Fancyracingscalextricinthewet?

Scalextric recently unveiled its latest innovation, the ARC powerbase.

Standing for App Race Control, the new system is designed to bring new elements of race data and management to your living room.

Available in three different price points – from basic, to the wireless ARC Air and the top-level ARC Pro setup – the kits allow you to race up to six cars on the same track and throw in multiple different elements to spice up the racing.

The system can simulate outside influences like tyre wear, punctures and pace cars, and even brings wet weather into play for the first time.

“The idea with ARC is that it syncs your Scalextric set to your smartphone and gives the user a whole new world of data and race management,” explains Darren Nye.

“We always try to make our products new and relevant, and the ARC system is probably the biggest change for a decade.

“During a race you can programme the system to know specific things about your car. It will know that you’ve started on dry tyres, but may randomly introduce rain into the race, which will be triggered by lights and sounds via your phone app. If you’re still on dry tyres, by varying the current, ARC can make your cars automatically slow and become harder to control to simulate the loss of grip. Once you pit, the system registers that you have stopped to ‘change tyres’ and will restore performance. It adds a new experience to the races.

“The system is all digital and can log everything from tyre wear, lap times, reaction times and even give you data graphs on your performance. It opens a whole new world for Scalextric.”