In its first few years of existence, the Elite64 line has swung wildly from overpriced mediocrity to greatness and back again. There have been some greats, like the LBWK Aventador and Freightliner Cascadia, and there have been some not-so-greats, like the Modified Mustang. However, none have felt like a bigger disappointment to me than the Audi RS7 Sportback.
On paper, this should be my favorite model from the Elite64 line. I’m a big fan of big Audis and I love both the Hot Wheels and Matchbox RS6 Avants, so my expectations for the RS7 were high. I love the idea of a more premium, more detailed big Audi sedan. However, as you probably know by now, the resulting casting didn’t turn out anywhere near as well as I had hoped.
The press images from Hot Wheels certainly didn’t do this model any favors. These pictures appear to be shot using a wide angle macro lens, which has the effect of exaggerating some of this car’s worst proportions. The lens distortion serves to magnify the misshapen headlights and air intake, while the low shooting angle makes the model look almost SUV-like in its proportions.
In contrast, this is how the RS7 Sportback looks when shot at a longer focal length where it can benefit from some lens compression. Obviously, it can’t actually fix the casting’s imperfections, but it makes them less of a focal point in the picture.
Those imperfections are mostly in the front end design, so let’s start there. This front end is a mess, with nearly every line on it being wrong – so much so that I began to wonder if this model is supposed to have an aftermarket bodykit. I did some searching, but I couldn’t find a bodykit that matched this casting (if you can, please let me know!) Many of the complaints I’ve seen about this model center around the grille being too large, but I think the problem is actually the bottom section of the bumper.
I’ve overlaid the outline of a 1:1 Audi RS7 front end onto this Elite64 model to better illustrate the proportions that Hot Wheels got wrong. Hot Wheels made the bottom of the bumber flat and stretched the grille down to meet it, when it should angle upward to meet the bottom of the grille. The headlights have a similar effect, where the shape is roughly correct, but they have been stretched to look taller than they should. By far the worst offender in this misshapen front end are the lower air intakes on the bumper. On the real RS7, they are almost triangular with an obtuse angle on the outside edge. On the Hot Wheels version, they are nearly square, with far too much width at the top of the intake and a completely straight line on the outside edge! This is not even close to the real design of the RS7, and I think it’s a big factor in the complaints I’ve seen online that this model looks more like an RSQ8 (which does have roughly square bumper intakes).
It’s a massive shame that Hot Wheels screwed up the front end so badly, because the rest of this model is much better. It’s not perfect – these flared wheel arches look more like a tacked-on bodykit (similar to a Challenger Hellcat Widebody) than the smoothly flaring fenders of an Audi – but I like the black side skirt and matching black wing mirrors. In fact, these have to be some of the best side mirrors I’ve seen on a Hot Wheels model!
Unfortunately, these wheels are not a great fit for the RS7 Sportback. I appreciate that you can see the brakes (though the calipers spin) but the tires have sidewalls that are far too tall, which makes this car look like it rides too high. That this happened at all is baffling, because one of the main selling points of the Elite64 line is the custom wheels for each model, so why did they make this model’s custom wheels like they were stolen from a truck? Honestly, I think this model would look better if they had simply reused the front wheels from the previously released LBWK Aventador!
The back of this model feels like a tease because it shows how great this model could have been. Everything here looks amazing, from the fully detailed lightbar to the crisp badges and realistic license plate. Regular readers will know I love detailed exhaust tips, and this is about as detailed as a 1/64 exhaust could possibly get! Not only are the trademark RS-oval tips chrome, but the mufflers, resonator, and even the catalytic converters are fully chromed!
It’s a shame that the rest of the RS7 Sportback didn’t turn out as well as the back, but I hope that the Hot Wheels team learns some lessons from this Elite64. It would be a mistake to take the presumably poor sales of this model (it’s still available for purchase on the Mattel Creations site as of this writing) and determine that collectors were not interested in fast Audis. Instead, the lesson to be learned here is the importance of accuracy and attention to detail on these models, as the consumers willing to shell out $20 per model are likely going to be huge car enthusiasts with a love for the car being modeled, and they are the most likely people to notice any detail that feels “off”. I hope the RS7 Avant gets another chance, either as a premium model or as a reworked Elite64 – it’s an incredibly cool car that deserves an equally cool model.
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