1990 Hummer H1 on 2040-cars

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Hot Wheels' 2022 Green Speed cars bring EVs to small scale

With more and more EVs hitting the market, it was only a matter of time before the new breed of cars would find representation in diecast form. For 2022, Hot Wheels is coming out with a new Green Speed series that puts the spotlight on a diverse lineup of electric cars. The five-car series features a fun mix of EVs from different manufacturers and in a wide range of styles. Some are completely bone stock. For a traditional luxury sedan, there's a Lucid Air in silver, complete with glass (or in this case, clear plastic) canopy. For fans of Teutonic 4-door "coupes" there's the Audi RS e-Tron GT in Daytona Gray. Ticking the truck box is a Hummer EV in a yellow that can only be described as a throwback to the H3. But because this is Hot Wheels, there are "hot-rodded" variants in the lineup as well. Rather than just a regular Nissan Leaf, they've elected to cast the carbon fiber-bodied NISMO RC 2.0 race car. Likewise with Ford, instead of the standard Mustang Mach-E, they've gone with the Mustang Mach-E 1400 drift car. This isn't the first time Hot Wheels has put out a Green Speed series. The line debuted in 2016 but reflected the limited EV choices in the real car market at the time. The only non-fantasy cars in the series were a first-gen Tesla Roadster, a Tesla Model S, and Chevy Volt. Hot Wheels revisited the line again in 2019, this time adding a Tesla Model 3 and a Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid Sport Turismo. Hot Wheels also makes other mini EVs that don't fall into this specific line of models. If you want to collect 'em all, there's the second-generation Tesla Roadster concept, Cybertruck, Jaguar I-Pace, Pininfarina Battista, Porsche Taycan, and a Volkswagen ID R. Similarly, Matchbox has released a version of the Tesla Roadster with sustainable packaging to boot. If you must have an old school gasoline burner, Hot Wheels has plenty of options for you too, like, say, this snazzy FJ60 Toyota Land Cruiser. The 2022 Hot Wheels Green Speed series should be on shelves at your local retailers now. Related Video:

Maniac intentionally crashes Hummer into Virginia diner

A Virginia man is in police custody today after ramming his SUV into a restaurant and causing a massive fire. Employees at the Silver Diner in McLean, VA were in the middle of the lunch rush when around 12:30 p.m., according to NBC Washington, a gray Hummer crashed into the restaurant's front door. The SUV driver backed the vehicle up and rammed the building again, striking a patron and trapping him between the SUV and the door. The driver rammed the restaurant a third time and his Hummer burst into flames. "There was total pandemonium in the restaurant," Will Yeatman, a witness who was having coffee at the diner at the time of the incident, told NBC. A chaotic video shot by Yeatman shows people in a state of panic, screaming, or dragging the wounded away from the burning vehicle. Some witnesses tried to save the Hummer driver from his burning vehicle, but he tried to fight them off. "He was fighting," witness Janie Watkins told NBC. "He said, 'Get away from me. Leave me alone, leave me alone." He was eventually extracted from the vehicle after witnesses cut his seat belt and pulling him out. The driver, whose name has not been released, was identified as an employee of the restaurant who had taken bereavement leave on April 5. He had been an employee of the restaurant for two years, and in an official statement the Silver Diner stated that the company had "no indication that the employee would harm himself or others." The unnamed employee was fired in the wake of the incident. Three people were taken to a local hospital, and one victim was treated at the scene. Police have not indicated yet whether the driver will be charged with a crime. Related Video: News Source: NBC Washington Weird Car News Hummer Driving Safety SUV Videos car fire

Junkyard Gem: 2006 Hummer H3 SUV

After General Motors bought the rights to the Hummer brand from AM General in 1999, it continued to sell the civilianized versions of the military HMMWV that was made famous after appearing in the heavily televised Operation Desert Storm. The Hummer H1 (as it became known) never sold in large numbers, but The General decided to make everyman Hummers based on existing GM truck platforms. The Silverado-based H2 came first, debuting as a 2003 model, followed by the Colorado-based H3 as a 2006 model. Here's one of those first-year H3s, found in a Denver self-service car graveyard recently. Now it's time for some Hummer brand history. After the American Motors Corporation bought Kaiser Jeep in 1970, it spun off the fleet and military parts of that operation into a new company called AM General. The best-known AM General products for many years were the Jeep DJ Dispatchers, generally called "Mail Jeeps," and they were sold all the way through 1984. 1984 was also the year that the United States Army put the first AM General-built High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWV, which soldiers pronounced "Humvee" at first but eventually adopted the "Hummer" nickname). Around the same time, militarized VW-powered sand rails were being purchased from Chenowth by Uncle Sam. After Arnold Schwarzenegger convinced AM General to build civilianized Hummers, sales of the not-so-civilized brute that became the H1 began in 1992. The H2 and H3 had the misfortune to be launched just before the Great Recession hit and fuel prices went crazy, while a couple of overseas conflicts that were much less popular than Gulf War I made grim headlines and reduced the street appeal of combat-inspired civilian wheels. The H1 got the axe in 2006; GM tried and failed to sell the Hummer brand to a Chinese manufacturer in 2010, as it struggled through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, finally giving up and killing the brand alongside Pontiac, Saturn and Saab. Then the Hummer name was revived in 2022 as an electron-fueled GMC model, and you can buy a 2024 GMC Hummer EV SUV right now (though GMC's website warns of "LIMITED AVAILABILITY" in big red letters, so you might have a hard time actually taking delivery of one). The final 2010 H3s were built for Avis at Shreveport Operations, which itself shut down two years later.