There's always room for improvement
Welcome to this month's Test Track blog, bringing you the latest behind-the-scenes news from Scalextric. We hope that those of you who took the plunge with ARC AIR are up and running, enjoying all the new features with the powerbase. For anyone who’s still unsure we’d definitely recommend reading the last edition of Test Track (if you haven’t already!) before making up your mind. Plus there’s a bit more ARC AIR info for you today!
In this instalment of Test Track we wanted to focus on some of the improvements our Development team have been making to Scalextric cars right out the box (or should I say display case?). While we’ve covered PCR and the options that offers, our Developers have been hard at work looking at how we can get the most out of the Scalextric cars themselves without making any modifications (or very small ones).
You’ll see below that there’s been a lot of changes, a number of which will look fairly minor, but when you add them all up, the results are pretty impressive. These improvements should appeal to collectors who race at their local club (allowing their favourite car to compete), but also to those racers who may not even leave the house to race. Faster times and better handling is something we can all enjoy, no matter who the competition is!
The Development team had been investigating and looking into the possibility of making performance changes to Scalextric cars for some time. Looking at the feedback we’d received from well… just about everywhere, showed that many collectors wanted Scalextric to have more of an edge on the track. While PCR offers a huge leap forward in this regard, the Developers felt like they could do more with what slot racers receive in the display case. As a large number of slot racers and slot racing clubs are limited in the changes they can make to their cars, this would help Scalextric make more of an impact on the podium for these collectors.
More detailed feedback was sought from a number of different sources to get specific details on what racers would change to get a better slot racing car. The collectors and experts who offered their feedback were fantastic in guiding our Developers, confirming a number of their suspicions, but also raising new ideas. While not everything suggested was possible, there were a large number of changes that almost everyone agreed upon and so our Development team set about making the changes a reality.
You may be tempted to think that a number of these changes are incredibly simple, surely the Development team just changed a number on the CAD? Unfortunately it definitely wasn’t that simple as our Development team had a number of practical and commercial challenges to overcome to make these changes happen.
We’re all incredibly excited about these changes and hope slot racers will soon be reporting Scalextric cars topping the leaderboards.
Guide Blade
One of the more major changes we’ve made is that the guide blade has been increased in depth by approximately 1.2mm. This gives the new guide blade a total depth of 7mm which increases the car’s ability to stay in the slot, resulting in better handling.
The old, shorter guide blade on the left with the longer, improved guide on the right
Do keep in mind though that the deeper guide blade could impact racers who use older, Classic track. While we always try to keep new advancements compatible with historical Scalextric, there does come a time where a new innovation will conflict with a significantly older product. Of course this is regrettable but oftentimes tough decisions need to be made for the greater good and with the new guide blade, you can always modify the guide itself or remove it for an older version.
Inline Motors
While already present on a select few Scalextric cars, all new cars will have an inline motor fitted as standard. This configuration not only gives better weight distribution for the car but also means that both back wheels receive the power from the motor, with the gear on the rear axle.
The Inline Motor is on the left, showing the gear powering the whole rear axle
Wheels and Tyres
The tyres fitted to the car, out the box, will now have more grip than before. The Development team have had the tool polished to give a matt finish, meaning the tyres come out offering more grip.
However, if you still need even more grip from a different set of tyres, we have now changed all Scalextric wheel sizes to adhere to one of the Slot.it tyre sizes. Changing your tyres has never been easier as you can be sure one of Slot.it’s top performance tyres will fit your car.
The old wheel above with the new, Slot.it compatible wheel below
Body Fittings
To allow slot racers to easily remove or change the magnet we’ve also reduced the number of screws that keep the body attached to the underpan. In the past there’s been two screws at the back, which has now been reduced to just one.
The single screw can be seen on the left (top) with the old arrangement on the right
Not only does this help with the magnet and ease of access for drivers, it also allows racers to easily loosen their body, which is a small change a lot of racers make to reduce lap times. Loosening this screw ever so slightly allows the body to move a small amount, increasing stability and allowing faster speeds through the corners.
There’s also been a change made to the screw post itself, with the collar being removed, allowing the “body roll” to be even more effective.
Bumpers and Spoilers
Previously Scalextric cars had the bumpers attached to the underpan, but this has now been changed so the bumper is part of the body instead. Moving the bumper is another change that assists with body roll, further increasing stability and potential speed in the corners.
