There’s plenty to excite fans of modern GT racing this year…
The big highlight is a brand new car – the Corvette C8R – but there’s also a complete face-lift for the Mercedes AMG GT3 and some very special liveries on all of the GT and Touring cars that were new to the catalogue last year.
You can browse and pre-order all the 2021 Scalextric products here: www.jadlamracingmodels.com/scalextric/2021-releases
In my first 2021 catalogue blog post, I took a quick look at some of the highlights – now I’m going to dig much deeper through each of the categories and including some background from the Scalextric team. A big thank you to Martyn and Simon for taking time out to talk to me.
Chevrolet Corvette C8R
It’s a while since we had a modern Corvette in the Scalextric catalogue – the GT2 C6R was the last, released back in 2011. The new C8R is going to absolutely thrill every Scalextric GT racer and collector around the world with its sleek looks and top performance on the track.
The real Corvette C8R was developed by Pratt & Miller Engineering to compete in the IMSA GTLM and FIA LM GTE classes. The C8R sees the Chevy V8 moved into a position just in front of the rear axle – a mid-engined layout being particularly good for racing. The C8R debuted at the Daytona 24 hour race in January 2020 – and the two Scalextric models are the Corvette Racing cars from this race.
From the start, the yellow #3 Corvette of Nicky Catsburg, Antonio García & Jordan Taylor battled with the two Porsches and the #24 BMW M8 for GTLM honours. It was a memorable scrap throughout the 24 hours – the four cars rarely separated by more than a lap. Amazingly, the class win came down to the final pit stop, the BMW finishing just seconds ahead of the two Porsches and the #3 Corvette just missing out on the podium in fourth – sixteenth overall. The silver #4 Corvette of Marcel Fässler, Oliver Gavin & Tommy Milner had a torrid time, with the sort of teething problems characteristic of a new car. It finished in thirty-sixth place, 372 laps behind the race winners.
The Corvettes had to wait until July for the next IMSA race, the yellow #3 car of Antonio García & Jordan Taylor winning GTLM at the Daytona Weathertech 240. The #3 team would add another four class wins – and two overall race victories – during the season to clinch the Weathertech GTLM championship for Corvette and the GTLM drivers’ title for García and Taylor. The silver #4 car of Gavin and Milner took a class win at Sebring and finished third in the championship. Although a single C8R made its FIA WEC debut at the Austin 6 hour race in February 2020, Corvette decided not to travel to Europe for the re-scheduled Le Mans 24 hours in September.
The Corvette C8R follows the standard Scalextric GT layout of an inline short-can motor, a tray interior and magnatraction. It is Digital Plug Ready (DPR) and can be easily converted to digital with the C8515 Digital Plug. The silver C8R will be the first car to be released – scheduled for the third quarter of 2021 – with the yellow car following at the end of the year. They can both be pre-ordered here and here.
A face-lift for the Mercedes-AMG GT3
Scalextric have updated their popular Mercedes-AMG GT3 model to match the 2020 evolution of the real racing car. The most noticeable change from the original 2016 version is the front radiator grille, which gives the car a fabulous new look. Scalextric decided a completely new body shell was required and new tooling has been produced. The chassis remains the same, so the same top-rate handling and performance is guaranteed.
The first livery on the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo is the very striking RAM Racing car driven by Sam De Haan and Patrick Kujala in the 2020 British GT Championship. These rising stars of GT racing won at Snetterton in October and also picked up three Silver Cup wins – finishing the season runners-up in both the overall drivers’ championship and the Silver Cup. The car is scheduled for release in the summer / early autumn and is available for pre-order here.
Aston Martin Vantage GT3
Another exciting release for GT fans is the Castrol-sponsored R-Motorsport Aston Martin GT3 Vantage that was the eye-candy of the 2020 Bathurst 12 hours. The Scalextric Vantage GT3 was one of the highlights of the 2020 catalogue and has already proved a very quick GT car on the track. This fabulous Castrol livery takes the Vantage to another level.
The Bathurst 12 hours has become one of the highlights of the global GT calendar, attracting entries from GT series around the world, plus some serious manufacturer support. The 2020 race took place in February and was exciting to watch – starting before dawn and running through the day. The R-Motorsport team had finished second in 2019 and their new Vantage GT3 was one of the favourites for the 2020 race. The driver line-up included regular driver Jake Dennis plus two Aussie superstars: IndyCar legend Scott Dixon and V8 Supercar champ Rick Kelly.
The Castrol livery looked utterly sensational, but the all-star team couldn’t put it into Victory Lane. A spin and an unscheduled pit stop during the morning put the R-Motorsport Vantage out of contention, ending up six laps behind the winning M-Sport Bentley. The Scalextric model will be available over the summer / early autumn and can be pre-ordered here.
The Castrol car is joined in the 2021 catalogue by the attractive red TF Sport Vantage GT3 that raced in the 2020 International GT Open series. TF surprised everyone by entering their star duo of Salih Yoluç and Charlie Eastwood in this second-tier series. The pairing had won Pro-Am at the 2019 Spa 24 hours and – with Jonny Adam – taken three FIA WEC GTE Am class wins in the 2019-2020 season. Later in the year they added victory at the Le Mans 24 hours, running the same livery on their Vantage GTE.
