The launch of a new catalogue is the most exciting day of the year for any Scalextric fan…
This year, the catalogue is bigger than normal – the 2021 cars still to arrive are included too. Yes, although delayed by global manufacturing mayhem, all last year’s cars will be produced – and will be joined by some exciting new models for 2022.
In this blog post, I will run through all the new releases unveiled today – looking at new tooling for racing cars, Film, TV & street cars, new liveries for 2022, plus new sets and accessories. And there are some brilliant surprises in all four categories and a really nice retro feel to the whole range.
You can pre-order the full range here: https://www.jadlamracingmodels.com/scalextric/2022-releases
New Tooling: Racing Cars
It’s difficult to know where to start… Nigel Mansell’s Williams FW11 that won the 1986 British Grand Prix – the final F1 world championship race to be held at Brands Hatch… or the stunning Bastos-sponsored TWR Rover SD1 that triumphed at Donington the same year. There’s a must-have Lamborghini Countach safety car from the Monaco Grand Prix in ‘83, Richard Longman’s 1978 BTCC-winning Mini 1275GT and a twin-pack of mighty Shelby Cobras from the 1964 Targa Florio.
A new BTCC car – the Honda Civic Type-R FK8 will appear in the liveries of two-time champion Gordon Shedden and 2021 rookie Jade Edwards. The latest Porsche 911 GT3R also makes its debut with the GTD class-winning Pfaff Motorsport car from last year’s Sebring 12 hours – plus there’s a set-only G-Cat Racing Porsche from the 2021 British GT Championship.
There are modern day historic racers – an awesome red and gold Alan Mann Racing 1965 Ford Mustang, together with another ‘65 ‘Stang in the white and black of Bill Shepherd. Shepherd’s Goodwood Revival-winning green hard-top Cobra is another mouth-watering car for historic racing fans. And then there’s Andrew Jordan’s lovely Mini Miglia, which he drove to the 2021 national Mini Miglia Challenge title.
The Mini Miglia and 1275GT do share some tooling, but they are both brilliant additions to the range. The 1275GT is an important part of the Group 1 / Group A series that Scalextric are building with the Capri, XJ-S and Rover. The bigger cars have the same in-line motor configuration and very similar performance – the little Mini with the slim-can motor will be snapping at their heels!
The Cobra is a perfect partner for the E-Type Jaguar – both having the motor in the front and authentic tail-out handling. The Mustang sits in the Trans-Am range with sidewinder motor and full interior. The Civic and the Porsche have the same in-inline platform shared by the other modern BTCC and GT cars. And – of course – the Williams will line up next to the 1986 Lotus 98T for a Mansell vs Senna showdown.
TV, Movie & Road Cars
The biggest, baddest car from the greatest movie of all time – yes, Scalextric have made the Bluesmobile! Based on a Chevy Monaco Police car with a massive loudspeaker on top, this model is so big that a new case has been designed for it. Figures of both Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi are seated in the car – plus the dashboard is littered with rubbish. Like all the TV & Movie cars, there’s all the usual colourful branded packaging. Thank you Scalextric.
There are more movie cars with updated tooling added to the James Bond and ‘Back to the Future’ collections. The Lotus Esprit Turbo S2 appeared in the ski resort scenes of ‘For Your Eyes Only’ and is a different body to the white S1 that was announced last year. The final DeLorean time machine is different too – this one a model of the car rebuild by Marty and ‘50s Doc back in 1955. The white-walled tyres look great.
It was probably a case of ‘when, not if’ – Mr Bean has crossed over from Corgi with his Mini in full ‘Do-It-Yourself Mr Bean’ spec. This is the surely the first time Scalextric have made a car with the driver sitting on the roof. Mr Bean fans will also be delighted that there’s the blue Reliant Regal Supervan to act as Mr Bean’s nemesis on the Scalextric track – as it was on the small screen.
I’ve shoe-horned a couple of the tasty new road cars in this section too – there’s the new Lamborghini Countach in white, plus a police car version of the Rover Vitesse. Both are high-detail, with the Rover featuring flashing roof lights, but no siren. Pictures provided by Scalextric show a Sussex Police Rover, which would make a nice authentic livery.
New Liveries
Scalextric have focused on new tooling this year – plus finishing last year’s cars – but the small number of new liveries are a fabulous bunch. Probably the stand-out car is Andy Rouse’s Kaliber Sierra from the 1988 BTCC season – that’s going to make a lot of people very happy. So will the Castrol VW T1b van. Formula-E fans have a bang-up-to-date 2022 livery recreating Jake Dennis’ Andretti Motorsport car, which will be released in a standard plastic case with full Formula-E branding.
For historic racing fans, the Lotus Cortina is back with a classic Goodwood Revival livery – the car prepared by the Jordans and driven by Mark Sumpter. There are also two Gulf-liveried historic racers – a Mini Cooper S shared by Gabriele Tarquini and Nick Riley at the 2018 Revival, plus the Heritage Motorsports Porsche 911 3.0 RSR that races in North America. More recent is the Aston Martin DBR9 which won GT1 at the 2008 Le Mans 24 hours – this features ‘dirty’ weathering and is based on the car currently in the ROFCO collection.
Finally for the liveries, there’s Adam Morgan’s 2021 BTCC Ciceley Motorsport BMW 330i, a Gulf-liveried Pagani Huayra Roadster BC and a cool blue Lamborghini Centenario.
New Sets & Accessories
There is a definite retro feel about two new sets and some brand new buildings. The two ‘Back In Time’ branded sets are very 1980s in theme and style. The first sees KITT vs The Time Machine in a classic TV/movie mash-up. The second is Senna vs Senna in the ultimate 80s F1 Legend set – and yes, those are newly tooled clip-on barriers included in the Grand Prix set.
The barriers come in two lengths and feature in the top-of-the-range sets and will be sold individually. Stickers with an 80s and a modern theme will be included. Two ‘refreshed’ sets have the borders too. The ARC Air ‘World GT’ set has an updated line-up super-resistant set-only versions of the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and the new Porsche 911 GT3R. The ARC Pro ‘Platinum GT’ set sees the yellow Corvette C8R and a 2021 RAM Racing AMG GT3 Evo replace the Bentley and old-style Wynn’s Mercedes. There’s also new cars in the popular ‘Police Chase’ set – a UK BMW 330i police car and a red and black Corvette C8R road car.
And what about those buildings! These are cast from resin, are fully-assembled and hand-painted buildings – produced in the same way as the popular Hornby Skaledale range of model railway accessories. Based on the Goodwood-inspired designs first presented in the 1960 Triang-Scalextric catalogue, the grandstand and control tower are the first Classic buildings that will be available. The ‘artisan’ production methods give huge flexibility for developing the range. At around £50 for a finished building, they should be very popular.
That’s pretty much it for 1:32 scale. However, there are also some exciting additions to the 1:64 scale Micro Scalextric range, with a new Lamborghini Huracán Evo, a Porsche 911 Turbo and the Formula-E Spark2 all arriving this year in two new racing sets. An orange Huracán and white Porsche will also be available separately. Another new set scheduled for 2022 is a massive double-loop Batman-themed ‘The Race for Gotham City’.
I’m pretty impressed by that line-up – congratulations to the Scalextric team for yet another brilliant catalogue. Together with the delayed 2021 cars, my wish list for this year is getting rather long…
Don’t forget, you can pre-order the full range here: https://www.jadlamracingmodels.com/scalextric/2022-releases