VINTAGE 1978 MATCHBOX S400 STREAK RACING SET

This set was given to me by a friend. It was his childhood toy and it is very well preserved with complete parts and box. I offered to buy but he refused. He said he'd preferred to let someone who knows how to appreciate toys to have it rather than giving it to kids. I am pleasantly surprised by his generosity and am very grateful for this.

The set comes with two Matchbox cars. As you can see from the picture, there are hardly any paint chips. And it comes in their original boxes too.

This car and the box doesn't match. Not sure why.

This is quite a huge set when assembled. (Pic below) I left out two more tracks as there are not enough space in my room.

Tested the set with my Hotwheels cars as I didn't want to cause any paint chip to the vintage Matchbox cars. The track still works excellently well.

The Matchbox cars (pic below) are for photography purpose only.

It uses gravity to launch the cars.

The cars and playset parts are all made in England.

As I was doing research on this toy, I found out that this race set was issued in 1978 and subsequently re-released in early 1980s. Also noted was the box variation, my specimen (pic below right) indicated there are 12 connector pieces (circled) which was an error as it only comes with 6 connector pieces. I guess they remedied the printing error in the later release box (pic below left)