James May To Resurrect Brooklands In Scalextric

Now, we're all car guys (and girls), so James May should need no introduction. He sort of has our dream job: He's paid (cash money) to screw around with cars on television. If that's not enough, it looks like he has a serious slot car fetish. It seems it's so bad that he's aiming to recreate the vaunted and very British race track, Brooklands, in Scalextric.

Scalextric needs no introduction to our British readers, but to fill the rest of you in, Scalextric is a brand of slot cars that is hugely popular in its native England. The cars are 1/24th scale and come in a huge variety. From modern Lambos to pre-war racers, Scalextric has it all. And yes, the cars are fast, and yes, it's huge fun to do (especially while drinking, and the only form of drinking and driving that I would recommend). Many car club functions I have attended have devolved into drunken bets over who's better on a Scalextric track.

So why not remake Brooklands as a Scalextric track, asked James May. Well, for starters, this isn't going to be a scale version, this is going to be a full sized version.

"May will use 20,000 separate sections of track to match the original 2.75 mile (4.42km) circuit and beat the current record of 1.59 miles (2.56km). Brooklands, in Weybridge, closed in 1939 and the track will have to cross a river and roads to complete a circuit," according to the BBC.

And this is why I like May and the other Top Gear guys: They're loony enough to make a slot car track that's actually bigger than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Yeah, I'm jealous, because this sounds like a lot of fun.

And on top of that Brooklands was a cool track (and it's a real shame it's fallen into disuse). The first purpose built race track in history, Brooklands featured huge banked curves and what amounted to a big jump at one point on the course. They say that bump wasn't put there purpose, but it sure made for some interesting moments when things like Blower Bentleys would skip off the bump and fly for tens of yards.

So if you get the BBC, you'll see how this turns out, but conceptually, it already sounds too cool.

Source: BoingBoing Gadgets. Photos from BoingBoing, vinmar, llcoolj40 and wetwebwork.