A collector's chronology, compiled from official team statements, motorsport journalism and diecast manufacturer listings.
Highlights
- A helmet doodle became a diecast phenomenon. Rexy started as a T-Rex painted on PJ Hyett’s racing helmet in honor of his son. The full car livery didn’t exist until Sebring 2023.
- Mattel moved faster than almost any toy licensing deal in motorsport history. The Hot Wheels partnership was reportedly agreed the same race weekend Rexy debuted. This was even before the car finished its first season.
- Roxy isn’t just a repaint. She’s a genuinely separate race car with her own results, entries and rivalry storyline. She became Hot Wheels’ first-ever Car Culture chase in a color other than black & golden.
- Porsche itself built a real, road-going tribute car. Through its Sonderwunsch program, Porsche created a one-off 911 GT3 RS with Rexy embossed into the headrest. This is an ultimate manufacturer stamp of approval.
- The livery evolves every season. Gold teeth for wins, a diamond “24” for the championship, a green to red switch for a class change and a Halloween “Skeleton Rexy” scheme. No two years of diecasts look alike.
- Secondary market hype is already spiking. Secondary market listings are pricing the released Rexy, Roxy castings and unreleased 2026 Hot Wheels Team Transport Rexy set at a much higher price than the expected retail price, even before it hit shelves.
- It’s a three-brand collector chase. Hot Wheels, MiniGT and even LEGO have all raced to put Rexy, Roxy and Skeleton Rexy on shelves.
If you’ve spent any time in 1:64 diecast hobby since 2023, you’ve seen them. A bright green Porsche with a toothy grille, stubby little arms and a grin that somehow makes a $200,000 GT3 race car look like a plush toy. That’s Porsche Rexy. His pink sibling Roxy isn’t far behind him on the pegs or the secondary market. Between them and their dragon cousin ‘Spike’, this trio has done something almost no GT3 program has managed in decades. It turned a customer racing team into one of the most recognizable liveries in all of motorsport. From there, it turned into one of the hottest diecast chases of the mid-2020s. This is the story of how it started on track, how it found its way into 1:64 scale and why collectors are still hunting these castings.
The Real Car – How Rexy Was Born
AO Racing is a relatively young name in sports car racing. It was founded in 2022 by GitHub co-founder and CEO PJ Hyett and former IndyCar/sports car driver Gunnar Jeannette. They had a goal of competing in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship starting in 2023. The team completed its sports car racing debut at the 2023 24 Hours of Daytona, entering a Porsche 911 (992) GT3 R driven by Harry Tincknell, Sebastian Priaulx and the two team founders. For that race, the team sported a tribute livery based on the Porsche 935 from Henn’s Swap Shop Racing. It had won the race 40 years earlier. It was a respectful, low-key nod to Daytona history and it gave no hint of what was coming next.
Sebring, 2023: The Livery That Changed Everything
AO Racing unveiled “Rexy” in 2023 at 12 Hours of Sebring, round 2 of IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. It defined the team’s entire brand identity. The idea didn’t come from a marketing agency. The inspiration came directly from team principal and driver PJ Hyett, in honor of his own children. He had a T-Rex painted for his son and a unicorn for his daughter on his racing helmet. He wanted to carry that family connection with him on track. Hyett worked with AO Racing Motorsport Director Gunnar Jeannette to turn that helmet concept into “Rexy”. It became sports car racing’s most unlikely fan favorite.
The livery’s design cleverly used the actual shape of the Porsche 911 GT3 R to sell the joke. The car’s flared rear fenders became dinosaur haunches, tiny T-Rex arms flanked the door handles. Front end was turned into a cartoonishly flattened dino face with green tinted headlights standing in for eyes. The low-set front grille formed Rexy’s toothy grin.
The livery was an immediate hit with race fans. It made its international debut a few months later too. AO Racing partnered with Project 1 Racing to contest the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship in a Porsche 911 RSR-19. Rexy made his international debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year.
