The internet is a strange place. I can guarantee you that none of our ancestors could have guessed we’d be watching a Hot Wheels car run in place for a week and a half via livestream, but here we are. It’s the work of Diecast Endurance on YouTube, and since running a tiny Ford GT on a belt sander for 13,459 scale miles a couple of weeks ago, the host has been torturing a miniature Mazda 787B almost ever since.
So, there was actually one car in between the two little Le Mans winners: A Toyota Soarer that lasted three days on the punishing contraption. But that thing couldn’t hold a candle to the Mazda prototype, which has been going for 284 hours at the time of publishing. Can you believe it?!
The ticker on the left-hand side of the screen says the Hot Wheels has elapsed 30,615 scale miles. For reference, the Earth’s circumference is 24,901 miles, and the real Le Mans-winning 787B covered just 3,059.79 miles in 1991. Even when you strip away the scale qualifier, the actual measured distance it has traveled is wild at 478 miles and counting.
YouTube livestreams are apparently limited to 12 hours if you want to archive them automatically, and the channel is currently on its 29th separate upload for this car. It’s playing in the background as I write this, with the constant whir of the plastic wheels on the belt.
The amount of accumulated grit on the Mazda’s metal body is impressive. Although the car started this experiment with a totally white paint job and blue decals, there’s a lot of black spattered on its profile—particularly, the right side. Not to jinx it, but the whole car is shifting around pretty seriously now as the rear-left wheel slides back and forth on its axle. This wear is shown not only in the micromaterials that have been shaved off, but also in the temperatures, as the two wheels I mentioned are the hottest at 88 degrees and 89 degrees Fahrenheit. (The ambient temp is 86.6 degrees, while the cockpit is a skosh toastier at 90 degrees flat.)
I have no idea how long this trial will last. I doubt anyone saw it going for a week, let alone almost 12 days. It’ll be sad when it finally does go, but one thing is for sure: The 787B set one heck of a benchmark, and I’ll be curious to see if anything else can beat it.
Godspeed, little guy. Or as they say in Japan, 神のご加護がありますように!
Mazda 787B – Endurance Run – Hour 267 – 277
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