70 years of racing thrills in our living VROOMS

Blending the speed, competition and glamour of motorsport in a format that fits on a living room floor, Scalextric has now been thrilling British kids for seven decades.

- SUE LEE

As the ultimate racing toy reaches 70 years old, Martin Baines, chairman of the The National Scalextric Collectors Club, says: "Scalextric has been in the public consciousness for decades and shows no sign of fading.

"It's tactile, the whole family can play, once you've got the bug it never goes." Simon Owen, head of brand for Scalextric, which has just sold the business for £20million to Purbeck Capital Partners, says its appeal shows little sign of waning, despite it being an analogue toy in a digital world.

He explains: "Scalextric has something video and online games will never have a physical presence." Based at the firm's headquarters in Margate, Kent, he continues: "Once a computer is turned off, that McLaren car the kids have been looking at goes away. But a Scalextric model is something you can physically touch.

"You can play with it and it moves - that's very exciting. Kids are still amazed that they can make a car whizz around a track just by pulling a trigger." Scalextric fans travel to the UK from as far away as Australia and the US to take part in National Scalextric Collectors Club swap meets.

The clubs is now 40 and has thousands of members across the world.