Scalextric 2012 Olympics Velodrome

 

This is Simon Kohler's fault. Reading his autobiography, the 2012 Olympic Velodrome set, was given a bit of a kicking. Of course, that made me want one. It could sit in my collection with the other great disaster, the 3DS. 

A quick look on eBay, where there is plenty of choice, and just under twenty quid later, including postage, a rather tidy set was mine. The question is, is it any good? 

Inside, it's all nicely packed in a moulded cardboard tray. There is track, a couple of cyclists, power supply, controllers, and some cardboard decoration. 

All set up, the first thing you notice is that the Team GB board is smaller than the oval - not quite as shown on the box. 

The track feels a bit cheap, and as this is a banked circuit, I'd say that's not a good thing. Remember, the whole lot rests on the inner edge. There are no supports, it just sort of wobbles in mid air. Not a big problem, but this doesn't scream "quality" to me. 

The cyclists are quite impressive. 

Each man is attached to a motorised sidecar. The front wheels revolve, a nice touch. I'm told they are a bit fragile, and liable to lose the moving wheel when leaving the track. It's worth looking out for this if you fancy a set yourself. I spotted a few incomplete ones for sale. 

Under the sidecar, is a motorised unit with a pair of drive wheels, and the required thing to run in the slot. The braids on my set look a little poorly, but a spare set is included in the box. I guess that standard micro Scalextrix spares would work. 

You can also see a pair of magnets that grip the steel rails, providing power. This will increase grip, and stop the cyclist flying off all the time.  

Unclip the lid, and inside is a standard 3-pole Scalextric motor driving the wheels. Both chassis benefited from some of Deluxe Materials magic jollop, but soon ran very smoothly. OK, we didn't have a huge amount of speed control, but then this isn't a P4 shunting layout. 

So, is it any good? 

Not really. The fundamental problem is that the inner track is shorter than the outer one, which gives one cyclist an advantage over the other. The pair of chicaines adds a little jeopardy, but the cyclists appear to be able to squeeze past each other without too much trouble. 

The idea is interesting, but play value will be limited, not helped by the fragile nature of the set. I bet there are a lot that never made it to the loft dump. The number on eBay suggests many people had a go, and put it all back in the box. 

You can't even add track for a more interesting race. OK, this is realistic, but is that the point? 

Another noble Hornby failure. I have a lot of sympathy for their Olympic range. If you remember, it wasn't until two weeks before the event that the country got behind it. Had we realised how good it was going to be earlier, who knows how much tat we might have been persuaded to buy?

I'm not sure that would have saved the velodrome though...