THERE’S PROBABLY NOT A READER of this magazine who didn’t grow up with Scalextric, and just as with full-size cars there’s been a surge of interest in historic slot cars, which can be just as much fun to play with as anything new – as long as it isn’t so precious you wouldn’t dare unleash it around your sitting-room Silverstone.
As far back as 1912 Lionel introduced a system in the US with a rail instead of a slot, and between the wars there were other attempts, one backed by racer Tim Birkin. But slot racing, appearing in the 1950s, really took off in the ’60s. A new book Slot Car Dreams illustrates a huge variety in the US in 1:24 and 1:32 scale from Cox, Strombecker, Russkit etc, plus Aurora’s smaller HO system, while in France Circuit 24 was the favourite. Cox’s 1:24 Chaparral with tilting wing is one to hunt, but over here 1:32 dominated, with Scalextric the undoubted leader.