[woodcote]

These are the final batch of new models - the Street Cars category includes a variety of different models this year, with drift, muscle, supercars and police vehicles. Plus the Land Rover I mentioned right at the start!

       

The Castrol-sponsored Mustang GT4 features the 360-degree drift guide and electronics - and makes a stunning addition to the popular Drift 360 set. Like the cars in the set, the livery is not a real one, but inspired by schemes and sponsors from the drift scene. Another green car is a very tasty Dodge Charger RT in Sublime Green - a nice addition to the catalogue for muscle car collectors.

       

Two new police cars utilise the new Jaguar saloon car tooling with a superbly-detailed classic 1960s Jaguar Mk2 patrol car, plus there’s a Ford RS200 Police Edition. Although the Group B rally car never saw service as a Police vehicle, Ford created this version in 1986 and staged a mock-up ‘stop’ on the A12 near Brentwood in Essex, where the RS200 was developed. It certainly looks good. Both police cars have flashing lights, but no siren.

       

This year’s rather cute VW T1b panel van has a 50s / 60s Michelin theme. The van is a little early to go with another Lamborghini Countach S2 road car - this time in a striking dark blue and gold, a road car owned by Walter Wolf.

   

One last car is a second Gulf livery, this time on the McLaren 720S. That's just two Gulf products this year - maybe that well is going dry?

Finally, there are no new additions to the Super Resistant range. The existing cars will stay in production to create a stable range of entry-level, budget-priced cars. These are not collectibles, but toys - and so longevity in the catalogue is considered more important than new models. For everything else - apart from some of the TV & Film range - Scalextric wants new cars to be snapped up and out of the catalogue the following year. It’s a business model that seems to be working well for them at the moment.

Of course, a massive thanks goes to Simon and his Scalextric team for helping out with this in-depth review at SlotRacer Online. And congratulations to everyone at Hornby for another great catalogue. Don't forget there'll be more announcements to come during the year - including Scalextric Club exclusives, the Australian cars and maybe a few mid-year additions to the range.

   


The report over, I'm going to have to consider all these new releases very carefully and come up with a budget-conscious wish list for my 2023 purchases. The Land Rover definitely stands out, but so does the Jaguar, Séb Loeb's Puma, the Lotus 79, Brabham BT46 and the Gerry Marshall Lotus. Then there's FAB1 and the Goldfinger cars too, and those new GT liveries, both classic and modern. Oh boy, it won't be easy!