Lanechanger first appeared in 1978. This was Matchbox's response to the impending TCR onslaught. It was a good package but never quite caught on in the volume Powertrack & Speedtrack did.
There are reasons for this, not least the paltry range of cars available. Admittedly, one was the stunning Porsche 935 Turbo in faux Martini guise - this was the headline racing car of the late seventies after all. The other car was the Chevrolet Monza, which frankly was not at all popular and can barely support itself on a google image search. However, it did look the mutt's nuts and in blue and yellow it was very smart.
In the UK, only two sets were available. One was a longer layout than the other but that was the only real difference.
In the US Lanechanger was named RPS. This stood for Rack & Pinion Steering. Actually, this was pretty nifty. The cars operated without a slot and had three power strips in the track. Car 'A' had pick up shoes that picked up power from LH and Middle slots, car 'B' picked up power from RH and middle slots.
Originally, Car 'A' was always the Monza and Car 'B' was the Porsche. However, later versions of the cars came with both types of pick ups so it didn't matter which car was which.
By clicking the button on top of the hand controller (the same type as Race & Chase sets) you could jog the gear and literally steer the car to the next lane.
I haven't sampled whether this works at all in practice but the I have read elsewhere that it does and it does it very well. On straights, a car in the right lane will move to the left, on curves the car will only overtake on the outside. Hmm, not sure how all this works yet but will no doubt be told by Lanechanger fans soon enough...
For me the Lanechanger sets offered plenty of eye candy. Being the seventies, I know I was torn between the PT-6000 Race & Chase or the LC-1000 Lanechanger. The cars in LC-1000 were uber-cool. However, Father Christmas decided it was to be the Race & chase.
Lanechanger was a ten volt system. The track (being slotless with three rails) was also not interchangeable with Powertrack or Speedtrack. The car bodies had very large front wheel cut outs, so you could not easily put a LC car on a Powertrack chassis - it looked odd. However, with some modelling filler and some considerable time you can graft an LC car onto a Powertrack chassis - as long as you were confident it will not be abused in racing...
Elsewhere, it was business as usual - same useless US packaging, excellent UK packaging. Same crash barriers and bridge supports.
Latterly, Matchbox did introduce more versions of the Monza and Porsche as well as a BMW M1 and Zakspeed Capri. Track wise, there were only two lengths of straight track and only one type of corner so scope was limited. In terms of accessories there was very little, but the RPS 6000 offered some scope from the norm...
In 1980 Matchbox dropped Lanechanger. Perhaps Ideal had consolidated their position with TCR, perhaps Lanechanger couldn't compete with Powertack/Speedtrack. Maybe Lanechanger didn't work so well in practice, perhaps the cars were too clever and unreliable. Whatever the reason it had a very short shelf life. There are a surprising number of RPS sets on Ebay and it must have has some success, maybe I will procure one in the name of research...
Watch this space...
