With 2021 F-Type, Jaguar joins Hot Wheels for “Ultimate Track Challenge”

We saw a 1:64-scale camouflaged F-Type enjoy some screen time in a commercial this past December when Jaguar unveiled the 2021 refresh of the F-Type, which consisted of squintier headlights, newly texturized grille mesh, and a light massage for the top-tier supercharged V-8. That car just made its real-life North American debut at the 2020 Chicago Auto Show, surrounded by an intricate Hot Wheels track.

Though we were hoping for a make-it-or-break-it throwdown before our eyes, Jaguar anticlimactically announced that it had broken the Guiness World Record for the most loop-the-loops with a Hot Wheels car under the sole force of gravity the night before. We didn’t see it, but the Guiness people did. We did get to see Jaguar’s representative receive the official Guinness World Record certificate for the seven loop-the-loops that a blue F-Type Hot Wheels model completed.

To follow up on this record, Jaguar has thrown down the “Ultimate Track Challenge,” in partnership with Hot Wheels. In this challenge, universities in the US or Canada are encouraged to design the most complex and interesting track possible. The winning track, as chosen by Jaguar, Hot Wheels, and Guinness World Records, will receive a $50,000 grant from Jaguar to that school’s engineering program.

“We are committed to developing the next generation of automotive engineers and enthusiasts,” says Stuart Schorr, vice president of communications for Jaguar Land Rover North America. We applaud the move to invest in the next generation—but what about letting the middle schoolers in on this one? They’d probably have the Hot Wheels tracks in their basement already. You can never be too young to play with Hot Wheels (or too old, for that matter. Yes, we still dig through the bins at Walmart.)

Though there were 13 or so loops on the Hot Wheels circuit displayed at the Chicago show, Guinness World Records judge Philip Robertson clarified that only seven loops counted: the number the little car ran through in succession under only the force of gravity. Robertson was in charge of evaluating the model car and the tracks as authentic, non-modified Hot Wheels products, and also in charge of ensuring the procedure stuck to script.

Which it did. Everyone played by the book, North America has officially seen the newly squintified F-Type, and dozens of colleges and universities have some Hot Wheels homework. Cheers, fellows.