BMW E21 Wins Hot Wheels Legends Tour UK at Gravity
A classic BMW 3-Series build inspired by Group 2 race cars won the 2025 Hot Wheels Legends Tour UK at SlammedUK’s Gravity Show at the NEC in Birmingham. Father-and-son team Paul and Ethan Foster from Wickford, Essex, spent fourteen years crafting the 900 kg, track-ready BMW E21 and entered it together.
Paul Foster’s 1982 BMW E21 3-Series blends aggressive Group 2 styling with bespoke engineering to create an actual life-size Hot Wheels car. The 345/35 R15 rear tyres, fibreglass wide-arch kit, alloy diffuser and deep front splitter give it a muscular stance, while race livery with violet, red and blue accents nods to 1980s and 1990s BMW touring cars. An original Group 5 rear wing with a carbon blade adds downforce and drama, and a 420 bhp 5.0 litre Rover V8 with twin Jenvey throttle bodies sits under the bonnet. Flame-spitting side pipes, a DTM Getrag gearbox, a Quaife LSD, lift performance, and GAZ coilovers with uprated Wilwood brakes help it handle as well as it looks.
“It’s amazing to win the Hot Wheels Legends Tour UK. Built together with my son Ethan, it’s part of our family, and we’ll never sell it. We’ve both been huge Hot Wheels fans since we were kids. I can’t believe it,” says Paul Foster. “Representing the UK at the next round of the competition is so exciting. Thank you to everyone for the support.”
Hot Wheels designer Charlie Angulo joined judges Nicola Hume (host of Red Bull’s ‘Talking Bull’ podcast), Jordan Clarke (founder of SlammedUK) and influencer Mat Armstrong to score each entry for design, authenticity and garage spirit.
“This year, the UK once again delivered a lineup of jaw-dropping contenders, each brimming with raw garage spirit, authenticity and the kind of imagination that Hot Wheels enthusiasts crave,” says Ted Wu, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Design for Vehicles and Building Sets at Mattel.
Judges considered historic race cars, JDM drifters, time attack competition cars and off-road conversions. They narrowed more than 200 of the UK’s finest custom car projects to a shortlist of seven. The Jaguar Mark VII and BMW 3 Series went straight to the final, while the Volkswagen Polo faced four other contenders in the Legends Tour’s most significant UK fan vote yet, receiving 37,006 votes. For the third time, the UK final welcomed the public and took place at the country’s largest modified and supercar show, SlammedUK’s Gravity Show at the Birmingham NEC.
Paul’s BMW now heads to the European final, one of several virtual regional competitions that also include the Middle East, Latin America and the United States. At each regional final, judges select one vehicle to compete at the Global Grand Finale, where the winner enters the Hot Wheels Garage of Legends™, a collection of the brand’s most iconic and historic vehicles, and becomes a 1:64 die-cast available worldwide.
Smyths Toys Superstores, Forge Motorsport and Collecting Cars partner on the 2025 Hot Wheels Legends Tour UK. In addition to progressing to the international stages, Paul receives partner gifts, including a Collecting Cars merchandise bundle and a Forge Motorsport voucher.
