A life in letters: Scalextric

Scalextric, an electric-powered model racing car toy, first appeared in 1957 and I was given a set for Christmas. In the box, you got two model racing cars, pieces of rubber track which formed a circuit with metal slots carrying the current for each car, and a controller for each player. There was also a small cardboard box printed with a brick pattern to make it look like a trackside building in which you could conceal the metal transformer which stepped the mains power down.

I soon added a third car. I liked the resonance of its name – an Austin Healey Sprite. I was particularly amused by the little tube of liquid which accompanied the set. If you squirted some on the track it was supposed to reduce the cars’ traction and make for more excitement. I called it ‘skid lotion’, but it wasn’t particularly effective, and soon ran out.

 

In 1959 I was taken to a department store in Glasgow where I took part in the Scottish heats of the Scalextric model racing championship, and I might have made it to the finals in London but for the fact that in my excitement I didn’t put my driver properly in his seat before the start of his last race, and as he shot down the track he banged his head on the first flyover. He seemed unscathed; I was disqualified. My parents were pleased for me as I carried my ‘runner up’ trophy home, but they were also pleased (or so they said, perhaps to console me) not to have to take me to London for the later stages of the competition!