[woodcote]

Next, it was a toss-up between touring cars and TV & Film - with awesome new tooling in both. Let’s do TV first….

   

Scalextric have produced another massive car for their TV & Film range. Lady Penelope’s FAB1 is one of the iconic vehicles of the small screen for those of us who grew up with Gerry Anderson’s fabulous all-action shows...



The pink six-wheeled Rolls Royce still looks futuristic and Scalextric have included both Parker and Lady Penelope, plus a fully-detailed interior, meaning the sidewinder motor is tucked away behind the rear axle. There are no guns or missiles, but this is an exquisite 1:32 scale model - and absolutely huge! Two FAB1s will just about race side-by-side on Scalextric Sport track. Expect lots of Thunderbirds packaging.

A second jaw-dropping new model is the latest Batmobile. Based on a modern muscle car shape - and with a nod to horror-movie cars like Christine - the V8-powered vehicle was driven by Robert Pattinson’s caped crusader in last year’s The Batman movie...



This latest Batmobile has proved a hit with fans - and is likely to return in the two planned sequels and a tie-in television series.

   

For everyone thrilled by last year’s Bluesmobile, there’s a Chicago Police Dodge Monaco to go with it. This has working lights, but no siren. Real Blues Brothers fans will want at least a dozen to replicate those iconic chases!

And then there are three James Bond cars, two from ‘Goldfinger' and another from ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’.

   

The Goldfinger Aston Martin DB5 - with all the gadgets - has been released before. However, this most iconic film car ever will now be available in the Scalextric catalogue every year as model C4436 in a standard plastic box and with modern 007 packaging. The Scalextric team have decided to make a small number of ‘A-line’ models permanent fixtures in the range, so newcomers to the hobby don’t have to fork out £100+ on eBay for what should be the cornerstone of any collection.

   

A second 'Goldfinger' car is the Mustang convertible driven in the film by the ill-fated character Tilly Masterson...



Ford were desperate to get their yet-to-be-released Mustang into the new Bond film and it was Alan Mann who got the sole pre-production convertible to the Furka Pass in time for shooting the scenes on 11 July 1964. Young rally driver - and future Ralliart boss - Andrew Cowan acted as stunt driver, wearing a wig and trying to hunker down into the car as much as possible. Although model Tania Mallet - who played Tilly Masterson - was quite tall, Cowan was taller. The Mustang was painted in Wimbledon White, although it has yellowed in some older prints of the film.

Scalextric have produced a new female figure for the Mustang - rather than gluing a wig on a big Scotsman.  In addition to Lady Penelope, the team believe these are the first female figures to be tooled for a Scalextric car.

   

Finally, there’s the ‘Wet Nellie’ version of the Lotus Esprit from ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’. Although a slot car rather than a bath-time toy, there’s some new tooling here to make the Esprit look just like the submarine in the film. As with the Goldfinger cars, ‘Wet Nellie’ is packaged in a standard clear plastic case with Bond artwork. Don't worry about those fins - the Esprit is such a small car that the submarine fits perfectly on Sport track...

[Top Down]

Out of your sequence Andy but I love the Goodwood Mk1 Jag. Not sure it'll make a good racer but what the heck!

[BAracer]

All I can think about is the Landy body sitting on a Mitoos raid chassis!

[BAracer]

And some nice re-liveries in the catalogue!

[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.

[rallyhub]

I am very happy Scalextric is back in rallying. Cannot wait to test their new four wheel drive cars. That Ford Escort of Hannu Mikkola RAC Rally 1971 is a must have!
Great report, Andy,

Hub

[woodcote]

Now lets have a look at the Classic GT and Prototypes...

   

A usurper from the Gulf-themed section is a bit of a surprise - a Le Mans winner that has been designed to be a decent slot racer. Scalextric’s Gulf-Mirage GR8 has a flat chassis, sidewinder Mabuchi S can and promises to be one of the best Scalextric racers out of the box. Naturally, the first livery is of the Jacky Ickx - Derek Bell car that won the 1975 Le Mans 24 hours. It will be packaged in a clear plastic case with ‘ACO Winner’ branding. I haven't had a close at the prototype yet, but I hope to soon.

