Few experiences stir the emotions or trigger the memory quite like the clatter of a plastic car against a skirting board and the smell of hot Scalextric controllers.
For Martin Baines, a passion for slot cars that began in his early childhood never left and over the decades he has amassed one of the most impressive slot-car collections in the country.
“Growing up in the ’60s, Scalextric was a very sought-after toy, but it was quite expensive,” explains Baines. “I managed to get my hands on an early catalogue when I was five or six, but I was 10 before I got my first set – a four-lane ‘Set 80’ – in 1965. I fell in love with it there and then.
“I started collecting the cars, which even at that time were pretty good replicas of what people were racing on real circuits around the world. A love of motorsport developed through what was my most treasured toy as a child.
“I started collecting and buying other people’s cars when I became a teenager, and I’ve been accumulating them on and off for 50 years.”
“Later on,” he continues, “I found the National Scalextric Collectors’ Club [NSCC], which was formed in 1980, and through that I discovered swapmeets – amazing events all over the country where you could buy cars and accessories that were hard to find.”