Enter Roxy – The Pink Sibling
AO Racing needed a second identity – Roxy. This was for fielding two Porsches at once through its European partnership with Project 1. It is a pink female Tyrannosaurus rex, was introduced about five months after Rexy. Roxy was introduced at the 2023 Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway (VIR). The original Rexy design had been moved onto the Project 1-AO Porsche 911 RSR-19 for WEC competition. As Rexy headed to Japan for the Six Hours of Fuji as part of the WEC season, the Roxy took over stateside duties. Roxy ran at VIR and Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. The two liveries even appeared together in public at the Southern California Air | Water Show. This cemented the “sibling rivalry” storyline the team has leaned into ever since.
The Extended Family: Spike, Rockie and the Growing “Jurassic” Roster
AO Racing’s cartoon universe kept expanding as the team grew. “Spike,” a purple and orange dragon, was introduced in LMP2 class for the 2024 IMSA Sports Car Championship. AO Racing describes Rexy and Roxy as siblings and Spike as their cousin. Ahead of the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans, the team also introduced “Rockie”. It is a red female winged horse based on Pegasus.
Notably for collectors, AO Racing has occasionally taken creative liberties with these characters. A Halloween themed skeleton livery of both Rexy and Spike and a version of Spike featuring gold scales were introduced.
On-Track Success Cements the Brand
Rexy wasn’t just a gimmick, the car started winning, which is a big part of why the character stuck. At the third round of the 2024 season at Laguna Seca, AO Racing scored its first win in the GTD Pro class. After further wins at Detroit and Indianapolis, the team became 2024 GTD Pro champion.
The team celebrated that title with a small but very collector relevant livery tweak. Rexy’s three gold teeth had signified three race wins. They were replaced with a single gold tooth bearing a diamond “24”. This was for celebrating the 2024 team and driver championship. Rexy also moved from the GTD class up to GTD PRO. The livery’s accent color changed from green to red. This was due to IMSA’s convention of using color to differentiate classes. Spike got similar honor in 2025 after winning both IMSA and European Le Mans. Spike wore a gold “25” diamond in his tail, echoing Rexy’s earlier gold tooth.
Wins kept coming and so did wear and tear that fans followed closely. Rexy lost his signature smile to crash damage at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in back to back years. After the second occurrence in 2026, Roxy stepped back into the #77 car for the Twelve Hours of Sebring. This was her IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup debut. Rexy sat out for repairs. Missing smile, the gold teeth and the color coded class changes make Rexy/Roxy diecasts fun (and confusing) to collect. No two seasons of the real car looked quite the same. Diecast manufacturers have tried to capture several of these variants in miniature scale models.
Porsche Itself Validated the Phenomenon
By 2025, Porsche’s own motorsport leadership was crediting AO Racing’s mascots for expanding the sport’s fanbase. AO Racing had created an identity that energized fan interest and caught the eyes of the youngest fans. It was backed it up by on-track performance that turned Roxy, Rexy and Spike into favorites. At race weekends, it became impossible to miss the team’s presence. It had mascot covered merchandise, AO Racing flags and plush toy versions of the characters.
The ultimate real world validation came from Porsche’s in-house customization division. In 2025, AO Racing commissioned a one-off, roadgoing Porsche 911 GT3 RS. It was built through Porsche’s Sonderwunsch (“special wishes”) program as a tribute to Rexy. It was finished in Viper Green with matte black accents and a leather/Race-Tex interior featuring Mamba Green stitching. The car’s dashboard trim panel carries the AO Racing logo and outlines of the tracks where the team’s 2024 wins in Laguna Seca, Detroit and Indianapolis. The door lights up with the IMSA logo and “GTD Pro Champion 2024” text. It also has the Rexy character embossed directly into the headrest.
How Rexy Got to Your Diecast Shelf
What’s remarkable about the Rexy diecast story is how fast it happened relative to the livery’s debut. Rexy’s success attracted the attention of Hot Wheels Design Manager Dmitriy Shakhmatov. Even before the race weekend was over, two brands decided to create a Hot Wheels version of Rexy. In April 2023, the team brought the actual Rexy race car to Mattel’s design and development center. Hot Wheels designers got up close with the livery in person.
