Scalextric

Scalextric is a British brand of slot car racing sets which first appeared in the late 1950s. Scalextric was invented by engineer B. Fred Francis, when he added an electric motor to the Scalex tin cars that were produced by Minimodels Ltd, his own company. The first "Scalextric" were made in Havant, Hampshire, in 1956. Hornby Hobbies acquired the company in 1968. In 2026, the Scalextric business was sold to Purbeck Capital Partners.

Scalextric is a British brand of slot car racing sets which first appeared in the late 1950s. Scalextric was invented by engineer B. Fred Francis, when he added an electric motor to the Scalex tin cars that were produced by Minimodels Ltd, his own company. The first "Scalextric" were made in Havant, Hampshire, in 1956. Hornby Hobbies acquired the company in 1968. In 2026, the Scalextric business was sold to Purbeck Capital Partners.

Television and film licensing

Since the 1960s, Scalextric have offered TV and film tie-ins, beginning with the James Bond 007 set, featuring an Aston Martin with action features as shown in the film Goldfinger. Even the 'baddie' car in this set, a Mercedes, had action features of its own, whilst the set also sported many other action points and props. It was some time before Scalextric returned to licensing in the 1970s, first with The Amazing Spider-Man (the 1970s series), which had specially liveried TR7 cars and white track. Then, in the 1980s, came the original TV series based Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Knight Rider and then Tim Burton's Batman film. Since then the franchises have grown to include Batman Begins, The Simpsons, The Transformers movie, James Bond 007 films Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, GoldenEye and Spectre, Starsky and Hutch, The Italian Job (models from both the original and re-made films), Top Gear, Star Wars and the Pixar/Disney movie Toy Story. Scalextric produced a Dukes of Hazzard General Lee car and subsequently a twin car pack with licensing from the Fast and the Furious film franchise. Scalextric licensed the Need for Speed brand from Electronic Arts and has produced a set based on the popular video game series. On 22 November 2004, thieves stole 2,500 Simpsons Scalextric sets from the back of a lorry which was parked near services on the M2 motorway in England.

In popular culture

In 2009, BBC Top Gear presenter James May announced plans to recreate the full length Brooklands racing track using Scalextric track and cars. This was undertaken with a team of 350 volunteers building the track from an uncounted number of pieces of Scalextric track, navigating ponds and roads, closely following the route of the old Brooklands track. This event broke the Guinness World Record for the longest ever Scalextric track in the world, intended to measure the original of the original Brooklands circuit but in reality recording in length, because of the need to navigate modern features that block the original course. The episode was first shown on BBC2 on 17 November 2009 as part of James May's Toy Stories.

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1373842736 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.