[Adrian Norman]

QUOTE (Keeto @ 11 Oct 2011, 18:29) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I'm sad. Wow. I guess no comments so far says it all....how does this car resemble this:

Is that last years body with this years paint scheme?

Shocking stuff. C'mon Scaley you did a great job with the Petronas Mercedes why didn't you continue with the Mclaren, a BRITISH car?

Hello Keeto,
A quick note to say that most slot car manufacturers who produce F1 cars have the same problem whereby F1 cars change atleast anually, sometimes more often during the season. It is financially unviable for a slot car manufacturer to make tooling that is only destined to be used once. Hence many liveries of the same car, using the same tooling and despite any real world changes to the full size car, are released from nearly all slot car manufacturers.
This means that to make an F1 slot car model accurate it would have to:
1: Engineering design and development would start no earlier that the first race of the season (Feb/Mar)
2; leading to a delivery date to the shops that would likely be after the season had finished. ie a model of the 2011 real car would not be delivered until 2012.
3; leaving customers perplexed as to why the slot car manufacturer has released the previous years car.

Therefore, slot car manufacturers generally make an agreement with the F1 team to use the same body tooling for an agreed number of years, usually with the proviso that the current years livery is used on the car body. Development and tooling begins as soon as the real car shape body details are released to the public at large - normally in the pre season launches in February. The same tooling is used for a pre-determined number of years by the slot car manufacturer. If the 1:1 car shape changes this can often mean that the proposed livery & decoration may not physically fit anymore - and adjustments are made for a best fit. This is why you will often see that slotcar models of F1 cars are seldom correctly detailed in body or decoration.
At best, an F1 car just might be correct for its first release but will then slowly become out of date over time.

I hope this throws some light on why this happens.

Happy Racing/Collecting
Adrian

PS: I have described the car as an MP4/24 and not an MP4/26 in the description in Doug's first post.

 

[Adrian Norman]

Hi Dopamine and others (above)

Re 'Fooling'.
Believe me, licence owners are very, very particular as to how their image is portrayed. The higher the profile of the licence owner, the more stringent the requirements upon us. They instruct us quite specifically on the extact description to appear on the product, as all high profile licence owners do. We do not get to choose how we would like to describe ANY of our high-profile (F1 teams, GT teams, etc) products. Life would be Oh so simple if we could!
For modern F1 cars, it is the case that we do not get the choice of what livery we put on to the car, irrespective of the car year/shape. This is completely controlled by the licence owner in their efforts to control their brand image and sponsor requirements. Tis is true just as much for a car that is 3 years old as a car from this current year.
Let me assure you all, we work hard with all licence owners to ensure we represent their car model likeness as they require. If the licence owner wants the car in a particluar colour shade (contrary to the real car colour), with or without certain sponsor names/logos, with or without particular bodywork details, released before or after a certain date, in certain packaging with appropriate graphics, only sold in specific markets, etc, etc, - this list is endless. We have to comply to all of this. We do so as a pleasure, as well as for business, to bring our valued Scalextric enthusiasts the products they have asked for.
Historically, the same has always applied right back to the earliest cars when sponsoship became so important to their brand image. You can thank Colin Chapman

. Take a look at any Scalextric F1 car and I suspect that you will very rarely find an exact replica.You only have to go back to the 90's and look at the Benetton and Ferrari car s produced then to see that details and liveries are not as accurate as today's offering are. We strive to improve.

The good thing is the enthusiast Scalextric F1, and other race series, fans out there (this is you guys) are interested enough to investigate our models and compare with the real car. Model cars will never be the same as the real car, It is impossible. Despite this, we try to achieve a close a model as possible to the original car whislt at the same time making it viable whilst complying with the licence owners requirements.
There are no secrets here, this is what all toy and model making companies have to do.

As always, I'm happy to try and throw some light on your questions and perceptions of the Scalextric world.
If you are going to the NSCC Hornby Scalextric Weekend, I will be glad to explain at length as part of the Q&A sessions we hold.

Happy Collecting & Racing
Adrian