In practice, the Hot Wheels release took a little longer than initial estimate. The casting didn’t launch until late 2024. But the speed of the deal is a big part of why this story is unusual in the diecast world. Most licensed race liveries take years to earn a manufacturer’s attention. Rexy got it before he’d even finished his debut season.
MiniGT Gets There First
Hot Wheels’ full mainstream release took time to materialize. MiniGT became one of the earliest manufacturers to actually deliver 1:64 Rexy and Roxy replicas. The brand has stayed close to AO Racing’s season by season livery changes ever since. MiniGT’s catalog has tracked specific race liveries rather than a single generic “Rexy” mold, including:
- Porsche 911 GT3 R #77 AO Racing “Rexy” – 2024 IMSA Daytona 24 Hours (GTD Pro, 2nd place), replicating the specific livery driven by Laurin Heinrich, Seb Priaulx and Michael Christensen at that year’s Rolex 24. This release captures the car’s podium finish look from the 2024 Daytona 24 Hours specifically, not a generic Rexy scheme.
- Porsche 911 GT3 R #80 AO Racing “Roxy” – 2023 IMSA VIR race, documenting Roxy’s original debut livery from Virginia International Raceway the year she was introduced.
- Halloween special: The Skeleton Rexy – The most talked about MiniGT release ties directly back to AO Racing’s own in-season creative liberties mentioned above. For the 2025 Petit Le Mans, held October 8–11, AO Racing ran a Halloween themed “Skeleton Rexy” livery on the #77 Porsche 911 GT3 R.
MiniGT’s willingness to chase specific race-weekend liveries rather than one evergreen “Rexy” tampo is precisely what has kept collectors coming back release after release.
Hot Wheels: The Mainstream Breakthrough
MiniGT built a steady release cadence for enthusiast collectors. But, Hot Wheels’ 2024 release pushed Rexy and Roxy into mainstream diecast awareness. They get fought over on store pegs, not just pre-ordered through hobby shops. Hot Wheels based its debut Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) casting’s initial livery directly on Rexy. The set’s chase variant was based on Roxy, the “female” pink version of Rexy.
The pairing debuted as part of the 2024 Car Culture: Race Day series, the sixth Car Culture mix of 2024. The full five-car lineup, according to retailer case listings, ran.
- 0/5 “Roxy” Porsche 911 GT3 R pink (chase)
- 1/5 “Rexy” Porsche 911 GT3 R green
- 2/5 Corvette C8.R
- 3/5 Bentley Continental GT3
- 4/5 Nissan Z GT4
- 5/5 BMW 320 Group 5
Because Roxy was inserted randomly as the set’s chase piece rather than being sold on its own, finding her became its own mini event within the hobby. In a standard case without a chase, collectors would get two of each of the five castings. In a case containing a chase, the pink Roxy would be inserted in place of the second green Rexy. This was the first Car Culture chase to come in a color other than black. Pink Roxy represented an actual, distinct real-world race livery rather than just a repaint of Rexy.
The demand for a Hot Wheels Rexy had actually been building publicly for over a year. It started even before the Race Day set arrived. As early as June 2023, fans were posting directly on Mattel’s official community forums commenting whether it will be released as a mainline or a premium. This was a sign of just how quickly word was spread through collector community.
The 2026 Hot Wheels Team Transport – Rexy Goes Big
The next major chapter for diecast Rexy collectors is the Hot Wheels Car Culture Team Transport series for 2026. The final mix of the 2026 Team Transport lineup pairs the AO Racing “Rexy” 911 GT3 R with the “Fleet Flyer” hauler. This marks the casting’s first appearance in the Team Transport format. The main reason collectors will be going after this set is ‘Rexy’.
