Almost every Tuesday since 1977, a club now numbering about a dozen people - usually men, usually older in years - have met in a church hall in London's Wood Green and done their best to keep an old hobby alive.
Their passion? Slot racing. Specifically, Scalextric.
The club races every week, from 8pm till late, and with cars of all types and models. Some are even hand made out of brass and soldered wiring, lovingly constructed from scratch with a master's touch.
But as Scalextric's makers Hornby admitted on Friday, the old boys of the London Scalextric Club are among the last of a slowly dying breed.
The company, which also owns the Airfix and Corgi brands, says that fragile consumer confidence is to blame for dwindling sales.
Hornby Chairman Neil Johnson said: "It is proving extraordinarily difficult to predict sales accurately in these turbulent markets."
It is the second year in a row that the company has endured disappointing Christmas trading, and hopes are low among fans that its new products based around Star Wars and London buses will make any major difference.
Hornby's shares slumped 19% in the wake of the profits warning and Numis Securities cut its profits forecast for this year by £2 million to £5 million and for the following year to £6.5 million from £8.2 million, despite the likely benefit of strong sales of Olympics-related merchandise.
Jon Copestake, retail analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said that Hornby had become an "anachronism".
He said: "Hornby's results reflect the changing nature of demand for toys. Although the Hornby brand is steeped in nostalgia for many adult consumers, the prevalence of console gaming has made it something of an anachronism for younger consumers.
"Although Scalextric is fun it is difficult to see it competing with the Gran Turismo gaming series… It is difficult to see how Hornby products can operate as more than collectible or niche items, outside the mainstream, going forward."
And while long-running supporters like the London Scalextric Club and the online community Slot Forum point to that strong legacy fan base, even old school fans know Hornby's future success depends on reaching new children.
The problem, says Steve Carter, who is the chairman of the London Scalextric Club, is that they just aren't interested.
In his sixties now, Carter got into Scalextric as a boy. He lost the habit in his twenties, but came back to it in the end.
"I found my old race box, and someone said 'well there's still clubs around', and I went to Wood Green where the club was and I've been there 30 years now."
For a while the club thrived, but things are different now. To put it nicely, the club has honed its audience.
"We haven't got any children at the club," he told the Huffington Post UK. "We haven't got anyone under 40. That tells you something."
"We call it the Last of the Summer Wine now. We enjoy ourselves. But we say now that children now would probably get in the way."
Carter puts the blame partly on the rise of ever-flashier computer games, but also on the parents who see Scalextric as just too much hassle.
"Scalextric needs to be assembled, and it gets in the way at times - it's a bit hands on, it gets put away and forgotten," he said. "These little games that just go in a slot and you push a button, it's much easier."
Above: hardcore fans are helping to keep Scalextric alive - for now.
Other toy companies seem to have found a formula for success, however. Building blocks maker Lego recently reported a huge rise in profits, largely off the back of its Star Wars, Harry Potter and other franchises, as well its adult-focused toys.
So why can't Hornby do the same?
For fans like Carter, it's quite simple: make racing cars.
For while his anger at the company's recent performance is palpable, his love of racing slot cars is as strong as ever.
"I notice in their latest catalogue they're doing the same thing they do time and time again, which is look for gimmicks," he laments. "Like with the Star Wars lines. I can't see what it's got to do with Scalextric, it's a waste, and it'll be a complete failure. Kids won't associate that theme with a track, and they won't want it."
"They should stick with the core, which is racing cars."
Hornby has also been accused of exploiting its adult fans with ever-expanding limited edition lines that don't appeal to kids - and don't appeal to hard core racers like the London club.
"You'll see in the catalogue there are about four or five special editions," Carter said. "They come in a presentation box with a numbered card. That annoys people like me who race them because we can't buy it to race as we know it's limited."
There is always hope, Carter said. While most of the kids in his family don't like Scalextric it has captured at least one young imagination: "I have got one young nephew, and he's only six, and he's car mad - for some reason he just loves cars. I got him Scalextric and he loves it. I'm hoping he's an exception to the rule."
But unless Hornby makes major changes, he says, the hobby will one day lose its race with survival.
"It's an ever-shrinking audience," he said, simply. "It's so different to how it used to be."