After three outright wins and eight podiums from the twelve races, the TF Sport car was pipped to the GT Open championship title by just two points. The TF Sport Vantage GT3 is also available in the third quarter of the year and can be pre-ordered here.
Ford Mustang GT4 – Academy Motorsports
I have really enjoyed the Scalextric Mustang GT4 – it has been the basis of my Scalextric Tuning series here on the Jadlam blog. It’s great to see a third British GT Championship livery in this year’s catalogue. The Academy Motorsports team ran the only Mustang in the shortened 2020 season, preparing it in partnership with the official works Multimatic Motorsports organisation. The car looks plain grey at a first glance, but is actually an intricate design of dozens of mustang horse logos.
Driven in all nine rounds by Matt Cowley, the Scalextric car features Will Moore as his teammate – that pair competed at the final three races of the season at Snetterton and Silverstone. Always in the mix, Cowley finished fifth in the GT4 drivers’ standings and Academy Motorsports were fourth in the GT4 team championship – the highest-placed single-car team. The Mustang is scheduled for a Spring release and is available for pre-order here.
Team LNT Ginetta G60-LT-P1
After somewhat a challenging time dealing with the Chinese CEFC TRSM Racing team for the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship ‘Super-Season’, Ginetta decided to run their G60-LT-P1 in-house for the 2019-20 championship. A switch to the reliable AER V6 turbo engine offered plenty of promise for the opening round at Silverstone – both Ginettas running strongly against their LMP1 rivals in qualifying and the race.
Both cars had mishaps – the #5 car of Charlie Robertson, Ben Hanley and Egor Orudzhev was briefly stranded in a gravel trap, but fought back strongly to grab fourth place on the final lap. The #6 Ginetta of Oliver Jarvis, Michael Simpson and Guy Smith dramatically lost its right rear wheel early on and then Jarvis had a big coming-together with one of the leading GTE Pro cars.
It’s the accident-prone #6 car from the 2019 Silverstone 4 hours that Scalextric have chosen. The livery is stunning, with the black, white and orange Union Jack flag on the tail fin, plus strong Ginetta branding. The WEC season ultimately fizzled out in disappointing fashion for the Ginettas, but this livery will always be a memorable one. The Scalextric car performs well on track and is a good compromise between high detail (cockpit, working lights etc) and the robustness of the super resistant cars. The car will be available in the summer / early autumn and can be pre-ordered here.
Ford GT GTE #67 Le Mans 2019
2019 saw the final Le Mans 24 hour appearance for the works Ford GT GTEs – and they turned up with some wonderful ‘Heritage’ liveries celebrating the four wins for the GT40 between 1966 and 1969 and the fiftieth anniversary win in 2016 for the Ford GTE. The red #67 car was the Ford front-runner in qualifying and the race. Driven by Harry Tinknell, Andy Priaulx and Jonathan Bomarito, the 1967 throwback car qualified second in the LM GTE Pro class and then took part in a tense 24 hour battle between Porsche, Ferrari, Ford, Corvette and Aston Martin.
Although numerous safety car periods dampened the spectacle, the top four GTE Pro cars finished the race on the same lap – the AF Corse Ferrari winning on the seventieth anniversary of Ferrari’s first overall Le Mans win. The #67 car came fourth in class and twenty-third overall, just ahead of two other Fords – the Gulf-themed #69 car and the black #66.
The Scalextric car is a good-looker and is fast on the track with its F1 slim-can motor. This livery is a very nice addition to the range and the car will have officially-licenced ACO Le Mans 24 hour packaging. It is likely this will be the last of the Scalextric Ford GTEs, so pre-order for a spring release here.
British Touring Car Championship 2020
Just two BTCC cars this year and both are re-liveries. The first is a third livery on the new-for-2020 BMW 330i M-Sport car, featuring defending champion Colin Turkington’s 2020 BTCC Team BMW livery – complete with the Scalextric logo that was on the car. The red, black and blue looks stunning on what is a very quick new car from Scalextric. It is scheduled for release during the summer / early autumn and can be pre-ordered here.
The second car is Jake Hill’s Honda Civic Type-R, also from the 2020 BTCC season. Privateer teams continue to have success with the ‘old’ Type-R Civic, Hill scoring six podiums in 2020 and finishing the season seventh in the drivers’ championship. The Scalextric model has been produced in conjunction with MB Motorsport – a new name for 2020. Former-F1 driver Mark Blundell took charge of the business side, with AmD’s Shaun Hollamby staying on as team principle.
The Civic’s livery is unique to this Scalextric model, commemorating the founding of MB Motorsport in 2020. The car appeared with various title sponsors during the season, so using the MB logo avoided the team putting any of their sponsors’ noses out of joint. The Jake Hill Civic is due for release in the spring and is available as a pre-order here.
Don’t forget you can browse and pre-order all the 2021 Scalextric products here: www.jadlamracingmodels.com/scalextric/2021-releases