Scalextric 2008 Preview

Around the beginning of December, Scalextric traditionally announce a preview of the coming years new products.

Since the days (not that long ago!) when the new offerings were listed on the traditional “dealer sheet", I have learned to be somewhat skeptical about the coming year announcements from Margate; often times several cars have the livery changed or are canceled all together.

I am hopeful that the 2008 Scalextric line will be as announced; almost everything that was published by Scalextric on Monday of this week has been hinted at or confirmed by company insiders such as Adrian Norman during the 4th quarter of 2007, and as such contain few surprises.

So let’s have a look at what I consider to be the more interesting of the 2008 announcements. (please forgive the small images but this is what is available)

Let’s kick off with what was the worst kept rumor of the past year but at the same time the best kept secret of the coming year…

C2923A 1967: Year of Legends Set. Lotus 49 & Eagle Gurney-Westlake V-12.

The pinnacle of 1960’s F1 machinery: one of the most beautiful racing cars of its era alongside, irrefutably, the best. I was told the Eagle was a go several months ago, and that the Lotus was being considered. I am glad to see that we are apparently getting both.

If these cars are done to the same level as this year’s McLaren and Ferrari, they will sell like ice-water in Hades. I am sure that like the McLaren-Ferrari set, there will be single-car variations… of which for the Lotus 49, there are MANY.

C2917 Ford GT40 Mk II; 31st Le Mans 1966; Graham Hill / Brian Muir

A re-livery of Scalextric’s venerable Ford GT-40 in striking Alan Mann racing “Team Australia” silver and black.

C2916 Chaparral 2F #4

A re-livery of the 2F as raced by Mike Spence in the 1967 Nurburgring 1000km. Hopefully they will tone down the bright white of the just released 2F to the period correct cream color. Nitpickers will surely point out that the Nurburgring version of the 2F did not sport the white aero covers on the wing struts as shown in the Scalextric photo (MRRC got this right by tooling two different kinds of wing/strut assemblies…but then shipped some cars with the wrong wing/strut for the car being modeled!).

I hope that someone at Hornby realizes this and orders that the struts be painted black (which will help a little)! And OH NO…. if the Scalextric photo is like the slot car… the number on the nose is positioned wrong too!!!!!!! Earth to Scalextric!!!!!!

C2896 Chaparral Camaro 1970; Vic Elford, 1st Watkins Glen Trans-Am 1970.

All-new tooling of a Trans-Am car that racers have been asking for. Three Chaparral Camaros were built and only one authenticated example survives to this day; it underwent a $100,000 restoration and is currently owned by Mark Mountanos who races it in the Historic Trans Am series. How did they know that the car had been built by Jim Hall? Supposedly the key factor was the “beautifully made” fiberglass dashboard!

There will be yet another re-livery of the previously released 1969 Camaro and Mustang, which is good news for those who enjoy racing and collecting these cars. C2890 will be the #83 Quality Camper Mustang while C2891 will be the #88 M. Carter Camaro.

C2918 Ferrari 412P, 30th Le Mans 1967; Pedro Rodriguez / Giancarlo Baghetti

A re-livery in the attractive white and blue North American Racing Team colors of the previously released Ferrari 412P endurance racer.

C2927 McLaren M23 1976, Jochen Mass

A simple re-livery of the M23 released in 2007 modeling “Hunt the Shunt’s” team mate.

C2860 Ferrari F-2007 Kimi Raikkonen

The new World Champion’s Ferrari which is an update of the previous Scalextric Ferrari F2006.

There will be three new A1GP liveries offered: C2949 South Africa

C2950 China (Sure to be popular with “Dragon” graphics)

and C2951 Netherlands.

As previously announced here; and now confirmed by Scalextric, the Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR squad will be available late in 2008 with the new Chevrolet Impala SS.

Yes that’s Dale Jr. Finally modeled in 1/32 now that he’s no longer driving that red car with the adult beverage sponsor….

C2906 Porsche RS Spyder, Penske Test Livery, R. Briscoe

As mentioned earlier, Scalextric modeled the 2006 version of the Porsche RS. This version was only run by the Penske team so the liveries are somewhat limited; this livery is the pre-season “test” version prior to Penske scoring the DHL sponsorship.

Scalextric follows the lead of SCX, Carrera and Avant Slot by offering a version of the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP (C2897)

but choosing to model the Valencia and Monza 2007 winning version driven by Mark Gene, Nicolas Minassian, and Pedro Lamy.

C2898 will be the sinister black “Test Car” version.

There are also a double handful of re-liveries of existing cars such as the #7 Audi R10 LMP 2006 LeMans (C2905), the 2007 LeMans GT1 class winning “009″ livery of the Aston Martin DBR9 (C2903), the Peterson “White Lightning” Ferrari F430 GT2 (C2902), and the Blue and White “Johnson Controls” version of the Jaguar XKRS (C2908).

Also announced is the C2914 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 Uhlenhaut Coupé, which is apparently another variation of the 300 SLR “722″ release. Only two examples of this car were built based on SLR racing chassis. In 1955 the Uhlenhaut Coupé claimed to be “the world’s fastest car". With Mercedes’ withdrawl from racing, the program (intended to produce a LeMans streamliner) was unfortunately halted.

The remaining 1955 300 SLR “Gullwing” Coupé is currently on display at the Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart.

Scalextric also plan a Porsche 997 GT3 RS in their “Super Resistant Body” (read: not well detailed) line. Hopefully this will lead to a detailed version like was done with the F430.

Scalextric/Hornby have said they have acquired the license for vehicles used in the James Bond 007 films. No specifics have yet been revealed but they would be well advised to put a decent Aston-Martin DB5 on the market.

There is also another street Ford GT in the works, this time sort of a cream sicle yellow-orange.

If you look closely you can see that this is the “Stillen Project Ford GT Project Car". Too bad Scalextric didn’t pick the #55 Ford GT as raced in the 2006 Japanese “Super GT” Series. If you have seen this car it is wickedly delicious!

I can see that I will need a second job to be able to afford all of these goodies!

* NOTE: Scalextric / Hornby is (after the fact) saying that this 2008 production information was released “early and by accident” and should not be posted to public areas such as this blog.

I say it is FAR more likely that they released it for the publicity that it would generate.

You make the call.

Written by Vincent Vega