Rexy Team Transport set is highly sought after set and is generating huge hype among collectors. This mix also includes a ’89 Porsche 944 Turbo paired with a Porsche Cayenne and Rally Trailer. This particular Team Transport mix leans heavily on Porsche’s motorsport partnerships.
Secondary market speculation had already kicked in before the set even hit shelves. That kind of pre-release flipping is a familiar pattern for Hot Wheels premium chases. The scale of markup here is a useful signal of just how much anticipation has built around this specific set.
Collector’s Reference Timeline
- Late 2022: AO Racing founded by PJ Hyett and Gunnar Jeannette.
- January 2023: Team debuts at the 24 Hours of Daytona in a Swap Shop tribute livery.
- March 2023: “Rexy” livery debuts at the 12 Hours of Sebring; Hot Wheels toy deal agreed the same weekend.
- April 2023: Rexy visits Mattel’s Hot Wheels design center ahead of the Long Beach Grand Prix.
- June 2023: Rexy makes his international debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (as a Porsche 911 RSR-19 with Project 1).
- August 2023: “Roxy” debuts at the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR.
- Early 2024: “Spike” the LMP2 dragon introduced as the team expands to LMP2.
- 2024 Season: AO Racing wins its first races (Laguna Seca, Detroit, Indianapolis) and claims the GTD Pro title.
- May/June 2024: MINI GT released 1:64 scale AO Racing Rexy Porsche 911.
- Late 2024: Hot Wheels Car Culture: Race Day (Rexy/Roxy chase) releases at retail.
- 2025 Season: Gold diamond “24” tooth added to Rexy. Class livery accent shifts green to red. Porsche Sonderwunsch Rexy tribute road car revealed. Spike wins IMSA and ELMS titles, earning his own gold “25.”
- October 2025: “Skeleton Rexy” Halloween livery debuts at Petit Le Mans; MiniGT announces matching diecast (MGT01143).
- 2026: Roxy briefly takes over full-time #77 duties after Rexy’s Daytona crash damage. Hot Wheels Team Transport Rexy + Fleet Flyer hauler set releases as part of the year’s final Team Transport mix.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is Rexy?
Rexy is the nickname for AO Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). It is a real GT3 race car that competes in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The car wears a green, dinosaur themed livery designed to look like a Tyrannosaurus rex, with a toothy grille for a mouth and small T-Rex arms on the doors.
Why is the AO Racing car called Rexy?
The livery was inspired by team principal PJ Hyett’s racing helmet. It featured a T-Rex in honor of his son and a unicorn in honor of his daughter. Hyett and Motorsport Director Gunnar Jeannette turned that helmet concept into the real car “Rexy” livery. Rexy debuted at the 2023 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
Who designed the Rexy livery?
The livery concept originated with AO Racing team principal and driver PJ Hyett, developed together with Motorsport Director Gunnar Jeannette. It builds on artwork Hyett had already been running on his personal racing helmet before it was adapted to the full Porsche 911 GT3 R.
What is Roxy?
Roxy is Rexy’s pink sibling, a second Porsche 911 GT3 R liveried as a “prehistoric pink” T-Rex. She was introduced in August 2023 at the Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway. AO Racing needed a second identity to run alongside its European Project 1 partnership.
Is Roxy the same car as Rexy, just a different color?
No. Roxy is a separate, real race car with her own race history, results and IMSA entries. It is not simply a repainted Rexy. AO Racing describes Rexy and Roxy as siblings. The team periodically swaps which car runs full-time, describing it as Rexy “taking a vacation.”
What is Spike?
Spike is AO Racing’s purple and orange dragon themed Oreca 07 LMP2 car. It was introduced when the team expanded into the LMP2 class for the 2024 IMSA SportsCar Championship. AO Racing refers to Spike as Rexy and Roxy’s “cousin.” Spike won IMSA and European Le Mans Series titles in 2025. It wears a gold “25” diamond in his tail to commemorate it.
What is Skeleton Rexy?
