[woodcote]

Of course Hornby are first-and-foremost a model railway company. However, they have invested a lot in Scalextric to get it ship-shape since the change of owners. The new Micro Scalextric system was long overdue and has really hit the mark with the key young family market. Hornby don't release specific sales figures, but if you go to Amazon (or other retail sites that rank sales), you can see how well Micro and My First Scalextric sell. For Scalextric, they are by far the best-selling sets. With the new improved system, there's also an improved profit margin.

The other main market is collectors, for which the new owners are delivering a feast of new cars - specifically more new tooling every year than we've seen in a long while. Despite all the production and distribution hurdles of pandemic, the new tooling for each of 2020, 2021 and 2022 will be more than 2019. The Scalextric team have said that the 2021 catalogue should be seen as what to expect, not an exception. The issue at the moment, is delivering those new cars to the customers - all the development (as shown in the programme) is in place.

Despite not providing huge sales for Hornby, home racers certainly aren't ignored. Even high-budget, low volume stuff like digital is persevered with - although that seems to have sold well during the pandemic to people looking for a 'stay-at-home' hobby. Spark Plug is very different - aimed at that young family market.

As for club racers - we are really are a tiny niche... And tiny niche companies are best suited to cater for those specific - and rapidly changing - demands. However, as Mr M pointed out, there many clubs (our own included) that enjoy tuning Scalextric cars and seeing what we can do with them. There are similar crazy people in real motor sport who'd always choose to grab a production Škoda to develop than buy a race-prepared Porsche GT.

Apart from the Countach (and the rumoured FK8 Civic), we'll have to wait to January to see what's new from Scalextric  for 2022. Expect a full reveal here on SlotRacer Online.

[Pioneer]

As Brian pointed out earlier, I was astonished to see a couple of heavily modified Pioneer Slot Cars (yellow Mustang and Black Camaro) whizzing around the Tyneside Slot club track. Been scratching my head trying to work out if that was deliberate or simply that nobody noticed. If nobody on the production team or nobody at Hornby HQ noticed then that is a real howler.

I might have a look back through some of the earlier programmes and see if I can spot a Revell Spitfire in the Airfix episode. 'Other model airplane kits are also available'.

Jules

[Anthony B]

To be honest, I am sure that Hornby did not check the final run and left it to the production company.  Your cars looked great BTW.

I mean most of Brian lee's cars shown on the shelves were his lovely handbuilt cars.

I wonder id all the train stuff shown was hornby as well??

[Nonfractal]

If nobody on the production team or nobody at Hornby HQ noticed then that is a real howler.

Jules

A howler certainly,
I can't imagine Hornby intended to 
Either 
- pass Pioneer cars off as their own
Or
- promote pioneer cars in a program about Hornby products.

A lack of attention from the model train company again.
Total lack of respect for Hornby since Simon referred to slot cars as "toys" in this documentary.
Clubs, rules, venues, competition, timings, championships, awards, trophies
Looks like a sport to me...
A lot more like a sport than playing with model trains at home.

I've been looking for a pair of US muscle cars to race but none of the current manufacturers produce chassis with floating motor mounts. 
Good bodies sold separately (for 3d retrofit) are hard to find in muscle cars.
Roll on Milton Keynes swap meet 

AlanW

[CMOTD]

I wonder if all the train stuff shown was Hornby as well??

Certainly not. The biggest example (sic) was Britain's largest layout which took up a considerable part of one episode and was exclusively Heljan 'O' gauge.

[Scuderia_Turini]

I watched most of Episode 10 earlier. The Scalextric moments were pretty standard stuff - "Everything is awesome".  
I recall from a previous tv show that Simon K had gone to visit an enhanced reality company with a view to making Scalextric compete more with video gaming but there was zero mention of that aspect.

Leo

[dvd3500]

I work in software and the combining VR and real life is no trivial task.

I personally don't like comparing slot cars and computer games but I really don#t have a good answer either...

[Alistair Barnes]

As Brian pointed out earlier, I was astonished to see a couple of heavily modified Pioneer Slot Cars (yellow Mustang and Black Camaro) whizzing around the Tyneside Slot club track. Been scratching my head trying to work out if that was deliberate or simply that nobody noticed. If nobody on the production team or nobody at Hornby HQ noticed then that is a real howler.

I might have a look back through some of the earlier programmes and see if I can spot a Revell Spitfire in the Airfix episode. 'Other model airplane kits are also available'.

Jules

Hey Jules, Tyneside Slot Car club is me, I was the guy on the TV, Callum is my Son, they were his Pioneer cars, one more modified than the other.

To answer your question, yes the production company knew, I actually made a point in saying that a routed wood track and a range of slot cars wasn't for sure a true representation of Scalextric. The vibe they wanted however was showing where it can lead to, it being a toy in the house to a custom built slot car raced at a club with members.

They said the series was created due to a re-kindling of interested across the brand and wanted to promote and demonstrate the fun associated with that, so they weren't that bothered it wasn't actuall Scalextric branded cars.

Brian Lee who also featured with his scratch built cars as well as his Scalextric collection, is a member of the club and races regularly

All good fun !!, Cheers

AL

[dvd3500]

A lot of the train stuff was also not Hornby or even in a scale Hornby makes...
So par for the course methinks.

[Tibbs]

The history of Scalextric is littered with attempts to cater to the "serious racer" market. Race-Tuned, CK1 & 2, SRS, Protec & PCR come immediately to mind, there may be more. Most haven't lasted for very long. So perhaps it is time that they just stuck to their, larger core market. 

It's not like the serious racers haven't got plenty of choice of makers to cater to their needs.

At our club, we are quite happy to race Scalextric stuff, as well as other makes. We choose our classes democratically, and often they are heavily Scalextric based. Even our biggest NSR fan chose a Hornby class on his last pick. 

Last Thursday was our picking night for the first six weeks of next year and 3 of the 4 chosen are standard Scalextric only. On the last race of the night I made a last second decision to try and film it on my mobile phone. 

Oh my god that is 5 minutes from my house.