Back in 2020 I wrote a ten-part series on the Jadlam blog about tuning a Scalextric car. My aim was to work through the steps for improving a standard Scalextric model by only using the parts that came in the box. I picked the new at the time Mustang GT4, because I thought there might be quite a lot of potential for improvement... And I wasn't wrong!

Jadlams have recently built a brand new website and the blog has gone. So I've dug out the images and text to post on the forum. I've had some good feedback over the years about the blog posts and I want to share the series with a new crop of Scalextric racers at my club, Worthing HO Racing.

There is a post introducing and linking to the blog posts on the SlotRacer forum here. I'll edit that once the posts are up on this thread.

These are the ten posts in the series...

• Scalextric Tuning 1: Parts of a Slot Car
  
• Scalextric Tuning 2: Tweaking a New Car
  
• Scalextric Tuning 3: Maintenance & Repairs
  
• Scalextric Tuning 4: Magnatraction
  
• Scalextric Tuning 5: Fixing Oversteer
  
• Scalextric Tuning 6: Fixing Understeer
  
• Scalextric Tuning 7: Body Float
  
• Scalextric Tuning 8: Using Upgrade Parts
  
• Scalextric Tuning 9: Removing the Magnet
  
• Scalextric Tuning 10: Developing a Race Car
  

I don't have the full text for a couple of the posts, so those will get re-written.

Pendles now has stock of the new BRM Porsche 911's.

Am I excited? Naa. 

   

After looking back and thinking I should have recorded what I did on the last track builds, I'll do it this time.


https://youtu.be/5GyEffj8hX0

With the overall shakedown of the Rallye Monte Carlo, today the 2026 WRC season kicked off.

35 Years ago, François Delecour made his debut in a works Ford Sierra Cosworth 4x4 at this Monegasque event.
To everyone’s surprise, he was leading at the end of the rally.
Unfortunately, he dropped back to third place overall after a ball joint in the rear suspension broke during the last special stage.
He was inconsolable, but for the future he had proven to be a formidable opponent.

At 3:04:



Just before last Christmas, Scalextric launched Delecour's legendary Q8-sponsored works Cosworth 4x4.
An excellent choice and well proportioned to scale 1:32.
It has four-wheel drive, just like the real car. Scalextric used an O-ring to drive the front wheels.
The rear wheels are driven by an inline motor.
The Scalextric Sierra's tyres have plenty of grip, allowing you to try and drift through the corners as sideways as Delecour.

Hub

       

       

A few years ago I bought some classic resin slush moulded bodies from ebay, they were all around £5- £8 each at auction. And I guess as they were not particularly popular subjects, the sales did not not last that long as the seller could not have made much out of them. So I made the most of purchasing as many as I could afford at the time and I have not seen them offered on ebay since.

The two below I found particularly interesting, I am sure the slush mouldings must have been copies of earlier resin body kits made by someone in the past, but I have never seen them since.

Anyway over Christmas I decided to build these two, as they were more or less the same colour in real life  so I used the same body paint.

Simca Gordini 8 
This car raced in a few National GP Sports car races and the Millie Miglia 1947
          

Peugeot 302 Darl'mat
"Darl'mat" I believe produced race tuned versions of Peugeot models at the time for the Le mans race.
This was quite successful on the Le mans Race of 1937
          

First of all, thanks to those who reported the latest batch of spam posts. Admin really appreciate your help, we always try to eliminate them as soon as possible and ban the perpetrators.

One small request - if there are a bunch of them from the same spammer there is no need to report each individual post. A single report is sufficient to notify admin and we will automatically wipe out the rest of them. This will save you time and effort in reporting multiple posts and will also keep our inboxes unclogged.

Thanks again and keep up the good work.

This morning an unexpected box of Proxy cars arrived from the USA, as I opened it my mind was racing,  "perhaps Brumos had sent my Le Mans car back due to some mechnical  failure or because it failed the rules ??" or perhaps one of our US based entrants had sent me his cars really early for the next UK proxy in April ???

