A fun discovery for a lesser known vintage set.  I'm not sure I've seen these cars raced or even mentioned before.  The original Speed Demons were released between 1986 through 1989.  This series launched 11 new castings, all featuring Ultra Hot wheels (the exception being 1989 which did not have UH wheels).  I don't believe these castings made a good impression on collectors or kids, as the monsters/beasts and robots are quite tacky.  But they are very fast.

Some of these castings continue to be made today, but none of the post 1980's versions are nearly as fast as the originals.  In particular, beware of the 1994 Speed Demons 5-Pack that includes these castings with UH wheels.   The top 5 cars in this series are all from the 1986 release.  Finding them in unopened blister packs can be tricky (see picture of the blister above).

​​​​Some racing details and organization:

• I race on a two-lane, 27 foot Magic Derby track (equivalent to about one-third of a mile).  The Derby track is 22% wider than a typical Hot Wheels orange track, allowing me to race more car sizes/scales.  
• I've applied graphite to the cars, which really brings out the speed potential for diecast.  I'll go into more detail in the future.  Some cars only improve slightly, but others improve significantly when dry lubes applied.  
• The times listed are the average of the best two times out of six races.
• 5-star performers are the most elite and there are only 76 of them out of all the cars tested as of January, 2023.  4-star performers is the next best tier and there are less than 165 of them.  
• See the home page for more details on track design, testing, etc.

Fastest Speed Demons
Qualifiers

Results summary:

• There are 5 cars in the 4-Star level with Evil Weevil leading the way
• Evil Weevil is a Top 20 car in the Welterweight weight class
• Of the other 5 models not ranking fast enough, 4 of them have plastic bases (Phantomachine, Zombot, Rodzilla and Ratmobile) and are all very light.  The other was Fangster who was competitive.