Formula One racing cars are capable of breathtaking speeds, but reaching nearly 1,000mph is unheard of - unless of course it’s a specially tuned Scalextric model which has just claimed a new land speed record.

Margate based Hornby, which produces Scalextric, held a special event at Chatsworth House, the stately home in Derbyshire, to see if the previous two year old record of 700mph could be broken.

TV celebrity and presenter of Channel Five’s The Gadget Show, Dallas Campbell, stole the show by smashing the world record with a replica Honda F1 car, recording a scale speed of 983.88mph.

However, Dallas wouldn’t have achieved his success without specialist help from Ramsgate based Scalextric racing enthusiast Keith Fishenden.

He explained: “I was asked to tune up the car especially for the event so replaced the standard motor with one running at 38,000rpm and adjusted the gearing on the back axle to make it run at high speed.”

In the contest, the cars, which are only a few centimetres long, had to travel along a 200 feet long track, the equivalent of a mile. Keith reckons the tuned up Honda would have completed the distance in around five seconds.

Other Scalextric cars such as the Aston Martin and Porsche 911 achieved equivalent speeds of over 700mph, to wow the crowds.

He added: “The Gadget Show came to my house and recorded me working on the car before we went up to Chatsworth for the event itself. It was a great weekend and Dallas is a smashing bloke.”

The world record attempt is due to be screened on Channel Five towards the end of June.