“The good, if brief, 2 times good”, said Baltasar Gracián. And so it has happened with world’s largest scalextriclocated in a Getafe shopping center, and almost camouflaged among the lighting of the other stores.
Close to his retirement Juan Carlos Palos Pajaresowner of VCM Slot and founder of the megalomaniac project, recognizes Business Insider Spain that this circuit was born to die, like the traditional fallas of Valencia.
“This is like the Fallas, which are born to burn,” compares Juan Carlos. “But when it burns, the fallero is not sad. This was born with the right life; it was born to die now. Now I have to burn this one to make another bigger circuit the same.”
Now, this circuit is already a record in itself, since it has 225 meters of track, 357 curves, 70 meters of tunnels and bridges, 4,000 meters of cable and up to 2.4 meters of unevenness.
Some figures that fall short when standing in front of the Scalextric, which has brought Juan Carlos and his team more than 3,000 working hours. Of course, with losses due to the pandemic, with which many businesses were affected.
Tazos, gogos and Barbie: 15 objects of the 2,000 that cost you nothing and are now worth a fortune
During the hardest 23 months, everything was lost, according to the creator of this Scalextric. They inaugurated it on March 9 and, just 4 days later, they had to close it due to the confinement.
“Since the schools began to come, at least we broke the dynamic of seeing red numbers in the account,” celebrates Juan Carlos. “At least it has served to see that the business was not wrong.”
For the moment, he has already completed his part of the work and now he hopes to leave this work of art in the hands of another person that, as he admits, It can be worth between 90,000 and 100,000 euros.
back to analog
Playing the Scalextric again –and even more so with one in which one round takes 3 minutes– means a return to one of the most common corners of all homes: toys that have always been there and are never forgotten.
Juan Carlos, who admits that he invested his first salaries in this toy, has as objective recover the analog and ensure that children –and not so young– can once again enjoy a healthy leisure time that is far from digital.
He himself narrates the story of a driver from the Canary Islands – whose name unfortunately he does not remember – champion of a gravel rally, and also of Scalextric, who has recently visited this scale circuit.
“I have rediscovered the sensation that I had when I was a child playing the Scalextric,” confessed the pilot, who had the willies.
In this circuit, furthermore, the only digital thing is the lap counter. Everything else is a trip to the analog world, one that the younger generations have never used, something that could be a problem.
According to recent research by neuroscientists at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (United States), 9 out of 10 minors use mobile phones to access social networks above the Spanish average (82.1%).
Additionally, the segment that counts teens is more likely to develop personality characteristics that cause them to use social media compulsively.
Juan Carlos has also seen this in the family. He tells, for example, that his nephews always carry the PlayStation 5 to play, but one day they ventured to try the Scalextric that he had assembled there.
“In the Play or on the computer you do the same thing a million times and the machine responds exactly the same,” he explains. “Here, you go through the same curve many times and it is never the same.”
He sees it in the groups of school children who visit the circuit and are captivated by what they can achieve by playing in a group and, of course, enjoying a game that has united so many generations.
“Although children want screens, when they do something with their hands they are surprised at what they are capable of doing,” he adds.
Now that he is retiring on May 12 -although he wants to negotiate his transfer-, Juan Carlos continues to attest to that will with which he created this Scalextric, which is none other than take people away from their screens for a moment and bring them back to reality. That, he explains, is the true value.
“The sentimental value is not worth anything. This is worth a lot being like this, but put in boxes it is not worth the weight,” he concludes.