Skeleton Rexy is a Halloween themed variant of the standard Rexy livery, run by AO Racing’s #77 Porsche 911 GT3 R at the 2025 Petit Le Mans. Instead of the usual green dinosaur scheme, the car wore a bone-white skeletal design for the race.
What is Rockie?
Rockie is a red, winged horse (Pegasus themed) livery. It was introduced ahead of the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans for AO Racing’s LMP2 Pro-Am entry.
What racing class does Rexy compete in?
Rexy races in IMSA’s GT3-based classes. The car moved from GTD to GTD PRO for the 2025 season. The livery accent color changed from green to red following IMSA’s convention of using color to distinguish classes.
Has Rexy won any races or championships?
Yes. Rexy scored AO Racing’s first win at Laguna Seca in 2024, followed by further wins at Detroit and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It secured the 2024 GTD Pro team and driver championship for the team and driver Laurin Heinrich.
Why did Rexy’s gold teeth change?
Each gold tooth on the livery originally represented a race win. After 2024 GTD Pro title win, three gold teeth were replaced with a single gold tooth featuring a diamond “24”.
Is there a real, road-going Rexy Porsche?
Yes. In 2025, Gunnar Jeannette commissioned a one-off road-legal Porsche 911 GT3 RS. It was done through Porsche’s Sonderwunsch program as a tribute to Rexy finished in Viper Green with a Rexy character embossed into the headrest and track outlines of the team’s 2024 win venues on the dash trim.
Is there a Hot Wheels Rexy?
Yes. Hot Wheels released a Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) casting with a Rexy livery. It was released as part of the 2024 Car Culture Race Day series. It hit retail in late 2024.
Is Roxy a Hot Wheels chase car?
Yes. The pink Roxy livery was Hot Wheels’ randomly inserted chase variant, numbered 0/5. The green Rexy was the standard 1/5 release in the same five-car mix.
How rare is the Hot Wheels Roxy chase car?
Roxy was inserted randomly into cases in place of one of the two standard Rexy pieces. A standard 10 count case yields two green Rexy castings, while a case containing the chase swaps one of those for pink Roxy instead. It was notable among collectors as the first Car Culture chase released in a color other than black or golden.
Is there a Hot Wheels Team Transport Rexy?
Yes. A Rexy Porsche 911 GT3 R paired with the “Fleet Flyer” hauler is part of the final 2026 Hot Wheels Car Culture Team Transport mix. This marks the casting’s first appearance in the Team Transport line.
When does the Hot Wheels Rexy Team Transport set release?
It was confirmed as part of the last Team Transport mix revealed for 2026. Previews are circulating from mid-2026 hobby conventions and pre-orders opening through hobby retailers ahead of general retail availability.
Is there a MiniGT Rexy or Roxy model?
Yes. MiniGT has released multiple race specific Rexy and Roxy castings. It included a Rexy liveried for the 2024 IMSA Daytona 24 Hours (GTD Pro, 2nd place) and a Roxy liveried for the 2023 IMSA VIR race, rather than one generic tampo.
What is the MiniGT Skeleton Rexy diecast?
It’s a 1:64 scale replica of AO Racing’s Halloween themed Skeleton Rexy livery. It was from the 2025 Petit Le Mans, cataloged as MGT01143. The model comes in packaging exclusive to AO Racing’s own store and has been offered through multiple hobby retailers..
What’s the difference between the Hot Wheels and MiniGT Rexy models?
Hot Wheels has generally released one evolving “Rexy” tampo per set. MiniGT tends to replicate specific race weekend liveries in more detail. It includes a particular season’s Daytona result or the one-off Skeleton Rexy scheme targeting enthusiast collectors who track exact livery variants season by season.
Is there a LEGO Rexy?
Yes. LEGO released a Technic-scale Porsche 911 GT3 R “Rexy” AO Racing Car (set 42224). It is a 1,313 piece build with working steering, four-wheel suspension, a differential, a six-cylinder boxer engine, opening doors and trunk and synchronized air jacks.
HAPPY COLLECTING 😊