Fly Racing Saleen S7R GT02

Review by Nuro

Model Fly Racing Saleen Motor Fly Racing Evo 2 Chassis ABS Plastic Body Tampo’d ABS plastic, Lexan interior Wheels Aluminium wheels with rubber Racing Type D slick tyres Price/Availability About £40 / 60€ Rivals Slot.it Audi R8 & Porsche 956, Fly Racing Porsche                    Likes Drivability Dislikes Fit of lights and molded parts	Click on images for larger view No-magnet racing from Fly with the latest Racing Saleen S7R GT02. Ref: 07026
Fly have a very smart Saleen S7R body shape - no doubting that. We've seen this shape now for a while. The same mold is now used to produce a racing version that has a body 30% lighter that the standard ABS model. This weight reduction is achieved by removing surplus detail and using a thin Lexan cockpit. The driver is a head... - with arms molded into the black cockpit with the dash and steering wheel. The exterior is ok, but I don't really go for the day-glow front light covers and rear spoiler. The front light covers don't fit that well and the contrast in color to the black body show up the minor fitting problems. The rear spoiler is quite neat - it is adjustable so you can vary the amount of down-force it produces "Hang on!" you say... "this is 1:32!"
	Motor type Fly Racing Evo 2 Motor RPM 22.000 r.p.m/14.8 v Bushings Brass Axels Calibrated steel 2,5 mm Pinion Brass 10 teeth Crown Brass with Blue ring 27 teeth Gear Ratio 2,7:1 Length 150,8 mm Width 62 mm Height                 36,2 mm Weight 83,5 gr. Right out of the box, this car drives well, but one soon has the body off to check the fittings. Mine arrived a little loose and I had to use the supplied Allen key to adjust and tighten the wheels. The best thing to the eye are the Aluminium wheels with photo etched parts (neat disk brakes showing through). Rubber racing tyres (type D) round off the appearance and give it a great profile. The axels are 2,5 mm in diameter made from calibrated steel and the pinion fitting is adjustable also by an Allen screw. It has the Fly 27 tooth blue pinion that arrived pre-greased. The 2,7:1 gear ratio gives good speed on long straights, but lacks acceleration on small technical sections of a home circuit. The chassis is different from the Racing Porsche 911 GT1 EVO2 RS. The Porsche chassis is held on with three screws and is not designed to allow for any movement whereas the Saleen has a chassis held on with one screw at the rear and a clip in the front. This is specifically designed to allow a variable amount of movement between the body and chassis pivoting laterally on the screw.
The best car that I had to evaluate the Saleen against was the Fly Porsche 911 GT1 EVO2 RS. I had plenty of trouble getting my Porsche to run properly when it first arrived. The crown gear was sticking, the motor was popping out, the wheels were out of shape and I nearly binned it. But eventually I fixed all the problems and now it runs quite well. The Saleen on the other hand ran very well right out of the box although one can still do all the usual tricks right away to make it even better. Running it against the Porsche was the logical thing to do. They both are good non magnet cars with the same motor. But the Saleen has larger diameter and wider tyres, a longer body, a longer wheelbase and better stability, it has flex where it needs it and strength built in to the design. So basically it beat the pants off the Porsche. I tried it on all lanes and it preformed well in each one. The outer lanes with my fancy borders were the most fun as this car swipes to the side in the most graceful of ways whilst maintaining quite a bit of speed. Lane 2 is the fastest though and Challenger is on Lane 3 (unless we're speed testing the others). I found it to be a great car, running very well on my track (with WD-40 on the tyres). If driven competitively, it doesn't crash off and loose parts. The worst that happens is that it jackknives and ends up getting stuck in the slot at a sharp angle to the direction of travel. This can be violent and actually whilst racing, the Porsche bust it's guide doing just that. If the tyres dry out too much this happens all the time. The Saleen is a step or two above the Porsche with its chassis and size. Overall it's an enjoyable car to look at and to drive.   Conditions:     Power 13.8 volts   Controller Parma 25 ohm   Track Doug's Track 17.14 meters       Cars Tested:     Fly Racing Saleen S7R GT02 6.31 seconds   Fly Porsche 911 GT1 6.37 seconds   Scalextric Porsche GT1 (2003 club car) 7.30 seconds       Track records:     Proteus Lamborghini 4.70 seconds   Fly Viper 4.88 seconds   Challenger 6.96 seconds

Text & Photos ©2004 Nuro - All rights reserved
    ©2004 SlotForum - All rights reserved