Both of these sealed Hot Wheels sports cars are Brand-New. They've been in a glass cabinet out of direct sunlight and in a smoke-free, pet-free home; so no odors.

Both are autographed by very famous drivers. The Panoz LMP-1 diecast is of the Panoz that won an American LeMans Series race in downtown D.C. I was there at that 2002 race; hot, loud, and cramped. Once this model was released later that year I went to another ALMS race and had the two drivers autograph it with a black Sharpie pen. The signers were Jan Magnussen, famous for his Panoz and factory-Corvette drives over many decades (also some F-1 races for Team Stewart), and David Brabham, essentially the leader of the team. David is the son of the late Sir Jack Brabham, 3-time F-1 champion. Both Brabham and Magnussen are semi-retired. The back of the Panoz card contains a nice writeup of what happened at that specific American LeMans Series race in D.C. It mentions that Jan won the race only 1/2 second ahead of the all-conquering 2nd place Audi R8. 

See the photos for where David and Jan signed the Panoz LMP-1 diecast; David signed at the bottom.

Even cooler, and much rarer, is the next diecast in the "Hall of Fame" line- the Cunningham C4R driven by the late Briggs Cunnigham. An earlier version of this Cunnigham was run by the late, legendary, John Fitch. Mr. Fitch was a longtime friend of mine and I visited him frequently, even traveling all the way to Wisc. He was a WW-2 fighter pilot in a P-51 Mustang and got credit for shooting down an ME-262 jet fighter; one of the few pilots to do so. He was later shot down and spent the last few months of the war in a German prisoner of war camp. Fitch was the first Corvette team manager and won his class in the 24 hrs of LeMans in a Corvette in 1960. He won the 1953 12-hrs of Sebring sports car race and was a factory driver for Mercedes in 1955. His teammate, Levegh, was killed, along with over 80 spectators. It was Fitch that convinced the Germans to pull out of the race out of respect for those that had died- handing the victory to Jaguar. He was the very first SCCA National Champion and drove for Briggs Cunningham for many years. He was also the very first American driver to race in Europe after the end of WW-2. He truly was one of the true legends of motor racing.

Needless-to-say, this autograph, on this model, is extremely rare. John signed the front of the card using a silver Sharpie; the signature is directly over the face of his team owner and part-time driver, Briggs Cunningham. The back of the card talks about Cunningham's career. John Fitch was one of Cunningham's drivers but he is not mentioned on the back of the diecast. Fitch is well-known for his Fitch Safety Barriers- those yellow barrels you see under by-passes on highways. I wrote a feature piece on John Fitch for my local paper after John passed away in 2012.

I have packaged these diecast models in a very sturdy box since I do have some frequent buyers overseas.