Looking through my collection I found I have too many unfinished projects and too many unprepared "shelf queens" so I picked up one of my old favorites from the shelf, the Fly 911S.

Porsche 911's of the late 60's and early 70's have always been one of my all time favorite cars, and even though the FLY model is starting to get a bit dated, it still is IMO the best looking early 911 slotcar out there. I have around 30 of them and they made several versions including the 911S, 911R, 911RS "ducktail", 934 and 911 RS SC (rally version). FLY released their 911's in a standard version with high detail, full interiors and a chassis with a sidewinder mounted behind the rear axle to simulate the rear mounted motor location in the real cars. The other version FLY made was the "Rally/Racing" version with a inline spring suspended pod, long can motors, lightweight interior and low detail body. The Rally/Racing version's are very capable slotcars with "slot.it performance", the early releases had some gear issues and unconventional axles/wheels, but this was sorted out in later releases. The chassis and bodies are interchangeable between the standard and Rally/Racing versions.

The car I picked off my shelf had been there for a while, and it's a standard version of the FLY 911S with one of the IMO better looking liveries, the "Toad Hall Racing" that finished 13th at Le Mans in 1972



The "standard" FLY 911's can be a bit of a hit or miss, some rune nice straight from he box while others are virtually undrivable due to bad gear mesh and rubbing/binding wheels. The chassis is also a bit temperamental due to the motor mounted relatively high in the chassis and behind the rear axle. But with a little preparation they become nice running slotcars even without magnets, they won't scare any Slot.it cars off the track, but they are fun and smooth once sorted.



My approach to this car was not to prepare it for racing, just to make it a nice running slotcar that is fun to turn laps with, and the preparation this car needed was basically to shim the rear axle, true all wheels and tires and adding a little weight in the front. I also replaced the guide flag with a deeper one from MB Slot, since that makes the front ride a bit lower, and I also used thin and soft SCX PRO braids to make sure the guide gets as deep into the slot as possible on my Carrera track.



The stock tires are a bit tough to true, but I have a RSM2 truing machine (similar to the Tire Razor) and after truing them with a drop of oil as coolant, the stock rubber sticks surprisingly well on the Carrera track, despite the age of the tires on this car. The car runs good now but when pushed, there is still a bit too much lateral play in the front axle, so I will add a couple set-screws to make it adjustable, and then I'll just enjoy it as it is



A nice rendezvous with one of the slotcars that made me a FLY addict some years ago

Tore