[woodcote]

   

Scalextric C4419 Jaguar Mk1 - BUY1 - Goodwood Revival 2021. RRP £49.99. Available now.

The Scalextric Jaguar Mk1 racer and Mk2 police car have hit the shelves just before Christmas. Both deserve to sell well as they are great subjects for slot cars and have been executed pretty well by the Scalextric team and the new factory in Vietnam...

   

I was kindly loaned a pre-production model (a final signed sample, the same as the production version) over a weekend in October, which was perfect timing for a trip to Goodwood. Although Grant Williams' BUY1 Jag has great pedigree in period (it came second at the 1959 Goodwood Easter Meeting, driven by Roy Salvadori) and has been raced at Goodwood Revival from 1998 onwards, it did not appear this September. That was because of this incident at the Festival of Speed in July...




I was marshalling about a hundred yards up the hill and those spectators were extremely lucky - the wheel just clipped the top of the hay bales, the impact throwing it up and taking away much of its momentum. Without that, the wheel would have entered the crowd at full speed and at head height. It was a freak accident, but Williams needed to be seen to have his wrist firmly slapped. Hopefully, this iconic car will be back at Revival in '24.

The Scalextric team were busy at Revival in 2021 taking pictures and colour swatches of the car - and the decoration is absolutely marvellous...

       

The mould is pretty good too, my only concerns being that the sides did bow out a little too much on my sample. Racers complain about tabs connecting body to chassis, but there is a sound aesthetic reason for them! The other aspect that doesn't look quite right to me is the central door posts, which look too wide between the two side windows - although it could be the dimensions are perfect, but a lack of pronounced panel lines gives us an unbroken patch of grey. A keen modeller can use a scalpel and an ink wash to improve that. Completely missing are front and rear quarter lights - not even a moulded line. I do think historic racers need these to look 100% legit.

   

Underneath, the car has a DPR hatch for easy conversion to digital, plus a cool ‘Jaguar’ cut-out over the in-line S-can motor. The guide is just ahead of the rear axle and there’s a traction magnet in front of the rear axle. I was surprised to find five body screws – although two of those are for the cockpit, which is independent of the body. The body itself weighs in at a svelte 21.9g, which will please racers looking to use a vac-formed tray interior. However, some work will be necessary to get a decent amount of body float – everything is rather tight, including a lot of excess spaghetti in the wiring loom.

   

On track, you’d hope those suitably skinny 6mm-wide slick tyres would offer up the sort of sideways action Grant Williams is famous for. With the magnet fitted, they don’t – the car is very nicely planted, but rolls when pushed too hard. However, with the magnet removed, the Jag is enormous fun! I needed to scuff up the tyres a bit to improve grip on Scalextric Sport track, but that was enough to get some great, controlled sliding action. The car is also very nippy and – with more work on the tyres and some well-placed ballast – I reckon the Jaguar will be a contender in the St Mary’s Trophy at our WHO/digital Goodwood Revival event in September. Fingers-crossed a new livery or two will appear in next year's line-up.

A big thank you to the Scalextric team for the loan of the sample. The BUY1 Jag is available from the Scalextric site here. An extended version of this review, plus a report from the 2023 WHO Goodwood Revival can be found in the November issue of Slot Car Magazine here. Merry Christmas!