Furthermore, these bumpers and any spoilers are no longer glued in place. Now manufactured as a friction fit, both the bumpers and spoilers will help with body roll and mean they can be easily removed.
Underpan
While we’ve already discussed the removal of the bumpers from the underpan, there has been another change here too. Before these changes the underpan used to have a “step” to bring the magnet down to the correct height, with the rest of the underpan at a higher level. We’ve now brought down the whole underpan to the magnet level, which helps with the air flow around the car and with it, speed.
Car Body
There’s even more changes to body too as we’ve also reduced the thickness of the plastic itself. This, of course, decreases the weight of the car which has a direct impact on its speed.
Plus we’ve now moved to “half tub” interiors, which is another big reduction on the weight of the car. While we’ve kept the bulk of the detail in the interior (often considered a huge advantage of Scalextric), the less visible lower section of the interior, where the driver’s legs are, has been removed.
The old full interior on the left with the new, lighter "half tub" interior on the right
For some the reduction in the interior may be seen as something negative. However, as you can see, the key part of the interior is still visible and the “half tub” only really becomes clear on close inspection. We feel this is a small sacrifice for a big increase in performance but of course we understand this probably comes down to personal preference.
Lastly, the plastic along the bottom edge of the interior has been reduced by about 0.2mm (from 1mm to 0.8mm). This is a further reduction on weight, which we’re confident will all lead to a significant performance increase.
That concludes the list of performance changes our Development team have made, which we hope leads to a better racing experience for everyone who races Scalextric cars (or may now decide to!). Of course there were some changes we couldn’t make but these are certainly the most widely requested. However, if you do have any ideas or suggestions for future modifications please let us know. Using either the Scalextric Forum, Facebook or Twitter we’d be very interested to know if you have an idea we haven’t covered.
You may now be thinking all these changes sound fantastic, but what cars do they apply to? Well wonder no longer as we have the full list of SKUs in the 2016 Scalextric range that all these improvements have been added to.
The first car that received these upgrades has already been released (and has sold out in most places!). This has been a car that we’ve actually seen a fair bit of on Test Track and that’s the BMW Z4 in the green and black Team Russia livery (C3624).
This of course means that our good friend the anime BMW Z4 (C3625) also has the same upgrades.
However, a fair number of other Scalextric models have had these performance changes too, all of which you can see below. Plus, any other new tooling car from now on will have these modifications to ensure they’re some of the best runners Scalextric have ever manufactured.
Ford Daytona Prototype - C3769
Porsche 991 - C3732
AMC Javelin - C3731
Ford XY Falcon - C3696
Ford XB Falcon - C3697
ARC AIR Launch Event
As I mentioned at the start of the blog, we did have a bit more to show you with ARC AIR. Back at the end of last year, we held a launch event for ARC AIR in London and invited a number of our friends, from various newspapers, publications and websites, to come round and race. Everybody at the event had tremendous fun using ARC AIR and we have a number of pictures from the event to share. Warning though, lots of smiles ahead!
We hope you’ll soon see a number of articles and write-ups about ARC AIR in various places over the coming weeks and if you do spot something, be sure to let us know!
Here's what one blogger had to say...
Development Updates
We have another healthy dose of updates for you to feast your eyes on too. There’s the MINI F56 (C3742) from the popular MINI Challenge series, plus the Porsche 911 (C3732) and McLaren 12C GT3 (C3716) in the fantastic Gulf livery, with new special packaging! As always, be sure to let us know what you think of these samples as we’re always keen to hear any and all feedback.
Decoration Sample of the C3742 BMW MINI Cooper F56
Decoration Sample of the C3732 Porsche 911
Decoration Sample of the C3716 McLaren 12C GT3 Scalextric Club Exclusive
Back in Stock
These have been incredibly popular models and our challenge still stands, can you race them without having a smile on your face? We don’t think it’s possible!
Alongside these favourites, the Team Scalextric Monster Truck - Rattler (C3711), which we featured in the second Test Track blog, is due in next week too. Don't miss out on your chance to race this unique Monster Truck with its fantastic rattlesnake-inspired livery.
That wraps things up for this instalment of Test Track and we hope to see you back here at the end of March where we’ll have more news from the Scalextric Development team. Be sure to post your views and feedback on the Scalextric Forum, Facebook or Twitter. I know we mention it a lot but your feedback really does guide Test Track and our Development team always love to see what our collectors make of their work.
Until next time, happy racing!
The Test Track Team
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