The Gran Toros Website

Welcome to the Gran Toros web site. I hope you enjoy your visit. My name is Carmelo and my friends call me Ceij. Many people know me by my Hot Wheels Collectors-dot-com message board alias: "Joey Sputafuoco" which is a joke nickname I received at a Hot Wheels convention years ago.


Gran Toros Contact Information

My email address is info@grantoros.com.
Se é facile per te, io parlo Italiano.
Ciao e grazie, Carmelo


Gran Toros / Mebetoys Dealers

Please note that none of the Gran Toros, Redlines, Catalogs and related toys on this site are for sale. If you want to buy items like these please see the for some excellent dealers that do sell these items:
Click to go to the Dealers page.


GranToros.com Copyrights

This site is registered with the Library of Congress, United States Copyright Office, in accordance with title 17, United States Code. Any use of the images, text, source code, graphics, photographs, illustrations, and translations, without the expressed written permission of grantoros.com is strictly prohibited.

The use of robots or other automated means to access the grantoros.com/sputafuoco.com site without the express permission of grantoros.com is strictly prohibited. Notwithstanding the foregoing, grantoros.com permits automated access solely for the limited purpose of including content in publicly available search engines. Any other use of robots is strictly prohibited.


New Links (Links Not on the Navigation Bar)

 Here's the link to the Gran Toros Variation and Rarity Guide:
Click to go to the GranToros Rarity and Variation Guide.
Here's where you can see Mattel Hot Wheels "Redlines" era toys and includes Sizzlers, RRRumblers, and Zowees.

Gran Toros Site Navigation

You can navigate the site via the navigation bar at the top and bottom of each page.
Here's an explanation of the buttons:

The Models button brings you to the Gran Toros Models index page. On this page you will find the 25 Hot Wheels Gran Toros models with links to the individual model pages. Each individual page provides pictures and descriptions of the Hot Wheels Gran Toros model.
This page provides more details about the Mebetoys / Mattel S.p.A. history and an index to the Mebetoys model pages. Each individual model page provides pictures and descriptions of the Mebetoys model and its relationship to the Hot Wheels Gran Toros.
The Catalog button brings you to the Catalog home page. On this page you will find the catalogs we've collected and lists of the models in each catalog as well as the models not listed.
The History button brings you to the Mebetoys and Gran Toros History page. This page contains the known facts of the Gran Toros history.
The Definition button brings you to the Gran Toros Definition page. This page describes the unique characteristics that identify a true Hot Wheels Gran Toros.
Since each Gran Toros model was made in Italy it seems only fitting that we provide Italian to English translations for many common Gran Toros terms. The Italian button will take you to that page.
Gran Toros were an addition to the original Hot Wheels car family, often referred to as "Redlines" or Ruote Brucia Pista in Italy. Click this button to see my Mattel Hot Wheels Redline collection. You won't find the rarest cars here but I've had most of this collection since I was 11-years old. The Hot Wheels Redlines section contains pages for Hot Wheels Redlines from 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, and 1972.
This has links to many of my favorite Hot Wheels related diecast websites.
Many people helped me with this site. The Credits page is where I can thank them.

My Personal Gran Toros Story

I remember collecting and playing with Matchbox cars as a young boy. My parents would give me 33-cents each week and I would pedal my bicycle to the pharmacy and buy a new Matchbox. One Saturday morning all that would change. That morning I saw a television ad for a new type of toy car called a Hot Wheels. By now I had a paper route and each week I would beg my father to take me to the department store where I would buy Hot Wheels with some of the profits.

I was almost 13-years old when a new type of Hot Wheels was announced, a larger version made in Italy and called Gran Toros. I loved these cars. My mother was from Italy and would help me read the Italian words on the bottom of the castings. My relatives in Italy learned about my new collection and would send some to me for my birthday and Christmas.

As time went on, I became more interested in real cars, scholastic sports, academics and dating but I always kept some of my Gran Toros on my desk. I took some of them to college but stored my favorite Gran Toros and all my Hot Wheels and accessories at my parents. Years later I found some of my Gran Toros and went searching for the stored models. I found some but not my favorite: a beautiful Ferrari Can Am with all the stickers and Ferrari logos. Search as I might, I only found its wing.

It was then that I decided to restore my Gran Toros collection starting with the incredible Ferrari Can Am from Benedetto Rubino. My collection is much larger now then when I was a boy but I still play with them the very same way. I still race them and rank them by speed. I am much older now but if you look very hard you will see the heart of an 11-year old. Why did I collect all these cars? As someone once said: "For the love of a childhood toy."
I hope you enjoy the site.


Just because we have not seen it does not mean that it does not exist.

Pictured to the left is an orange enamel McLaren Hot Wheels in the unopened original blister pack. It's the only car we have that will not be removed, or if you will, liberated from the blister. It stands as a reminder that we will always keep an open mind here. While Gran Toros are easier to "fake" than redlines, we do have limited access to FTIR spectrometers to verify the authenticity of the paint itself. Note that Infrared spectrometers were used to create the Georgia State Crime Lab automotive paint chip library which is used to identify the year, make and model of a suspect vehicle from trace paint evidence left at crime scenes.