Pop culture

The Hot Wheels '72 Ford Gran Torino Sport, pictured here and released in 2012, is part of the Muscle Car Mania: Ford series. The model features a chassis consisting of a green-painted metal upper block and a black plastic lower block. Between the two is a silver chrome-plated plastic part that forms the front of the car (radiator, headlights and bumper), the rear (bumper) and the interior of the passenger compartment.

The bodywork features a three-colour screen print:

• Black: side stripes, Hot Wheels logos, ‘351’ lettering on the rear sides and stripes on the bonnet;

• White: ‘Gran Torino Sport’ lettering on the sides, door handles, ‘351’ lettering on the bonnet;

• Orange: direction indicators.

The wheels are MC5 (5-spoke Muscle Car) with white screen-printed rims.

Interesting facts

The Ford Gran Torino owes its enduring fame and iconic status in popular culture mainly to television and cinema. The name of the car, “Torino”, was chosen by Ford to pay homage to the Italian city of the same name, which at the time was considered the “European Detroit”.

In 1972, an updated and revised version was released, called the “Gran Torino”. The model reproduced here is strongly reminiscent of the car featured in Clint Eastwood's film of the same name, Gran Torino. In the film, the vehicle symbolically embodies the American values of the past, which stoically resist change in society.

This, along with the television series Starsky & Hutch (1975–1979), where the car — still a Gran Torino, but with a “refreshed” design as a 1975 and 1976 model — helped transform this vehicle into a universal icon of the “American dream”.