The story

The little yellow car

Every car story I have starts in a cinder-block building in the town where I grew up. My Uncle Bob ran his business there, and my dad worked alongside him or rented part of the building for years, so I was around a lot as a kid. At some point during every visit I'd wander off and find what Uncle Bob called the little yellow car: a mid-sixties Datsun 1600 Roadster, bright yellow, black scallops on the hood scoop and fenders, asleep under a cover. I'd pull the cover back, climb in, row the gears, flip the toggle switches, and drive it nowhere for an hour.

The yellow Datsun 1600 with its cover half off, black scallops on the hood — The little yellow car, cover half off.

At eighteen I was working for Uncle Bob, and a summer clean-out of the building unearthed the car again. I spent days cleaning it up. My dad got it running. Uncle Bob let me take it home for the weekend. I drove everywhere, out to a friend's place twenty miles away and back, and on the way home I offered the pretty older girl at the top of our block a ride. The car died less than a block later. Dead fuel pump. Dad and I fixed it, but I never drove that car again, and I never did hang out with the girl.

Uncle Bob passed around 2001. When the business was sold and the building emptied, the little yellow car went to my cousin Ted in Denver. I visited in 2017 and we sat in it together inside his shop, grinning like the kids we'd been.

Two men sitting in the yellow Datsun inside a shop, 2017 — Denver, 2017.

In November 2025 Ted called. He and his wife were selling their place and heading to Europe with no return date, and he'd been thinking about the car for a long time. He wanted me to have it. One rule: never sell it. It can be Mason's someday.

That call is why I joined the Datsun roadster forum and the Facebook groups. And that's where I saw a post from a guy named Matt about a blue car.

Matt, Mattel, and a dinner car

Matt Gabe works at Mattel, on the Hot Wheels side. In 2013 he bought a 1967.5 Datsun 2000 Roadster because he wanted an old convertible that would stand out in the Mattel parking lot. It did more than that.

Pickup day in Los Angeles — Photo: Formula Transport

In 2024 he was named guest of honor at the 38th Annual Hot Wheels Collectors Convention in Los Angeles, October 2 through 6. The guest of honor chooses a car to be produced for the event. He chose his own.

Hot Wheels already had a Datsun Roadster casting in its mainline, so the team started there and built it up to collector spec: all-metal body and chassis, rubber tires, Panasport-style wheels to match the real car. Matt guided the design himself, keeping his car's blue paint and badging and adding race numbers for a proper Hot Wheels look. The number is 55, his favorite. The finished die-cast was the convention's dinner car, handed only to dinner attendees, individually numbered out of 4,000. Then the real car got the same vinyl graphics and a black hardtop so the two would mirror each other.

The real car and the die-cast photographed together — The car and its dinner-car twin. Photo: Cars & Bids listing, July 2026

The pair got their moment in the press when Matt listed the car on Cars & Bids in July 2026. The Drive ran a feature. Enthusiast sites picked it up. And somewhere in Pennsylvania, I was refreshing the auction page.

The blue car

I was the high bidder when the hammer fell. The reserve wasn't met. Cars & Bids tried to broker a deal afterward and I passed; it was a lot more than I'd walked in ready to spend, and I hadn't even talked to my wife about it. That night I told Katie the whole story, sent Matt a note wishing him luck, and figured that was that.

A few days later I mentioned that I was still thinking about the blue car. Katie said she was too. That's the honest answer to how we ended up with it.

I found Matt on the forum and in a Facebook group we were both in, and we worked it out between us. We closed through an escrow service, and I booked an enclosed exotic carrier through a car group I belong to. The truck picked the Datsun up at Mattel headquarters. The dispatcher asked Matt whether the car was headed out on the Hot Wheels Legends Tour. No. Just to a garage in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

Pickup day at Mattel headquarters, August 5, 2026

Pickup day in the Mattel lot, August 5, 2026.

Delivery day

The car crossed the country in an enclosed trailer full of exotics, riding above a brand-new red final-edition Tesla Model S, which is about as far from a 1967 Datsun as a car can get. We were in Puerto Rico. I'd drawn the driver a map showing where to park the rig on our street and how to back into the driveway, and gave him a one-time code for the garage door. Then I sat on a catamaran and watched the delivery on the garage camera.

August 10, 2026. The garage camera catches the Datsun arriving and parking next to the GLC.

On August 10, 2026 the Datsun rolled into our garage and parked beside our Mercedes GLC coupe, which makes it look like the die-cast. We flew home a few days later. Mason was the first one to sit in it.

Behind the wheel for the first time, in the garage at night — First time behind the wheel. I fit.

Then it was my turn. I'm 6'4" and hadn't driven a roadster since that weekend at eighteen, and I honestly didn't know if I'd fit. Seat all the way back, and thanks to decades of foam compressing under Matt and whoever came before, I do. Everything since has been figuring the car out one show at a time.

Matt still follows along, comments on the posts, and has said to call any time. If he finds himself near Philly, he's welcome in the garage.