If there were a hall of fame for car designers, Robert Gross would be one of the first inductees.

As operator of diecastmodelworld.com, the 55-year-old Gross has been designing both model and custom cars for over four decades. “I’ve been building cars since I was 12,” says the Compton-raised Gross. “Growing up they called me the model-car king. All of my knowledge as far as the way I built models back in the day—I took that and said I want to go beyond what everyone else does. I take stock models like the Hot Wheels cars and change the suspension, then put new wheels on them that roll.”

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