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The battle between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso may be lighting up Formula One this year, but 2007 also marks the anniversary of another motor racing legend.
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Scalextric, the world-famous car game, has turned 50 this year, and enthusiasts like me are celebrating half a century of replica racing.
I had one. My best mate had one. My friends at school had them. When I was 10, Scalextric was THE toy for a boy to play with.
And it was an inspired British toy-maker who set off a craze which endures to this day.
Electric slot car racing sprang up in the late 1930s, with several German companies producing tinplate racing cars and the track to run them on.
It was not until 1952 that Britain's Fred Francis launched a range of clockwork tinplate cars. He called them Scalex.
His cars were popular because they were detailed replicas of real racing cars. But they were about to become even more popular.
In 1957 at the Harrogate Toy Fair, he unveiled his first Scalex car to be powered by an electric motor. It ran on a moulded rubber track.
For the brand name, he combined the words "Scalex" and "electric" and the legend of Scalextric was born.
But, according to Richard Winter, former chairman of the National Scalextric Collectors Club, it wasn't seen exclusively as a children's toy.
"Scalextric was a relatively expensive toy at first, and in the late 50s you'd often find them in places like fire stations, RAF bases and telephone exchanges - places were people had to be 'on duty' but without much to do for long periods. "
But within a year, demand was so great that Fred Francis's small company simply couldn't keep up with demand and the production rights were sold to Triang. Scalextric entered a new era.
Roger Gillham, author of Scalextric: The Definitive Guide, said: "The austerity years of the war were ending, and Scalextric was something new that mums and dads could buy for their kids.
"In fact, it probably appealed more to the dads than the children - who were often too young to have had much control over the cars at first."
In recent years, Scalextric has faced competition from video racing games, but it still has thousands of fans across Europe and as far afield as South Africa and Australia.
The company's brand manager Paul Chandler says it would be pointless competing against computer games "because Scalextric is a hands-on, physical product - and that's why it's lasted this long".
But there has been change. Scalextric Digital now allows drivers to change lanes for the first time, at the push of a button.
In the 60s, racing stars like Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark were inspiring huge public interest in Formula One.
On the Scalextric tracks, children and their parents could pretend they too were battling for pole position.
It's the same now, with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso
Scalextric was ffffffffffb, the best toy I had growing up
09-19-2007, 05:08 PM
A more important birthday today than the smiley Post #2
My cousins had their 30m :eek: Scalextric track intertwined with their even larger Hornby set.
It was FB and was awesome for endurance races with the trains going round at the same time.
My record was combining 3 sets into one, although it is not recommended to put the racing cars onto the stock car course.
Mini Haha :thup:
09-19-2007, 05:13 PM
A more important birthday today than the smiley Post #5
A more important birthday today than the smiley 
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