On to the track then but a disclaimer first. All Scalextric cars are designed for use on their own track with magnet fitted so I never expect them to be perfect on my copper taped mdf home track. I also test them from the point of view of the average home user who just wants to run the cars out of the box without modification. I do the bare minimum preparation, just a bit of lubrication and running in.

First thing to note is that the tyres are a huge improvement on previous efforts, not quite up to aftermarket standards but adequate grip and by no means disastrous. However the first run was not encouraging - flattened the throttle down the straight and it bounced straight out of the slot! The Ninco hop returns. I loosened the body screws a tad which helped but didn't eliminate it. Eventually I had to turn the acceleration knob on my controller right down to tame it which didn't help the overall lap times as it was quite slow leaving the corners.  

Once sorted I could turn lap times in the region of 6.8 secs on my 50ft track which is a bit slow but not actually terrible. It didn't tip over at any point but did suffer from the usual random terminal understeer which is a trademark of their guide system so I couldn't really push it to extremes as I never knew when it would decide to throw itself at the scenery. I will have to fit an aftermarket guide to overcome this at some point. I did just manage to get it to corner on two wheels on a few occasions though which brought back memories of the real thing!

Not the world's greatest performer on track but I never expected it to be a rocket ship. It is a super rendition of the 1:1 version and is flying off the dealers' shelves so other people must view it with the same affection as myself. I confess to having a large grin on my face as I played with it and I am now off to find a 1/32 border collie to put in the back!

As these are Carrera cars I knew roughly what to expect - excellent quality, heavy, solidly built cars that are not the world's greatest performers on track and so it proved.

The four Hendrick Motorsport cars have been released and I bought the Chase Elliot #9 and Kyle Larson #5 versions. Alex Bowman's #48 and William Byron's #24 cars are also available.

These are well up to Carrera’s usual standards, beautifully finished with no blemishes whatsoever. NASCAR sponsors change from race to race so it is virtually impossible to check full authenticity of these liveries but they look near perfect to my eye with all the major sponsors covered. I suspect they are based on early season races as they don't have the little chequered flag decals indicating race wins. Later season cars would have one on Chase Elliott's car and several on Kyle Larson's. 

Things started to get a little weird when I opened the cars though.