   

More new tooling sees a reworking of their 330 P4 / 412P to create what Scalextric are calling the ‘Daytona 1967 Car 23’ - a model of the 330 P3/4 Spyder that won the 1967 Daytona 24 hours in the hands of Lorenzo Bandini and Chris Amon. The car will initially be released as part of a 1967 Daytona 24 triple pack with the #24 P4 coupé and #26 412P - an utterly fabulous special edition pack (2,000 units) for all Ferrari, Daytona and classic sports car fans.

   

Another must-have is this Gerry Marshal Lotus Esprit S1 Turbo that the big man raced at Silverstone in 1981. Originally the spare car from 'For Your Eyes Only', the Esprit was race prepared by Andy Rouse for owner-driver Pete Hall - who also let Marshall have a go from time to time. It’s a car that Gerry enjoyed so much that he bought it in 1983 and is one that fans definitely enjoyed watching him race. Heavy and with overheating rear brakes, the ex-works Esprit brought Marshall success in production sports car racing through the 80s.

       

Also in this category are two new Goodwood Revival Cobra liveries and two classic Porsche 911 RSR 3.0 racers. The Snake Eyes and Dragon Snake Cobras have become popular sights at the West Sussex circuit, the purple car prepared by Mike and Andrew Jordan for Mike Whitaker. The real car has been converted to right-hand-drive, but the driver on the model will remain on the left.

       

The white Porsche is a Harley Davidson-sponsored car from the 1975 Le Mans 24 hours, driven by ‘Beurlys’, Nick Faure and John Cooper to sixth place and second in class. The blue car has the classic Wallys Jeans livery, complete with stitching - it doesn’t get much more 70s than that. This was prepared by Kremer and raced primarily by Cees Sievertsen in 1975. It is now a popular historic racer.

Next up, some modern GT and touring cars...

[woodcote]

There is no new tooling in the Modern Touring & GT categories this year, but there are nice new liveries on some of Scalextric’s recent offerings...

       

BTCC fans will be mildly disappointed, as usual. There are two 2022 liveries - Josh Cook’s black and gold Honda Civic FK8 is paired with Scalextric brand ambassador Jake Hill’s Rokit-sponsored BMW 330i. There are a lot of black cars on the BTCC grid these days, but these are stunners. The perennial question is why Scalextric doesn't produce a whole BTCC grid - or at least a much larger range of cars? As the Scalextric team often points out, the market for BTCC cars is solely in the UK, which doesn’t make them good sellers. A new model every couple of years, plus a handful of liveries is probably all we can expect, despite the excellent social media buzz created by the drivers and the teams for Scalextric.

GT racing is a global phenomenon with an ever-growing fan base. With some big changes coming to the sport over the next few years, Scalextric have held back on new tooling and concentrated on a bunch of great liveries...

       

The Ford Mustang GT4 is back with a great Multimatic Motorsport livery, the car driven by Marco Signoretti on his way to a title-winning season in the 2021 Sports Car Championship Canada. There’s also an eye-catching livery on the updated Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo - GT Cup fan-favourite Grahame Tilley swapping his legendary Nissan GT-R for this front-running red Merc, which he shared with Will Tregurtha.

       

There are two new liveries on the new-for-2022 Porsche 911 GT3R - both featuring light blue and black, although the finishes are quite different. The shiny Redline Racing car has red and green highlights and was raced to fifth place by James Dorkin and Alex Malykhin at the 2022 British GT round at Spa-Francorchamps, the car borrowed from German team Allied Racing. The second Porsche was a regular entry in the 2022 British GT Championship - the Team Parker Racing 911 was raced by Nick Jones and Scott Malvern, who scored four top-ten finishes during the season. This second car features a gloss and matt finish. Both these should get some good coverage from the British GT social media team today. Scalextric are working on licensing agreements with overseas teams to get a wider range of liveries on the GT cars, but it’s often a hard process - hence the mostly UK-based liveries this year.

   

However, the last of the new GT liveries is from the other side of the globe - an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 that was raced by Ronan Murphy and John Penny in the 2022 Golden Homes North Island Endurance Series. Okay, it’s rather an obscure New Zealand championship, but the livery is as close as you’ll get to the works AMR LMGTE Vantage. It’ll certainly glow in the dark on any Scalextric race track!

[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!

[sabre]

Thanks for the nice summary! The Land Rover looks very promising.