>a few hand-me-down Hot Wheels made in England in the 70s

That's interesting. I thought they were all Hong Kong or US manufacture. I wonder when that started.

Looking back, the car culture was really something. Not just cartoonish new cars like Superbirds but George Barris models, racing windbreaker jackets, the entire universe of slot cars, cars in songs, on pinball machines, CARtoons magazine, STP stickers, Sting-Ray bicycles, etc.

Shame that it's mostly gone but then the whole industry based around draft-horse farming or treadle sewing machines is largely history too.