M4A1-S | Hot Rod (Minimal Wear)

The Minimal Wear (MW) band of the M4A1-S | Hot Rod is only 0.07 to 0.08. The finish's scale is cut off at 0.08, so the wear fits into the last hundredth. The skin is Classified and comes from The Chop Shop Collection, and no case holds this rifle.

What the M4A1-S | Hot Rod looks like in Minimal Wear

By Valve's description, the finish is applied over a chrome base and covered with a transparent red anodized lacquer. On the model it reads like this: the suppressor, handguard, receiver, carry handle and stock are all filled with red. The magazine stays gray metal, and the grip and trigger guard are black.

The chrome under the red lacquer throws highlights along the handguard ribs and the suppressor. In Minimal Wear the wear is almost indistinguishable from factory condition, because the band is only one hundredth wide. The value is written when the skin drops and never grows later.

Where the M4A1-S | Hot Rod came from

There is no Workshop submission for the M4A1-S | Hot Rod: the finish was drawn inside Valve. Its catalog number is 445. The Chop Shop Collection opened in the game on May 26, 2015, and the skin was there from day one; two days later Valve launched Operation Bloodhound with a separate note.

What to check before buying

A listing of the M4A1-S | Hot Rod is chosen on these signs:

• float: the band is 0.07 to 0.08, narrow, so there is almost no difference between listings;


• the edges of the receiver and the carry handle, where the red lacquer wears off first;


• the previous owner's stickers and a rename on the M4A1-S | Hot Rod.

What the M4A1-S | Hot Rod costs in Minimal Wear

The finish has two wears, and Minimal Wear costs 1.5 times as much as Factory New. The reason is the narrow band: Minimal Wear takes one eighth of the scale and Factory New seven eighths, which explains the premium.

Among the fourteen Classified M4A1-S finishes priced in this wear, the M4A1-S | Hot Rod is the dearest. The nearest to it, M4A1-S | Blue Phosphor, is cheaper by almost three times, while M4A1-S | Fatal Glitch and M4A1-S | Atomic Alloy sit much lower.

Getting the M4A1-S | Hot Rod

The M4A1-S | Hot Rod does not drop from cases. To get it by contract, you hand in ten skins of the rank below; from this collection those are the Restricted Dual Berettas | Duelist and SG 553 | Bulldozer. With ten taken from The Chop Shop Collection, the result comes from the same collection, and since it has two Classified skins, the odds are one in two.

StatTrak and Souvenir

The M4A1-S | Hot Rod has no StatTrak version and no Souvenir packages.

Stickers and craft on the M4A1-S | Hot Rod

The red lacquer takes white and black stickers, while red and orange ones vanish on it. The gray magazine is the only unpainted part, and a sticker reads differently there than on the red. For a sticker craft in CS2, the stock and the receiver are the handier spots.

Who this wear suits

The M4A1-S | Hot Rod is worth buying here if:

• you want chrome under red lacquer, almost as in Factory New;


• you want a red M4A1-S for a set in one color scheme;


• it matters that the 0.07 to 0.08 band leaves almost no spread between listings.