There is somewhat of a mystery surrounding the Hot Wheels Ferrari F430 Challenge casting. When did it appear? Many collectors (including myself), had believed that the mystery lied within a mystery, in that the first occurrence of this challenge version occurred in the 2009 Mystery Cars — a segment series within the Hot Wheels mainline that had blacked out bubbles on its blister cards.

While what most collectors didn’t know is that the Ferrari F430 Challenge was actually released a year earlier in the 2008 Ferrari Racer line. For a look at the inital release, click >> HERE <<. Look familiar?

Indeed it does, as the featured Ferrari F430 Challenge for today (shown below from the 2010 HW Racing series) wears that same #14 paint scheme and came in Red — minus the Shell logos. Succeeding colors of this version were yellow and blue respectively. The blue version was a Toys R Us exclusive and can be a little harder to come across but the red and yellow versions are plentiful and you should have no problem locating those.

Since Mattel and Ferrari are still at a stand-still on licensing, more recent Ferrari releases are still fetching higher-than-normal prices. This very common red version from 2010 can be obtained on secondary sites for $5 to $12-shipped. While that seems like a lot, its much cheaper than its similar Ferrari Racer counterpart!

RELEASE DETAILS: Red Body (metal). Dark-Tinted Windows. Gray Interior. White 5Y Wheels. Black Base (plastic). Made in Malaysia. Toy# R7579. Released in 2010 as #6 of 10 in the HW Racing Series.