[woodcote]

Let's get the new Civic on my Jadlam SL6 test track - 35-feet long, lots of Radius 2 corners, plus a four-and-a-half foot straight... a typical 8x4 home track...

       

With the magnet still in place, the car was fun to drive. The grip wasn't all magnetic - so none of that all-or-nothing feel and being launched into the scenery. When the rear stepped out, it did so in a predictable way and was always quite easy to catch before de-slotting. Just what I want from a magnet car. In terms of performance, 25 laps in two minutes and a best of 4:46 seconds from a totally stock, out-of-the-box car is absolutely on the money. Last year's BMW 330i managed 26 laps and 4.36 seconds on the same track about 12 months ago.

I removed the magnet - which came out without any fuss - and added a pair of NSR Supergrips to the rear wheels and 1.5g of weight in front of the motor. This is the easiest way to get a comparison with other similar non-mag cars - especially as I was handing the car back and couldn't mess with the stock tyres. The car remained fun to drive on the tight and twisty layout. When I pushed the car hard, the back stepped out rather than any tipping going on. I could push the car surprisingly hard - the handling was stable and predictable...

       

With the ARC app timing 2-minutes, I immediately banged in two 22-lap runs with fastest laps of 5:32 and 5:25 seconds - definitely in amongst the better non-mag Scalextric cars on that layout. How did it match up against my WHO/digital Civic Type-R (FK2)?

       

The answer surprised me - the new car was a better drive. Yes, my race car is set up for longer layouts, has no ballast and is fitted with Slot.it P6 tyres on the rear and zero grips on the front. It wasn't exactly a like-for-like comparison. A first run saw 20 laps and a best of 5:63 seconds. More practice and a second timed run improved things to 22 laps and a best of 5:30 seconds. That's close to the new car, but it took some effort - and the new car was simply easier to drive.

Of course, we'll have to see if that handling and performance scales up to long, flowing club layouts... but the home-track test is certainly encouraging. I'll stick with the 'old' Civic for this season, but - if the new car is available in time - I fancy preparing an FK8 for some testing at the final race in December. Do I switch to the Halfords livery or stay with the grey and pink of BTC Racing? These are the two cars scheduled for release in the autumn...

   
C4317 Honda Civic Type R - BTCC 2021 - Jade Edwards

   
C4297 Honda Civic Type R - BTCC 2021 - Gordon Shedden

Hmm... I've got a few months to make up my mind.

A big thanks to the Scalextric team for loaning me the sample car.