Mercedes McLaren

The Scalextric Club Car for 2010 arrived today - the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 GT.

The "722" refers to the victory by Stirling Moss in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR with the starting number 722 (indicating a start time of 7:22 a.m.) at the Mille Miglia in 1955.  This model is highly detailed (unfortunately not with the gull-wing doors of the real thing) but I fear that rear spoiler isn't going to last long...

NSCC vs Scalextric Club

My first blog posting was on 17 September last year so I've spent just under a year on this project.  On that day, I'd just received my Scalextric Club pack.  I've recently renewed and should have the 2010 Club Car shortly, but I've also joined a different club.

The NSCC was originally the National Scalextric Collectors Club but is now about all makes of slot car.  The subscription costs about the same as the Scalextric Club.  The latter gives you a free car each year but the quarterly magazine is basically a set of Scalextric adverts.  The NSCC does sell a special car each year but the reason for joining is their excellent monthly magazine which reviews new models from all the slot car manufacturers as well as other related articles.

Both worth joining for different reasons I think.

And this is probably a first (and last?) - slot car comedy clips.  A year old now but there are a series of clips on YouTube called Slotcar 2009 which made me snigger.

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

I've been thinking about my Scalextric project for a couple of months and some friends have been asking how it's going.  So I thought I'd create a blog, partly for me, partly for them, possibly even for other Scalextric enthusiasts.  I expect to post quite often at the beginning because there's two months of planning and purchasing to catch up with, but no doubt it'll slow down over time.

This project shouldn't feel like work, it's all about fun, so I'm not going to put a time or price limit on it. I'm expecting the research, design and construction to be as much fun as the actual playing with the finished setup.

This first post is also marked by the delivery today of my Scalextric Club pack.  £24 a year to join which gets you a quarterly magazine, exclusive offers and competitions, and the clincher - a free limited edition car each year.  This year's car is the 2008, Le Mans winning, Aston Martin DBR9 in Gulf livery with a special weathered finish (i.e. dirty).  It looks awesome.