Richard Hammond picks wild VW Beetle as Hot Wheels winner at CarFest Silverstone
This weekend at CarFest at Silverstone saw a radical 1972 Volkswagen Beetle, set to be sold to raise money for cancer research, as the 2026 Hot Wheels Legends Tour UK winner. Judges Richard Hammond, Hot Wheels designer Dwayne Vance and host Nicola Hume were unanimous in selecting the Beetle as the winner. Built by Ray Ramsay from near March, a veteran of over 150 custom car builds, it will now face finalists from across 19 countries with the overall winner set to become a 1:64 scale die-cast model enjoyed by thousands of fans around the world.
Announced as the winner at CarFest Silverstone, the Volkswagen Beetle was created with a ‘no rules, no limits’ ethos. Kept a secret from everyone by Ray until its reveal in front of a stunned audience at Volksworld 2025, all proceeds from its sale will go to raise money to fight prostate cancer, a battle Ray himself is facing.
Everything about it is unconventional. The body is chopped by 14 inches but the motor is raised by 6” and the front axle pushed forward by 10”. A closer look reveals it’s packed with quirky details and creative upcycling ideas. These include the champagne cooler bucket that houses the cyclops lamp and speedo, a vintage cine-camera bought for £1, a dome that came from a primary school toilet roof, inverted Corvette bumpers and a spider strainer from a chip fryer that now forms part of the seat. Ray also created a chain link steering wheel and adopted an egg-whisk for the radio aerial. Even the hydraulic suspension, a fluid dispersal system, was devised by Ray. The rear wheels are from a 1951 truck and the front pair, each now a different colour, are space savers from a Porsche. Inside, every element, just like the exterior, has been chopped, stretched or reimagined by Ray. Accessing it is equally unconventional – either via opening the clamshell roof or passenger door that folds flat.
“I just built this car to make people smile, and hopefully, I achieved this,” says creator Ray Ramsay. “Lots of people say it looks like a Hot Wheels so maybe one day this day could come true.”