San Jose car enthusiast a finalist in custom-car Hot Wheels show

LAS VEGAS - A car enthusiast had all his car custom dreams come true a few weeks ago at the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association show earlier this month.

Carlos Uribe of San Jose entered his customized 1995 Honda Civic in the Hot Wheels Legends tour at their Gilroy stop in September.  

Uribe’s custom Civic competed with approximately 250 other customized cars and won the local event which awarded him a trip along with shipping his car to the SEMA show in Las Vegas.

Uribe said it was his first time to the Sin City --  a trip of a lifetime.  

While there, he experienced one of the biggest car shows on earth as well as meet a number of celebrities who were also judges during the event.  

The Hot Wheels Legends Tour is an annual event sponsored by Hot Wheels and various other companies where approximately 20 finalists from its show tour have a chance for their life-size customized car to be the next Hot Wheels Die-Cast Toy.  

The SEMA show is an annual convention for people in the automotive industry as a business to business network event along with car customizers from around the world customize cars specifically for this event.

 SEMA is usually scheduled in October or November.