#618 SCALEXTRIC - LANCIA LC2 “TOTIP” and PORSCHE 956 “SKOOL” (Ref. C016 and C018) (1985)

Scalextric owners have always taken competition very seriously. Especially in the old days, many people used to trick their cars to make them faster and more estable: by modifying the motor, change the axles length, the width of tyres or making the car lighter and lowering the gravity center. As a "scar" of these practices, there are many old cars in which the body of the car over the wheels has been modified to allow bigger wheels than in the original model.

Slot cars manufacturers never payed attention to this fact, or at least the most popular ones. Scalextric Spain (at the time controlled by Exin) noticed this and in the early 80s (from 1982 on), they released a line of cars designed especially for the competition. I got two one christmas (they were among the first cars I ever got/bought) and they were really amazing. Faster like hell (mostly compared to the ordinary models), never got out of the track, but ugly... this is something we understand, since the normal inyected plastic car bodys have been replaced by a very thing and fragile flexible plastic, with almost no weight. Fortunately these cars had very few "accidents" thanks to their powerful magnet. Otherwise, they would be very difficult to find in good conditions nowadays.

Another weak point of these models is that the plastic (if originally white) yellows rather remarkably.
Among the models released by Scalextric I got the least ugly models: a Ferrari F1 and a McLaren F1. There were also several Sport Prototypes (like these two) and several rally cars (among them a Peugeot and a Mercedes).

To increase the feeling of having a great piece of machinery, each car was sold with 2 extra axles to customize the car and a small wrench. All cars were of course equipped with soft, wide slicks and aluminium rims.

The SRS series was updated a few years later by the SRS2 series (starting in 1992 or maybe a bit earlier, since some models with the fragile body have also been spotted in blue SRS2 boxes), in which the bodies of the cars were adapted to look like ordinary models, and the chassis was also modified and, I guess, improved in some way. We will maybe talk about the SRS2 some other time.

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: LANCIA LC2 “TOTIP” and PORSCHE 956 “SKOOL” (Ref. C016 and C018)
• Scale: 1:32
• Year: 1985
• Company: Scalextric Exin (Spain)
• Size: approx. 15 cm