What Scale Are Hot Wheels Cars? - Dave Farquhar

Last Updated on September 17, 2023 by Dave Farquhar

What scale are Hot Wheels cars, you ask? Unfortunately it varies a bit. They tend to be a bit less than 1:64. But scale isn’t Hot Wheels’ objective. Fitting in the package is. That means the size of Hot Wheels cars is between 2.5 and 3 inches, depending on what looks right for the prototype model. That’s when a prototype even exists. So it can take some homework to figure out the actual scale of any given model.

Or you can just not worry about it, assume they’re more or less 1:64, skip the next section, and get on with things. That’s an option, but if you look at my chart, you’ll see the scale can vary a bit.

Determining actual scale of Hot Wheels cars

To do the math, find out the length of the real thing. Usually a Google search takes care of that. Then convert the length to millimeters. If you can’t find the length, get some other measurement from the real thing, like the width or the wheelbase.

Sometimes there is no real thing, so you have to approximate. Pick the real car that most closely resembles the Hot Wheels model in question.

Then measure the same thing on the Hot Wheels car. In millimeters, ideally, but convert if you have to. Then divide the measurement from the original by the measurement you took from the Hot Wheels car.

Here are some measurements I took from the Hot Wheels on my train layout:

Model	Actual wheelbase (mm)	Hot Wheels wheelbase (mm)	Scale
1935 Duesenberg	3899	49	1:79.57143
1932 Ford Delivery	2845	43	1:66.16279
1940 Ford Woodie Wagon	2845	44	1:64.65909
1941 Willys Coupe	2642	38	1:69.52632

Let’s estimate a Ford Focus. We’ll assume the Hot Wheels version is 2.5 inches long, 63.5mm. The prototype is 4369mm long. If these assumptions are correct, it will work out to 1:68 scale.

With other makes of diecast cars it’s often possible to find a comprehensive list so you can just look it up. But if there’s something out there that lists the scale of particular Hot Wheels models, I haven’t found it yet.

Dioramas for Hot Wheels

I assume the main reason you want to know Hot Wheels scale is to make dioramas. Rather than duplicate a bunch of content, I recommend you check out my entry on Matchbox scale. The materials that work for Matchbox are perfect for Hot Wheels as well. Fortunately there are plenty of sources of good material, thanks in part to the hobbies of model railroading and holiday villages.

To rehash, I recommend 1:75 architectural figures. A bag of 100 figures costs around $5. They come painted and unpainted and you can paint them yourself fairly easily.  You can also use dollar-store holiday village figures.

For buildings, I recommend O/S-sized Plasticville buildings or Department 56 and Lemax buildings. For roads and sidewalks, you can use road pattern tape and HO scale sidewalks meant for model trains.

Further reading

I have some cheatsheets on model scales and model railroading scale that you might find useful.

You might also be interested in my blog post on customizing Hot Wheels. And of course, since I discussed Hot Wheels, I’ve also discussed Matchbox and old-school Tootsietoy scale. And speaking of old school, there’s Londontoy.

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Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

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