[Spiros]

I was also enjoying Brian's original article until the usual anti Hornby bias appeared in the last couple of paragraphs.

Jim, justified and widely shared criticism of one particular aspect of Scalextric cars, their terrible tyres, does not constitute anti Hornby bias. The firm makes truly excellent model trains, Humbrol paints are still good as are Airfix kits and Corgi die-casts. Scalextric bodies are top notch and they probably make the widest range of any manufacturer with types to suit most people. By all accounts their current digital offerings are also very good.

I just do not understand why they continue to spoil their product with virtually zero grip tyres when it is so easy to provide decent ones, as other manufacturers demonstrate. Apart from magnets, the single greatest influence on slot car performance is the grip level of the rear tyres and I have some 30 and 40 year old Scalextric cars on original rubber which are perfectly adequate in that department. If they could do it way back then why not now?

I have a good friend who was a Scalextric stockist for decades.  The difficulty of dealing with "Scalextric USA" was his chief complaint, not the quality of the cars. Yes, the tires are horrible, but the repeated reorganizations of the company together with many horrible decisions didn't help either.