Hot Wheels Honda XR250 Tornado Street Tracker

A South American Street Tracker built for the Hot Wheels 50th Anniversary…

The duo behind Argentina’s Herencia Custom Garage — German Karp and Fede Cubik — have quickly established themselves as some of the top builders not only in South America, but across the globe. So, perhaps it should come as no surprise that Hot Wheels — the leading manufacturer of die-cast toy cars since 1968 — approached them to build a giveaway bike for their 50th anniversary.

Hot Wheels gave them a large amount of creative freedom, so the duo proposed one of their specialties:  a street tracker. As the base platform, they opted for the Honda XR250 Tornado — a longtime favorite in Argentina and beyond. The Tornado has the same power (23-hp) and weight (317 pounds) as the CRF250L, but is still carbureted and air-cooled, with a 50% larger tank.

Below, we get the full story on how the Argentine duo transformed a staid urban enduro into a street tracker worthy of the Hot Wheels name.

Honda XR250 Street Tracker:  Builder Interview

(Highlights by us. Credit to Juana Ezcurra for the photos!)

• Please tell us a bit about yourself, your history with motorcycles, and your workshop.

We make mainly custom bikes for clients that usually bring their own bikes and have an idea of what they want. This time it was a different build were the bike was going to be later given away in an event to a lucky new owner. So it had to be a bike a common rider could use on the street.

• What’s the make, model, and year of the bike?

It’s a Honda Tornado 250cc 2017 0km

• Why was this bike built?

This bike was a collab with Hot Wheels for their 50th anniversary. We had freedom to choose the bike brand and model and we proposed a street tracker design.

• What was the design concept and what influenced the build?

We went for a Street tracker build, this is a style we have done many times before, we knew it would be mainly black and we added yellow details to stick out from our previous builds.

• What custom work was done to the bike?

Brand new subchassis, vintage Kawasaki fuel tank adapted, flat track seat, new rims and tires, custom-made exhaust.

 

• Was there anything done during this build that you are particularly proud of?

It is an honor Hot Wheels approached us for a collab in such an important date as their anniversary and trusted us completely without giving us any initial guidelines for the build.

Follow the Builders

• German Karp:  @karp_hcg
• Federico Lozada:  @fedecubik | @cubikgraphicstudio
• Herencia Motor Company:  Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Web
• Photography: @juanaezcurra