You can find a wealth of humorous social media posts that give examples of ‘things men do to avoid therapy’. It could be reviving a hunk of rusted iron into a fully functional steam locomotive or collecting every different coloured vinyl release by a particular record label. Slot car racing – better known in the English-speaking world as Scalextric – is another candidate for such recognition.

The pastime enjoyed an internet-age revival 20-odd years ago, coinciding with the rise of online retailers and auction sites. This sudden boom led to a complete overhaul of expectations, with diecast-quality models replacing the Tupperware-on-wheels of yore.

A cottage industry swiftly followed, consisting of specialist performance parts suppliers, whittlers of obscure 1950s sports car bodies, architects of scenic trackside buildings and programmers who develop the means to incorporate digital race strategies and fuel loads into the hobby.

Farnborough Park Scalextric Club in Farnborough, Hampshire is a place where slot cars can be enjoyed together in weekly race meetings after work on a Wednesday. Its membership includes marshals from Goodwood and the former British Rally Championship media manager as well as classic car salesmen, former policemen, recovery truck drivers and students.

One of the longest-serving members is club treasurer Alec Edge, whose day job is senior telecoms engineer at Transport for London. For him, it’s the club’s inability to take itself too seriously that provides a major attraction.

“There are clubs across the country; some where they run maybe six or eight classes all year, and you’re constantly developing and tuning the cars just like the real sport – you can spend hundreds on a single car, if that’s your thing,” Alec says, with an expression which suggests that it isn’t his. “Then there’s us. We run cars that are available off-the-shelf with minimal modification – usually we take the traction magnets out, maybe add a bit of weight, and you’re allowed to change the tyres and guide if they don’t suit the track layout. That’s about as technical as we get.”

It is, of course, swings and roundabouts, financially. While the Farnborough membership doesn’t spend a fortune on R&D, there are a total of 38 classes to collect cars for – of which six are chosen and stuck to for each three-month season.

For newcomers and those who have neither the interest or budget to buy particular cars, the club keeps a stock for each class in reserve. But then, shopping around to find the car of your dreams is no less a pleasure in 1:32 scale than it is in full-size motoring.

A common thread in the babble of banter each Wednesday night is that of finding bona fide bargains on Ebay, Facebook or the regular swap meets across the country. Lawrence Attrill, site manager of the club’s home at St Peter’s School, is a man who refuses to spend more than £20 on any of the racers that he and son Toby campaign.

“The big thing is 3D printing which allows for all sorts of jiggery-pokery”

“You can do a lot to make almost any car competitive with the right tyres and some trial-and-error with placing ballast in the chassis,” he says. “These days, the big thing is 3D printing and people are now designing and producing chassis that allow for all sorts of jiggery-pokery.

“I don’t think we’ll ever go over to the ‘dark side’ in that way. For me, half the fun is finding something on Ebay for £10 and beating some of the £60-70 cars that are on the market nowadays – talent, and the occasional bout of cynical nerfing, permitting.”

Ah yes, competitiveness is as much part of slot car life as it is in the full-size sport. For some, the racer’s urge can be further expanded by venturing out into open competition on big, commercial tracks, most often hewn from wood.

John Underwood, a member of both the Oxford and Rockingham Scalextric clubs, is undoubtedly Britain’s most committed slot car racer, who covered more than 10,000 miles driving between almost 40 events during 2023.

“I always say that if I had a proper job I’d never be able to do as much racing,” beams the Banbury-based chimney-sweep. “The main British championship is national GT3, so modern GT cars on wood tracks, and there’s a regional series for the same cars in Wales and west England that’s half on wood tracks and half on plastic.

“A big one is the annual digital Le Mans 24 Hours, where a full 1:32 replica of the Sarthe track is built in a sports hall and you have 16 teams driving and maintaining their cars for the full 24 hours.

“Then there are the various one-off classic events for pre-war cars, classic F1s, classic sports cars and classic saloons up to about 1975-80. Those events don’t have an official championship because as much of the event is building new cars and making them look nice, or using genuine 1960s mechanical parts, as it is about racing them.”

It may seem like a peculiarly British thing to do, spending one’s leisure time building and racing miniature cars – but there are all sorts of racing to be found across Europe, the USA, Australia and South Africa.

Germany’s national slot racing series (in heftily Germanic 1:24 scale), includes teams of engineers from Volkswagen Motorsport, Abt Sportsline, Porsche and others from the full-size racing world, with former BTCC champion and Le Mans winner Frank Biela being a series regular.

In 2024, the Slot Rally GB championship makes a return after a decade-long hiatus, and Farnborough Park is on the calendar alongside clubs in Abergavenny, Oxford, Worthing, the Isle of Man and Denbigh. Unsurprisingly, John Underwood is planning to be in attendance at most qualifying rounds.

Rallies entail special stages which competitors drive in groups of four, marking each other’s time sheets like a round of golf. A lot of stages are scenic Alpine, farm or forest vistas built with the same detail as railway layouts, adding another layer to the hobby.

Keeping up with all that’s going on in slot racing has given rise to the slot car podcast, among which Talking Utter Slot is a popular weekly round-up anchored by former Austin Rover, Peugeot, BMW and Toyota PR man Scott Brownlee.

“To me, slot racing is about reconnecting with joy,” Brownlee explains. “The excitement of childhood and the joy of small things. A bit deeper than that, I suppose, you can actually hold in your hand the manifestation of something we’ll never get to experience in real life – a particular car that we’ve watched on TV or at a track, or that we’ve read about in magazines or books – and we get to race it for ourselves.”

Individual slot cars start around £50 – which seems expensive when compared to prices of 40 years ago, although an inflation calculator will tell you that in fact there has been little increase. Collections can hinge around specific races, eras, drivers or even TV series and manufacturers vie to hit upon the next big trend in each year’s catalogue.

“I look upon it compared to the price of a ticket to a real event,” adds Brownlee. “I have the choice of buying a ticket to, say, the Goodwood Revival, or I can spend that money on four or five slot cars and experience something that I can create while enjoying the best view of the track!”

Look hard enough and you can find clubs that specialise in almost every discipline, including scale quarter-mile BriSCA stock car ovals and scale quarter-mile drag strips.

“It’s three hours where you have nothing more to think about than racing”

“There are so many ways to recreate the sort of motor sport that you like best,” says Farnborough Park chairman Graham Smith, a retired civil servant. “It’s three hours in the week where you’re not trying to earn a living, not answering to anyone, you’re not a spouse or a parent. You have nothing more to think about than racing.”

Sounds like therapy, indeed…

---

Want to get on the grid?

Here’s your foolproof way into the UK slot-car scene

Getting started in slot racing traditionally begins with buying a race set, The choices are, at first glance, quite dizzying. Researching those first steps can benefit from online forums such as British-based SlotForum and SlotRacer.

The demise of hobby shops can be a barrier, but Britain’s online superstore at Pendle Slot Racing is a portal not only to every brand and product, but also the unrivalled knowledge of the team.

Keep an eye on social media for details of events, the biggest of which is the UK Slot Car Festival held at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon each May and December. There you will find a host of traders, tracks to try and experts.

And never forget your local club, which can be found through forums, Facebook or web pages. Whether you choose to race there or not, you will find people keen to see the hobby flourish and happy to share knowledge.