My wife and I went antique shopping last weekend, it seems we’re always look for something mid-century to take home. However, our decor is fairly complete so it’s getting harder and harder to find things we need, thus making it far more difficult to justify buying anything we find. But it’s still fun to look, even if we come home empty handed (which is most of the time). This most recent outing was productive in that we found the perfect lamp for a space in which we’ve been needing one since September of last year… but I also found something more.
Albeit quite small, this other item managed to trigger an unexpected memory that I had long forgot. What I found was a “Racebait 308” die-cast car. This was a Hot Wheels in the form of a Ferrari 308 GTB (circa 1977), and it was in rather nice shape. I bought the car for the two-dollars it was priced, not just because it was a nice Ferrari to add to my collection, but also because I recalled this being one of the first Hot Wheels I ever specifically asked for as a child. I wanted to ensure my memory was correct so once I got home, I did some research on the toy car and found I was, indeed, remembering correctly.
You can’t tell the year of any given Hot Wheels car based on what’s stamped on the bottom of the car. The year you see there is simply the year Mattel got the copyright for that particular casting. The bottom of Racebait 308 reads “©1977”, but this particular casting was made all the way through 2004. What changes about the car throughout the years is the design: colors, materials, decals, and so on. The one I found in the antique store, and the one I remember from my childhood were the same: red body with blue windows, black interior, black metal bottom, and decals on the hood depicting a rather liberal interpretation of the cavallino rampante and the words “308 G.T.B.” on the front bonnet. As it turns out, 1978 was the first year this model was in production, and the only year it was designed in that fashion. Later years would bring color changes to the body, windows, and bottom, redesigned decals and new decal placement, plastic bases, and different wheel styles. Eventually it changed names from “Racebait 308” to “Ferrari 308” and when that happened, the cavallino rampante looked more like what you’d expect to see on an actual Ferrari.
I would have been eight years old when this Hot Wheels first hit the market, but I didn’t get it until a year later in 1979 at the age of nine. It’s very common for last year’s models of Hot Wheels to still be readily available well into the next year, and I know I got mine in 1979 due to the reason I found it in the first place. A new TV show debuted in January, 1979 called The Dukes of Hazzard and I was quite a fan of the cars and stunts that were such a big part of that show. I already had a number of Hot Wheels by age nine, but I don’t recall ever asking for any of one them in particular—they were just gifts my parents bought me because they knew I liked cars. But thanks to The Dukes of Hazzard, I specifically wanted a Hot Wheels of that now-controversial-orange-car-with-the-flag-on-top known as the General Lee.
Truth be told, at age nine I had no idea what cars were what, I couldn’t tell you the difference between a Ferrari 308 and a Ford Pinto. If you asked me what a Ferrari, Porsche, or Lamborghini was, I’d have no clue. I liked cars, but all I knew about them at that age came from Hot Wheels… and back then, very few of them used the real names of cars—Racebait 308, case-in-point. My mom needed to go to the store and I begged her to take me along as I really wanted to find a toy of the General Lee. Of course, I didn’t know at the time that Hot Wheels never made a model of that car, or any cars from the TV show, but Ertl did start producing one in 1981. When we arrived at K-Mart and approached the toy section, I ran over and started looking through all the Hot Wheels. There was no General Lee… but I did find a bright red car with cool decals on the top of the bonnet. I picked it up and stared at it for a long time, so long that my mom was snapping at me to hurry up. I liked this car. In fact, I liked it way more than that silly orange car on the TV show.
When I got back home I took it out of the package and grasped it my hand while staring at it in my room. I mixed it in with the other Hot Wheels and somehow thought it looked better than the others and deserved a more prominent spot in my room; a place where it could be seen. I removed it from the box of lesser cars and placed it at the edge of a shelf above the desk in my room. And that was the perfect spot. Anyone who entered my room would see my latest trophy, and I was excited to show it off to anyone who would let me.
I had always thought that the Lamborghini Countach was the catalyst that fueled my love of wedge-shaped cars, at least in conscience memory. But when I rediscovered this Racebait 308 at the antique store and it forced the memories of my childhood to the forefront, I now think I was wrong about the Countach… to a degree. The Countach certainly solidified any feelings I had for such cars, and it definitely made me recognize and appreciate the design and styling for what it is. But my love for wedge-shaped cars seems to have pre-dated my discovery of the Countach!
I know the 308 GTB isn’t a “true” wedge car like the 308 GT4, but it is still wedge-shaped. I went to the store looking specifically for a boxy orange car from a TV show and fell in love with a wedge-shaped car that would soon become an icon—thanks to another TV show that premiered in December, 1980 (I’m looking at you, Magnum P.I.). Somehow by the time I discovered the Countach, I had forgotten about discovering the 308 and never made the connection that the Racebait was the same car from the Magnum P.I. series. It’s interesting what memories an old trinket from one’s youth can stir up, it’s even more fascinating what those memories can teach you about yourself. It took a 45 year-old Hot Wheels to remind me that my love for wedge-shaped cars has always been there, even before I knew what a wedge car was. It seems Hot Wheels has a way of shaping the future.
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Nice story. That picture of the 308 is a late car, likely a 1984-1986, the last in series. The last car, the QV, had the vents in the hood like Chris’ 308 gt4. Louvers that covered the full quarter glass, also had the black spoiler and the body color around the windshield. It is a US car with the big bumpers and side markers front and back.