Review – Scalextric C1732 BTCC Touring Car Battle Set

I have vivid memories of my Scalextric set I owned when I was little. It had a red car, and a blue car – I spent hours playing with it, carefully setting up the banked track. Carefully driving so the cars wouldn’t fly off and smash into the skirting boards. Sanding down the track to ensure the current flowed around it all. Replacing the worn metal contacts on the car. The track was SO tricky to disassemble – the clips hurt my tiny fingers.

I loved my Scalextric, so, when the cool kids from Hornby offered me the  to review I was VERY excited.

Unboxing and Setup

What’s in the box?

BTCC BMW 125 Jack Goff
BTCC Honda Civic Gorden Shedden
Powerbase straight
Lap counter straight
6 x Radius 2 90° curve
4 x Radius 2 45° curve
2 x Track support
2 x Colour coded hand controllers
4 x Braid plates
Transformer

J was itching to get the set out of the box. It is extremely well packed, and the design of the packaging means it’s easy to get back into the box when play has finished.

The track out of the box can be configured in four different layouts. We opted for the ‘Figure 8’ layout to start with. The instructions show how to set out each layout. Each track piece has a letter printed on the back to stop confusion. It’s fairly idiot proof and quick to put together, perfect for excitable children (and adults). The clips that hold each track piece together are much improved. They unclip easily meaning you can reconfigure the layout with ease (with no sore fingers). It does mean, however that the pieces can slightly pull apart. Not so much that the track will stop working, but you can get little gaps.

There are three wires to connect – one is the low voltage power, and two controllers. It’s so simple, J had done it while I was unscrewing the cars from the packaging.

Time to RACE!!

I loved how quick it was to get it out of the box and start playing – it all just worked out of the box. No messing, or tinkering. We were unpacked and racing in less than 10 minutes! Another feature I loved is the ‘speed’ limiter in the controller. It’s VERY easy to just squeeze the trigger and sent the cars crashing off under the sofa, or into a wall. There’s a screw in the controller to stop this. With a bit of tweaking, you can ensure the cars fly around the track, and not OFF it.

Thankfully as we have a largish space in the living room, I didn’t need to slow things down too much. J loved how fast the cars went. He giggled like a loon if a car came off. One of them travelled several metres and ended up spinning on its roof. It’s great to have the option if smaller kids want to play though. One of the track pieces has a lap counter in. This means it’s super easy to keep track of who is ‘winning’. J didn’t want to stop until he’d beaten Miss A. They are painfully competitive!

Overall

We were big fans of the Scalextric C1732 BTCC Touring Car Battle Set in this household. It feels like Scalextric has improved since I last used it. We were able to change the layout quickly when J got bored. The set seems like it’s expensive at £99, however, the cars themselves cost between £30-40 EACH – so it’s excellent value. Whilst the track crept apart slightly (you can see it in the header image), it’s not a show stopper. It’s good to have the option of four layouts straight out of the box. There’s 484 metres of track, which is plenty to weave under the sofa and around the table. We had a lot of our fun with our first afternoon with Scalextric – I’m looking forward to many more!

I was sent Scalextric C1732 BTCC Touring Car Battle Set in return for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.