If you haven’t heard of the Hot Wheels Legends Tour, it is an epic, for lack of a more epic word, event with at least 110,000 attendees and almost 5,000 car entries. In 2019, the event was held all in person but because of the ‘unprecedented’ year that was 2020 the event was made mostly virtual last year. That didn’t put much of a damper on the event though, and there were multiple live streams in May, August, September, October, and November with the winner from each being just as radical as the one before it. But as a fan of American Muscle and road racing it’s hard not to call out the winner of September 10, 2020 Legends Tour as being the best.
“It’s my goal to take the car that I built and really try to get it to that 100% mark, to where I feel like it’s living up to its potential. With any car really obviously that process is gonna take a while and I hope to just be able to enjoy it on the track and everything in the meantime while I’m doing all that development.” -Riley Stair
Car builder Riley Stair from Sacramento, CA turned his 1970 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am into one of the more extreme road race cars we’ve seen. The only parts of the car made by Pontiac is the body and the VIN tag. Everything else, including the custom tube chassis, was built by Stair. Powering the car is a 400-cid Dart LSX engine built by Motor Machine to run on methanol with a 16.0:1 compression ratio. A Holley Dominator ECU, Smart Coils, and 220 lb/hr injectors control the fuel and spark while allowing for near infinite adjustability.
To aid in weight distribution the 1000-horsepower engine was moved way back into the firewall. Even more extreme than that is the pushrod orientated suspension featuring Ohlins TTX coilover shocks. Just in-case you don’t know what a pushrod orientated suspension system is, it is the same type of suspension Formula1 cars use. All of this makes for an extreme Trans Am that will undoubtedly absolutely fly through the corners.
When asked why he embarked on the on-going project two years ago, Riley Stair had this to say, “This car kind of serves as a test for myself and as a calling card. I have opened up my own shop here in Sacramento and I hope the car will show people what I can do and essentially bring people that want something like this, something milder, something wilder, or whatever.” This leads us to believe that we have not seen the last of Riley stair and we can hardly wait to see what this new master car builder comes up with next.
Elizabeth is hardcore horsepower enthusiast with unmatched intensity for making things faster and louder. She wakes up for power and performance and only sleeps to charge up for the next project that’s heading to the track. From autocross to drag racing, Elizabeth is there with you, so stay tuned for her unique perspective on horsepower news, builds, tech info, and installs — with her, it’ll never be boring!
