Digging into the past and re-visiting an old swapmeet.
Ann Evans races around the Slot Car Show at the Heritage Motor Museum.
If you were lucky enough to have owned an original Scalextric set back in 1957, it would have cost your parents the grand sum of £5.17s. 6d., the equivalent of £120 in today’s money. And if you were one of those fortunate youngsters and you’d taken care of your Scalextric track and cars – and the box, of course, then now you’d probably be able to sell it for around £1,500 should you want to.
There would certainly be plenty of interested buyers if the two-day Slot Car Show held at The Heritage Motor Museum, Gaydon, was anything to go by. The event was a roaring success with lots going on for slot car enthusiasts and their families including rally stages, oval banger racing, a drag strip, Ho tracks, digital lay-outs, a massive retail area, trade stands, NSCC Live, interviews, product launches and Scalextric for schools.
Looking back to the history of Scalextric, it originates from the Scalex brand, owned by Minimodels Ltd. Originally it was a clockwork powered race car system that first appeared in 1952. The inventor was Mr B “Freddie” Francis who unveiled his new Scalextric cars and track at the Harrogate Toy Fair in 1957. The name was derived from ‘Scalex’ plus ‘electric’ and proved to be immensely popular. Because of the huge demand for these sets, Lines Brothers Ltd, who was trading under the name ‘Tri-ang’, took over control of this range of toys. The track, which was originally made from a rubber compound, became moulded plastic in 1965.
These days there are many different manufacturers of slot cars and tracks. At the Gaydon show visitors could meet other manufacturers such as Carrera, SCX, Slot.it, NSR Slotfire and many others. For the fans, there was plenty of opportunity to swap, buy and sell cars as well as meet other likeminded enthusiasts plus, of course, play for free on the variety of different of tracks that were there.
Certainly the largest track at the show was the 9m x 9m layout designed by Martin Brundle, Sky Sports F1 expert and former Formula 1 racing driver, and built by Scalextric – the biggest it has ever created. The 45m long track represented 40 turns, chicanes and straights from Formula 1 racing tracks around the world, such as Casino Square at Monaco and Silverstone’s Copse. It was attracting plenty of attention as visitors lined up to try their skills around such famous twists and turns.
The National Scalextric Collectors Club was supporting the event, with displays and talks by experts throughout the two days. Chairman, Martin Baines told the Gazette: “The NSCC has been going since 1980 when around 30 Scalextric enthusiasts got together to share their interest in collecting, racing and playing with Scalextric. Today it has members all over the world, and incorporates all makes of slot cars, past and present and other aspects of the hobby.”
There were lots of different slot car clubs at the show, and the Gazette chatted to members of the Phoenix Scalextric Circuit based near Studley, Warwickshire. They had brought along one of their more portable tracks, with their main racing track being over 150 feet long that has fully computerised race management and scenic accessories.
Ben Brown told the Gazette: “It was the largest in Europe with six lanes. We hold racing nights every week as well as special family oriented days. The track we’ve brought along today is pre
1980s. It’s an old classic scale track. When you race on this you’re not just racing flat out, you get more control. It’s more child friendly. This layout took three months to build and the cars are Ninco Rally Cars.”
The club members are firm believers in up-cycling, and their landscapes are made from all kinds of throwaway items. “It was a group effort to create this layout,” said Ben. “For example we’ve used paper mache for the hills, and goldfish bowl gravel for some of the textured ground. Nothing gets thrown away! We also paint the cars with mud spatters so they look like they’re in a rally.”
Committee member, Richard Morrow added: “Some of this track is 1970s and 80s. This is one of the most durable tracks to drive on. We run events and races for all levels at our club. Plus we have fun events for birthday parties and even hen nights.”
For those who like the speed, there were plenty of opportunities to race against the clock in speed trials, with one of the competitions offering a complete Scalextric set to the winner over the period of the show.
We also chatted to brothers Steve and Dave Mann who are avid Minic Motorway Enthusiasts.
Back in the 1960s Triang produced Minic Motorways as a companion to the Tri-ang Railways system. The range included MinicRail items that enabled the two systems to be used together. For Steve and Dave, their love of slot cars stems from childhood.
“Over the last 15 years, we’ve started to build on what we had as kids,” said Steve. “I’ve always been a bit of a hoarder, although I regret selling my Action Men! But I always kept my Minic toys probably because I’ve always dreamed of doing something like his.
“To begin with Minic sets and cars were very difficult to get hold of. Nowadays with eBay there is more of it about – usually in January and usually in a bad state of repair. You spend hours sorting it all out, the track has to be stripped down to the plastic and copper, and you have to refurbish the cars. They generally need new tyres as they go hard, and new brushes in the motors. But over the years you build up contacts and are able to get the spare parts that you need.”
At the show, there was everything for the slot car enthusiast, from complete sets to brand new boxed vehicles, some being exclusive limited editions, replicas of a huge range of popular and powerful cars – not all being the traditional racing cars. You could buy saloons towing caravans to race around your track, or vintage cars, lorries, double decker buses. You name it, and chances are you could find it.
Some enthusiasts enjoy scratch building their slot cars from old diecasts or there were lots of kits to be had. Perhaps one of the most unusual stands was that belonging to Martin De’Ath. He has scratch built and converted around 200 slot vehicles – not all being cars. Far from it in fact! Martin had a slotDougal, a slot-duck, a slot ice-cream van – even a slot-trainer, which Martin jokingly calls ‘Nike Rider’.
The one thing that became obvious as you explored the show, slot cars are for all ages, men and women of all abilities and you can take it as a serious competitive hobby, or just as fun. You can spend a small fortune on it, or keep spending to a minimum, recycle and reuse. But whatever level you decide to involve yourself within the slot car scene, you certainly won’t be alone.