The Scalextric Shop held their annual Autofest on the 26th of October at The Engine Shed the famous retail side of Gaugemaster UK. The event was a great showcase for the company as many of the shop visitors had come along to spend their hard earned money on the amazing range of model railway paraphernalia on offer. This has the added benefit of letting the local Slot Racers show off the sport too all and sundry and also meant that any youngster accompanying an adult knew what to ask for in the run up to Christmas, especially after entering the Scalextric World Championship on the specially set out track within the shop.
Two other tracks where also on display a three lane set called Bolnore Village Circuit made by Roger Feest which had a very interesting construction method that we can hopefully go into depth in another report later on, not only happy showing off his layout he is also a keen modifier and had Matchbox Yesteryear ERA car going around the layout that he had brought along. Even though it wasn’t a matching scale it really looked the part. The final layout was Terry Smiths very own layout that is a great representation of brands hatch in its younger days, this was located in the shops entrance lobby and had several Flycar sound cars on this circuit which sounded great when racing each other around the circuit.
During our visit Terry Smith Brand Manager for Gaugemaster and self certified Slot Car Fanatic took us on a behind the scenes tour of the huge facility that Gaugemaster has, one section of the warehouse is dedicated to the spares for Slot Racing and the cars they distribute, you can see in one image the rows of blue bins every single one of these is full with spare parts ready to be sent out to customers across the UK. Car Corner is a separate section that houses more Slot Cars than I have ever seen. Shelf upon shelf and row upon row is full and Terry admitted that currently they are a little light on stock!
If you didn’t go this year you missed out on picking up some great bargains so make sure you pencil it in for next year when the event is announced. It’s really easy to find the building as its located right next door to Ford train station. Make a day of it as we did and pop to Littlehampton afterwards for some cracking Fish n’ Chips in the bracing sea air.
And the best way to finish a trip to the Seaside.
