Why Cluedo? Simply because it sounds like Ludo - Latin for "I play". And it was published in the UK (by Waddingtons) before making it to the US.
This document (beware, you'll get a crick in the neck reading it) explains that it was renamed because Ludo is better known as Parcheesi in the US.

Is it just me who thought:

"You're my wife now, Dave!"

?

Sorry...

This is one of a number of high-quality T52 replicas available, including the French Violette (correctly electrically driven, and a snip at Euro 30,000!), the British Tulabug and the Argentinian Pur Sang.

Incidentally, Pur Sang also makes splendid recreations of the full-scale Type 35B Bugatti, as well as this beast.

Oh, and DCulberson, the problem with "modern drivetrain, suspension, tires..." is that they would radically change the look and stance of the Bug. Even a half-decent replica like the Teal is spoilt by its conventional front suspension, in my opinion.

In any case, with around 140hp and a kerb (sorry, 'curb') weight of about 750kg, a properly fettled T35B is pretty damn' fast anyhow. I seem to recall a UK road test of the 80's in which one outaccelerated a Porsche Turbo to 100mph (although the top speed would be 'only' about 120-130mph). The later twin-cam T51 weighs little more and can apparently put out 180hp. Scary!

Sorry, kids: those of you who reckon this must be a Scalextric setup are dead wrong. It's a Matchbox Motorised Motorway, which is probably closest to what Anonymous (comment#6) described as the Speedtrack.

The Matchbox Motorised Motorway was a figure-of-8 track with two lanes running (usually) in opposite directions. Each had a slot in which ran a long coil spring, pushed along by a gear connected to a 12V motor in a roadside 'shed' - this was controlled by a slot-car-style control with a thumb-operated plunger.

The cars themselves were ordinary Matchbox diecasts, with small plastic drive pins stuck onto the underside which engaged with the moving spring. It came with a lovely Ferrari 250 Berlinetta and an Iso Grifo - at least, they were the cars shown on the excellent box painting.

The system allowed you to run any number of cars and trucks on the track at once; of course, they all ran at the same speed, and eventually the system would grind to a halt if you put too many cars on it.

Another limitation was that, of course, the spring was a fixed length - so you couldn't alter the shape of the track significantly, and had to run it as a figure of 8 (so that both lanes were the same length).

You also ran out of drive pins eventually, and it was a pain to find new ones. Ironically, with eBay now they are probably easier to buy than ever before.

But the thing I remember above all is the NOISE! Those springs running along a hard plastic runner made a godawful racket.

My MMM is up in the attic, and you've just encouraged me to give it another go...

I'll try taking some photos this weekend, and post them up on the Road Transport blog.

And don't forget Ian R MacLeod's wonderful, understated novel 'The Summer Isles', which posits a fascist Britain in the Thirties, and which seems to share some of the themes of Jo Walton's book (the protagonist is gay, for example).
MacLeod's book is not really a thriller, but is exciting, elegiac and satisfying (and mystifyingly has only been published in a limited-edition hardback).