13th-Aug-21, 08:25 AM
Scalextric C4221 Ford Mustang GT4 - Academy Motorsport - 2020 British GT Championship. RRP £46.99. Available August 2021
It's true that I have a bit of a thing about the Scalextric Mustang GT4 - I love them. They look great, handle well with a few tweaks - and that's with or without the magnet. They're just a lot of fun. Last year, Scalextric released the Multimatic and Race Performance cars from the 2019 British GT Championship. So far this year, we've had two nicely-executed fantasy liveries in the new Drift 360 set (see News item here) - and now we're waiting for a third British GT car...
The #61 Academy Motorsport car has been the sole Mustang running in the British GT Championship in 2020 and 2021. A former factory car - and still with Multimatic support - it was raced by Matt Cowley and Jordan Albert for the first six races of 2020, before Will Moore took over the seat from Albert. The Cowley-Moore pairing has continued into 2021.
The livery on the Scalextric model is that raced at the 2020 Brands Hatch 2-hour race, where Cowley and Albert won the GT4 class. Okay, it's another grey livery, but it's rather intricate with dozens of mustang horses creating a subtle, but eye-catching design at the front - almost a camouflage pattern at first glance. The livery then blends through grey to white at the back...
The coloured markings on the wheels look cool - and do give a tint to the entire rim when the car is racing. The livery has remained almost the same for 2021 - just a few small sponsors and series decals are different. The release comes at a perfect time, with Cowley and Moore winning GT4 in a wet Race 2 at Snetterton last Sunday - their best result of the year so far...
Another 2021 Scalextric release - the RAM Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo - took the overall win in that race. However, the Mustang's big 5.2-litre Ford V8 is by far the best sounding engine on the British GT grid - and it was exciting to watch in the changing track conditions! Here are some sights and sounds from Snetterton...
Underneath, the Scalextric Academy Motorsport model is identical to the two GT4 cars released in 2020 - inline S-Can, Digital Plug Ready, lights front and back, plus the standard easy-change guide. The rear grip isn't good out of the box. Scuffing up the tyres improves things, but still offers plenty of satisfying tail-out action - important with a relatively top-heavy car like this. Because the Mustang is a bit quirky and needs some tweaking, I used it as the subject of a basic Scalextric tuning series I wrote for the Jadlam blog here.
The Academy Motorsport car is on my shopping list - and it's expected in the next week or two. Those who bought it on pre-order will pay less than the rest of us. Scalextric have recently hiked their prices by 10%, a move that puts the Scalextric website price over the £45 mark. Club membership discounts - and loyalty programmes at independent retailers - will lower that price. I suspect the reasons for the mid-year price rise - higher production costs in a chaotic Far East - will impact on all consumer goods manufactured in China and neighbouring countries in the run up to Christmas. The demand for production is simply outstripping the factory space available - a combination of western economies rebounding and companies placing more orders, while new Covid outbreaks are knocking out factories and their supply chains. Hmm... in the big scheme of things, not exactly the end of the world. Some Scalextric models may be delayed - but the entire 2021 catalogue will be delivered.
![[+]](https://slotracer.online/community/images/bootbb/collapse_collapsed.png)