[woodcote]

The Classic Touring Car range has been rather special over the past few years - and 2023 continues that trend with three newly-tooled cars, plus the Escort WRC shared with the rally range...

   

The highlight for me is the Jaguar Mk1 - which oozes Goodwood Revival chic and is an elaborate and complex bit of tooling - 3D scanned from the BUY1 car - that will provide plenty of options for future releases. Powered by an in-line Mabuchi S can and fitted with suitably skinny wheels, this should be a fun car to race. The first livery is Grant Williams’ famous ‘BUY1’ Jag from the 2021 Goodwood Revival, but with heritage going back to 1959 as one of seven modified Mk1s built by Jaguar for racing. Bought and raced by his grandfather, BUY1 has remained in the family for over sixty years and was restored to compete at the inaugural Goodwood Revival in 1998. A second Jag appears in the catalogue as a Mk2 police car.

   

Certainly nudged by Australian Scalextric fans, but embraced by Scalextric as a fully-fledged worldwide release, is the Holden VL Commodore SS. A rival of the Group A BMW M3 and Sierra RS500 in the 1987 World Touring Car Championship, the Commodore inherited the win at Monza, finished an impressive fourth at Spa and were declared winners at the Bathurst 1000 in a season that was blighted by disqualifications. The Scalextric car carries the Rothmans livery of Allan Moffat and John Harvey that finished fourth at the 24 hours of Spa-Francorchamps. The model is powered by an inline Mabuchi S can motor and has similar dimensions to the BMW and Sierra - making this late-80s Group A line-up a three-way affair.

   

There’s another new-ish Escort in the pipeline - a Mk1 RSR. The Scalextric model uses the same chassis (and FF motor) as the standard Mk1, but the body tooling is modified extensively. In real life, the MK1 RSR typically uses a space-frame chassis with wildly modified bodywork that keeps the face and general proportions of a Mk1 Escort. Various ‘RSR’ Escorts have raced in modified saloon series going back to the late-70s and 80s. The first model captures former BTCC driver Lea Wood’s RSR with its Marlboro colour scheme - expect to see this car in the Modified Ford Series this season.

       

Then there’s Rod Birley’s Ford Escort Cosworth WRC mentioned in the rally section that is already a front-runner in the Modified Ford Series. The Scalextric model is 4WD as is the real car. A third Modified Ford Series race car in the catalogue is a Tony Paxman’s ‘standard’ Escort Mk1 in light blue.

In addition to these, there are absolutely loads of new liveries…

       

The Mk3 Capri gets the Belga livery of 1978 Spa 24-hours winners Gordon Spice and Teddy Pilette, plus Ric Wood’s classic Gitanes car that is a feature at the Goodwood Members’ Meeting. The Belga car has the period Spa livery, not one of the several Belga-liveried modern historic racers.

       

Scalextric are producing some great Spa 24-hour cars and there’s another Camaro Z28 - this time the black and green BBL liveried Chevy driven by Michel de Deyne, Teddy Pilette and ‘Davit’ at the 1981 race. The car qualified sixth, but failed to finish. The Chrysler Hemicuda gets a Le Mans livery - the Michel Guicherd entered car that failed to qualify for the 1975 race. This yellow and black livery was produced by SCX, but the Scalextric model will have the extra driving lights and the correct wheels. This is the first of three 1975 Le Mans cars in this year's catalogue.

       

Another Mustang is due soon - this is a black and gold historic racer which has been prepared in the UK to emulate one the 1,001 ’Rent-a-Racer’ Mustangs that Carroll Shelby and Hertz car rental produced for hire at North American race track and drag strips in 1966. Many were finished in the Raven Black with Sunlit Gold stripes that feature on the Scalextric model. This is due very soon. There’s also a rather nice Benson & Hedges Bathurst BMW E30 M3 - the car that Tony Longhurst and Johnny Cecotto took to fourth place at the 1992 Tooheys 1000. I’ve lost track of how many of the Group A M3s Scalextric have produced, but there are some great examples still to do - and this one will especially please fans down-under and collectors of Bathurst models.

       

Although we’re still waiting for Richard Longman’s 1978 BTCC-winning Mini 1275GT, we now know it’ll be joined by Alan Curnow’s Datapost-liveried version that he raced in 1979. Replicas of both Minis feature in the Gerry Marshall Trophy at the Goodwood Members’ Meeting. Another second racing livery on a 2022 car that’s yet to arrive is a Marlboro TWR Rover SD1 that was raced successfully in period by René Metge and Jean-Louis Schlesser in the 1983 and ‘84 French production car championship. The car has recently been restored to its original livery for historic racing and has also appeared at Goodwood in the Gerry Marshall Trophy.

   

Finally in this section (I think!) is a Mini Miglia in NAPA colours - this one was raced by Lewis Selby in the 2021 championship.