The Maserati MC12 is one of Scalextric's more anticipated releases this year - if only because it's the car featured on the cover of this year's catalogue.

The car comes in the usual smart 'Sport' packaging, and the first thing that strikes you is the sheer size of the car - it's big, very long and wide. In fact it's so large that Scalextric felt it necessary to secure it to the base of the box with not one but two screws!

So it's a bit of a monster, but it's a handsome brute. The standard of finish on most modern slotcars is amazing, and Scalextric are among the best. You really would be forgiven for thinking it was a static display model.

The paint, a deep lustrous blue, is smooth and flawless (to my eyes, at least!) and the tampo print is sharp and clear and solid.

Even though the majority of the printwork is white it's completely opaque, I couldn't see any faint patches anywhere. It seems to have a good coat of clear too, to help protect the livery. (When you hold the car up to the light the printed areas are as glossy as the paint, and when you run a finger over the car you can hardly feel the print.) 

There's a lot of detail work too - the open vents on the wings, sides, nose and engine cover, the winglets either side of the nose, photo-etched parts inside the bonnet vents and the tiny Maserati trident on the front grill are just some of the nicer touches.

Although GT cars aren't renowned for luxurious interiors, there's a fair bit of detail inside too. The driver is in a plain white race suit, with painted harness and silver crash helmet (he looks the same as the one in the Ford GT and Maserati Cambiocorsa - for a little guy he's getting some nice rides!!).

Instruments and switches are picked out on the dashboard, there's a 'plumbed in' fire extinguisher and roll cage too. There's certainly enough detail to make it look authentic.

At least on this car the windscreen wiper is attached to the screen, not the dashboard, so I didn't break it!

The rear of the interior moulding forms (engine?) detail which can just about be seen through the louvres on the rear deck of the car.

The chassis features the transmission 'pod' first seen on the Lister Storm LMP. It's secured by a single screw and holds the motor (offset to one side), rear axle and 'stepped' magnet. The gears are plastic, 9t pinion and 27t crown gear, and pre greased. The axle runs in metal bushes which are painted black. The motor wires have a plug which allows you to disconnect the entire 'pod' from the rest of the chassis.

Which is good because you don't want to have to take this car apart too often! A total of eight screws hold the car together - yup that's right, eight! Two at the rear, four in the centre part of the chassis, a small one in the nose and the countersunk screw for the pod. It does seem a bit like overkill to me!

If you take the car apart it's a bit tricky to put it back together - mainly because the wires run through a channel in the floor of the interior and if they're not lined up the parts won't fit together properly. It's not difficult, it just takes a little patience.

But the separate pod is a good idea because everything that is likely to need maintenance can be accessed by removing just one screw. It's also possible to slacken the screw slightly to allow some movement - almost a suspension effect. The plug for the motor can be reversed so you can run the car round your track the other way, but the lights don't work in reverse. 

The lights - nice bright red LED's at the rear and (finally!) white headlamps! They are the 'Xenon' type and actually throw a respectable beam of light in front of the car. They're not permanent (they dim as you come off the power) but a conversion kit is available from Overdrive. Apparently only the Sport models will get the Xenon headlights, the standard cars will have yellow lights.

Time for some test laps...

Straight out of the box the car is quick and quiet. The stepped magnet doesn't provide as much 'downforce' as a standard bar magnet so the MC12 slides much more easily, but it's so smooth and controllable. The newer type guide has a much larger arc of travel than the old plug in guides and the long wheelbase seems to give it more stability. Although I got it into some huge powerslides it didn't spin or threaten to tip, and the nose stayed firmly planted. My best time with the standard magnet was 6.8 seconds.

A few laps without the magnet revealed similar behaviour - it wheel-spins and slides but the car is so smooth and easy to catch, and it just doesn't want to come out of the slot. With a gentler trigger finger the MC12  can be driven quite smoothly (even by me!) but some weight and/or better tyres would probably improve things. I'm not an expert with non-mag set-ups but it seemed like the car has potential. 

Finally I tried the Maserati with a standard bar magnet - it's a straight replacement and just clips into place. This really helped to tame the tail, though it would still slide if provoked too much. But now I was getting some really quick laps, the car twitching and slithering occasionally but really pushing hard, and still feeling controllable. And the result - a best lap of 5.8 seconds, right up in Viper territory!

I was almost surprised because it didn't feel so 'on the ragged edge' as some cars when I get them to that sort of time.

So was it worth the wait? To me, yes, definitely!

I was expecting it to be good, the main manufacturers don't make many poor cars these days. I was confident that it would look great, and to be pretty quick,  but I wasn't expecting it to be quite so much fun - non-mag, standard mag or stronger mag, it's smooth and easy to drive, and deceptively quick. Can't go wrong with this one!