No, it was actually the cars finally arriving from the USA Shelby Proxy last year 
The cars were both my own 2 and one for Oxo Cube which were posted together on the 23rd September 2025.

On route they had been accidentally sent by USPS to Bogatoh in Columbia, who then sent them onto Frankfurt in Germany and then onto ......?
So the tracking info died in Germany, and I had to give Oxo Cube the sad news that it looked like they had disappeared into the slot car black hole some time in November.

As usual at the time USPS could not give me any help once out of the country, and similarly nor could Royal Mail unless the cars appeared in the UK.

So I did not persue them any more and just kept my fingers crossed .

Then today they arrived 

   

After looking at the Scalextric releases for 2026 I fell to musing how much the slot scene has changed over the years.
I bought my first new Scalextric car in late 1975/early 1976, it was a C50 JPS Lotus 72 complete with the now outlawed cigarette branding and it cost me the princely sum of £5. For the time it was a very nice car, I still have it today and it continues to run well with it's original motor, albeit with replacement tyres. 

The 1975 catalogue listed a total of just 9 cars, none of which were new moulds that year. 1976 was a bit better with 4 new moulds and a total of 11 cars available. The only real competition in the UK were Airfix with a similar sized range of cars but most of these were made from moulds produced in the 60s and were not readily available in most toy shops. It was just about possible to obtain some of the Exin Spanish Scalextric cars but most people didn't even know they existed. Ninco, Fly, Slot.It etc would not arrive for at least another 20 years so the choice was somewhat limited to say the least.

Fast forward to 2026 and Scalextric has at least 50 cars slated for release this year, yes they cost in the region of £50 but I have checked the comparative value of a fiver in 1975 compared to today and £50 is not that far out. A peruse of Pendle's stock lists provides the staggering sum of nearly 1000 1/32 slot cars available for just the major brands of Scalextric, Carrera and Slot.It plus another 1000 for the multitude of smaller brands.

Regardless of what us boomers tell you, not everything was better 'back in  the day'!  Today’s enthusiast has never had it so good, enjoy it while it lasts.

   

The Slot Rally GB Championship is back following two very successful years after its re-launch. Last season saw the series concentrate on the south and west of the UK, which carries over to 2026...

• Sunday 15 February - Oxford Scalextric Club, Ramsden Memorial Hall, Ramsden, OX7 3AU
  
• Sunday 24 May - Farnborough Park Scalextric Club, St. Peter’s School, 60 Church Avenue, Farnborough, GU14 7AP
  
• Sunday 7 June - St Albans Slot Car Club, Margaret Wix Primary School, High Oaks, St Albans AL3 6EL
  
• Saturday 18 July - Worthing HO Racing, English Martyrs Catholic Church Hall, Goring Way, Goring-By-Sea, BN12 4UE
  
• Sunday 27 September - Abergavenny Slot Rally Club, Abergavenny Community Centre, Merthyr Road, Abergavenny NP7 5BY
  

The championship consists of five rounds, the best four to count for drivers registered for championship points - the registration fee is £5 per driver for the season. Event entry is £5 per car for up to four cars and a maximum of two in any class.

The events will run to national slot rally rules, 2026 championship rules and regs can be found below. All SRGB 2025  cars will remain eligible for 2026 with no modifications needed. Any rule changes largely relate to clarification regarding new products.

There will be a Targa Florio class for 2026, running as a fourth main class. This has replaced the Avant Slot Challenge, but these cars remain eligible in the main 80/90s class.

Our next swapmeet is coming up fast.

8th March sees slotcars flying into Wivelsfield village hall, West Sussex, once more.

Tables are available at £20 each with space for a backing table.

Limited edition car will be available on the day

Come along and see what bargains can be found, 

Our shop will also be open which is just a mile up the road

[img]www.weevilsslotcars.co.uk[/img]