter] - Yo!
- Oh, my man!
Wow, you guys crushed it, dudes.
Wow.
Oh, man.
[emotional music]
* *
It's not supposed to happen.
I'm not supposed to cry. I don't cry.
[laughter]
Oh, wow.
When I first saw the car and I saw my dad's name, Armando--
and even my brother's name's Armando,
so he was there in spirit as well.
- Tell me the story behind this wild ride.
- When I was a kid, my dad--
this was the first big purchase,
like, everything he had.
He was an American. He got a Cadillac.
- Same with my mom.
She always said a Cadillac represented
being successful in America.
- So I took Daddy's Caddy, the '80s Coupe DeVille,
and my dream was to make the ultimate self-contained
mobile skate park.
A quarter pipe in the back of the car,
rails on the car to grind on.
And then we put the trunk on the front of the car
to make a wall ride ramp for the Deora II twist.
The paint is inspired by some of my favorite skate spots:
the Brooklyn Banks, the Venice Graffiti Pit.
Inside, Slick took inspiration
from my Cuban heritage and the flag.
- And it has this, as we say in the street, pimpalicious,
because it is a Cadillac, right?
The fact that you guys actually used real paint,
opposed to being wrapped, I really, really appreciate
that aspect of this build.
- Thank you, bro.
- What's wild is that from the side,
the silhouette is a Cadillac Coupe DeVille.
When you get over there, you realize
there is a massive ramp in the back.
That's unbelievable. - [laughs]
Hert?
- This thing is weird, but I love weird.
I feel like you guys did a flawless job.
Taking the Deora II twist,
setting up the trunk to then attach to any part of the car--
just brilliant execution.
But looking from here,
I think it clashes with Slick's interior.
They seem like separate builds.
- This car is so hot.
I think you guys did a great job incorporating
all of the Hot Wheels elements, from the red striped tires,
an homage to the original 16 Hot Wheels,
to the orange track colors that also go on the ramp
and all of the skateable parts.
I even peeped it on the inside of the exhaust.
Love it!
Such an iconic Hot Wheels feature
that I can forgive you for not doing an exposed engine.
But I'm gonna have to agree with Hert
that the interior and the exterior
almost feel like two separate cars.
- OK, well, we've seen everything we need to see.
There's just one big question I still have.
Is it actually skateable?
- There's only one way to find out.
Oh, man, I'm hoping that we've made that Caddy so strong
that it's skateable.
I really don't want to eat it in front of everybody.
- Are you ready? - Sure.
[rock music]
- Oh, boy. - Oh, no.
- Oh, boy. Yeah, Felix.
- Come on.
* *
- Oh!
[applause]
- Finally, after over 30 years, I skated Daddy's Caddy.
- Arushi, Felix, your ultimate Hot Wheels
are a thing of beauty.
The superfan who inspired
our favorite ride this week is...
[tense music]
* *
Arushi! - [screams]
[applause]
- Yes! Yes!
Whoo! - Arushi's build won
because it was just so Hot Wheels--
loud, vibrant colors,
huge V-8 engine, crazy exhaust.
It was just everything we were looking for.
- You did it, girl. You did it.
This is why we're here.
We're here to make our superfan dream come true.
- I am so happy.
I just feel amazing.
- Arushi, congratulations.
You've got $25 grand in the bank,
and you've got a key to the finale.
Congratulations.
- Whoo!
- You'll battle with this season's winners,
presented by Xfinity, to see if your next creation
will become a Hot Wheels
die cast that you can buy.
- Whoo! This is amazing.
This is a win for my son, my dad.
And I'm so happy.