Fly F40 Kit Review
Review by Savage

Its fair to say there has been some anticipation for the forthcoming F40 models from Slot.It and Fly, at least from me ! Fly were first out of the block, so this review centres on their release.

A little bit of the real cars History:

Enzo Ferrari, at the age of 90, decided he wanted a car to show the glory days of Ferrari, his brief was simple, A no frills race car for the road. Body panels were made of Kevlar, carbon fibre, and aluminium for strength and low weight and weight was further minimized through the use of a plastic windshield and windows and no carpets. It was the last car commissioned by Enzo before his death.

Although Ferrari never intended to race it, it first appeared competitively in 1989 when it debuted in the Laguna Seca round of the IMSA finishing 3rd in the hands of Jean Alesi. Several privateers ran them in domestic GT series  and it also competed in some Le Mans 24H races. The  F40 was competitive up until 1996 when it was outgunned by the then new Mclaren F1 GTR.

Being one of my all time favourite cars, as soon as I realized this was out, It was ordered. 

£40.50 RRP for a kit seems a bit steep so what does Fly give us for the money?

The picture below shows the components, basically the interior and windows are pre-installed, all that has to be assembled on the body is the tow hook, rear light lenses, front and rear grills and antenna. The plastic lights and metal backings needed some light trimming to remove mould/punch remains, and assembly was straightforward with components fitting well.

The kit also comes with a crystal case (essential for those of us without special storage or display areas). That and the fact the windows and interior is pre-installed seem to be the only real difference to the fly fast kit range, hardly a reason to be twice the price of those IMO.

All that needed doing on the chassis was assembly of the front brake disks to the wheels (push fit) and front wheels to the axle (I trimmed approx 2-3mm of the axle to remove excess slop). Talking of axles, this car uses standard 3/32 axles (hooray !) The the motor and rear wheel assembly just needs clipping in place. The motor is sidewinder configuration, with a black plastic end bell. I don't know the spec of this motor, but it feels pretty much like a standard 18K rpm Mabuchi. Due to the fact I run digital at home, I fitted an SSD digital chip in place at this time.

The completed chassis (with SSD chip):

The Finish on the body, is superb, no noticable mould lines and the tampo printing is excellent. The interior is well detailed and subjectivley the whole car looks to be a superb representation of the real thing. Here are a few shots of the finished kit, a couple alongside a painted Scalextric 1980's F40 for comparison.

So how does it run ?

Well pretty much like other Fly cars really, the magnet sticks it down and away it goes. I suspect the interior causes a little bit of typical fly noise, as chassis alone is pretty quiet. Great for a home car, and possibly could be tuned for competition, but for club and or non-mag racing I will aim to get the racing version on release.

Is it worth the cost ? well probably not, but if you are an F40 fan like myself its an essential purchase, and did I mention, it looks stunning !

Savage