It’s the mother of all Hot Wheels tracks – and it’s helping a brave little boy fight a scary disease.
There’s been a lot of hype about Hot Wheels’ new world record breaks lately. At the XGames Los Angeles in July, champion drivers Tanner Foust and Greg Tracy set new world records by successfully completing a 60-foot-tall Hot Wheels Double Loop Dare. And just recently, Hollywood stunt driver Brent Fletcher landed the longest corkscrew jump ever – 92 feet. And all of it was accomplished atop giant replicas of those familiar bright orange bendy tracks that consumed hours upon hours upon hours of our childhoods back in the day.
All the excitement got us here at E3 Spark Plugs waxing nostalgic about our days playing with our favorite die-cast metal Hot Wheels cars, launching them over laundry baskets, couch cushions, sleeping pets and whatever else we could find around the house. We each boasted that we’d had the biggest, baddest bendy tracks ever when we were kids. But we all got mercilessly schooled when we came across YouTube user therealtexasaggie98′s video titled Mother of All Hot Wheels Tracks.
The 4-minute video features 2,000-feet of powered Hot Wheels track traversing 14 rooms of a home, a suburban sidewalk and a poolside hot tub, even sending ping pong balls flying into the air in one particularly dramatic moment. It was quite the vision to behold. But the best part? At the end of the video pops a screen with info about the Hope for Gabe Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness and funding research for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
The foundation was launched by the parents of little Gabe Griffin, who was diagnosed with Duchenne MD in 2008 at just three years old. Despite the fact that it’s the number one genetic killer of boys worldwide, the disease gets very little media coverage or research funding. Victims suffer severe muscle degeneration and typically become confined to wheelchairs in their early teens. Most die of resulting cardiac or respiratory failure in their 20s or 30s.
The video urges viewers to make donations of $1 or $5 and, at the time of this writing, has racked up 3,785,750 views and more than $18,000 in contributions. Take a look and consider making a donation yourself. Trust us it’s worth five bucks just to see this track, leave alone helping further a brave little boy’s fight.
