A Full House beats all ?

Fly GB Tracks racing series, the latest editions under scrutiny.

Fly's entry into the world of production slot racing began with the Porsche 911 GT1 '98 in a plain coloured series boasting a hotter than standard motor similar in size to Nincos NC1, magnet, lexan interior, lightened body and skinny front wheels/tyres with brass weights on the axle.

After a few revisions we now have the latest version that actually bears little resemblance to the original and offers a variety of race series with the same competition equipment. The initial releases were a Porsche 911 GT1 98 with the prefix EVO Racing, then followed the EVO 2, EVO 2 R and the current one EVO 2RS. The other three cars in the series all boast the same specifications as the EVO 2 RS.

CLASSIC - Group 5 Ford Capri RS Turbo

GT - Saleen S7-R

EVO 2RS - Porsche 911 GT1 98

LMP - Lola B98/10

These cars are fast, stable and demanding to be sure, but there are remarkable differences in handling even though they boast the same features.

The current features are:

• Fly Racing EVO 2 light engine (similar in size to Nincos NC2) giving 22,000r.p.m @ 14.8 volts.

• 30% lighter, special ABS plastic body and redesigned Lexan interior.

• Transmission in the form of a new press fit brass 10 tooth pinion gear and brass rimmed 27 tooth crown gear with Allen key fixing.

• New design racing chassis enabling body tilt due to newly designed screws.

• Aluminium rims with Allen key fixing (key supplied with car), photo etched parts, type D calibrated 2.5mm steel axles and racing tyres.

• ALL are non magnet with no space built into the chassis to accept one.

I have to say that to get the benefit of 'body tilt' you have to loosen the screws it is not a built in tilt. However the screws ARE new, longer, thinner and very nice to use given that they remain secure within the posts right down to the last few turns.

Direct from the box they will all turn reasonable lap times, but they also ALL improve signifigantly when the wheels/crown gear are balanced and set properly and the bodies are loosened slightly.

Fly claim to have become the top brand in competition slot racing but it would be interesting to know their criterior for these claims as Slot:It also produce a high performance, high quality, direct from the box racing product, albeit so far limited to liveries of the Audi R8C and Porsche 956C.

Clicking on t he Pictures will take you to larger versions for closer inspection

However, this review is of the Fly cars and the above are just for comparison. Each new car in the Fly Racing series sees the shelves in a plain, one colour livery as in the 'new to the range' Capris and Lolas . But, as can be seen in the Saleen and Porsche, later liveries are offered with Historical or made up tampo liveries so if painting and decorating a model is not your scene I would suggest waiting awhile for a pre tampoed version to come out.

Ok, so lets dig deeper!

Each chassis is built around a rear inline motor set up and all hold the same racing motor and the new fly racing guide. 

A note worth mentioning here is that the new racing guides are a lot deeper than the standard Fly guides. This means they have the same effect as Ninco guides on Scalextric Classic and Revell tracks, the slot in these tracks is too shallow and you will have to shave the bottom off the guide a little (approximately 0.5mm) to clear the bottom of the slot. However they are well set into the chassis and line up nicely with the bottom of the front tyres and have more than the usual side to side swing angle. The shaft is also a nice, smooth and rock free fit into the chassis. I have tried a colleagues Capri fitted with a sprung Ninco guide but felt it did not improve anything noticeably.

Every car has the same 'track' (wheel/axle width) measuring 60mm when set level to the arches, although they each vary in wheelbase as follows:

Coming in with the shortest wheelbase is the Capri, measuring 78mm between axle centres.

Next comes the Porsche, measuring 80mm between axle centres,

In third place is the Saleen with a measurment of 84mm

and longest of all is the Lola with a whacking 86mm wheel base.

Now usually wheelbase is an important consideration when setting up a car, along with the amount each car protrudes behind the rear wheels (Porsche - 31mm, Saleen - 33mm, Lola - also at 33mm, and the Capri - 38mm including spoilers ). Taking just this into account one would assume the Porsche and Saleen to be the better handling but this could not be further from the truth!

Take a look at the next two pics - 

You can clearly see the difference in positioning of the guide in each car, in relation to the front axle.

Whilst the rear of the guide on the Saleen and Porsche are well in front of the axle, the Capris guide ends over the centre line and the Lolas actually ends behind the axle.

When you look lower down at the lap times, it is this feature that determines the race ability and performance to my mind. A point I had not really appreciated before.

Now onto finish - The Saleen and Porsche are well tampoed and there are no paint run issues because the colour is provided by the plastic colour and not a spray finish. There is NO laquer top coat, presumably to keep the weight down but this does mean that the tampo work is prone to wearing away with excessive handling. The Capri is a base plastic colour with no tampo work so the above isn't an issue until you paint/decal it yourself.

The same goes for the Lola but here I have some issues..

The yellow colour comes out translucent across the whole car EXCEPT for the rear section (Yes these are longtail versions and the spoiler is attached to the chassis) which is alot more solid in colour and therefore noticeable. Looking below you can also see that it does not fit quite right. On the up side, I am using this to race so actually - does it matter that much?

The other problem that this translucent finish presents is tied to the fact that this is the only one of the Racing series to have a two part chassis, the small front section is independantly screwed to the body and therefore makes the nose of the car appear darker in shade.

I am sure that later releases will look better, especially with a livery, but time will tell and this makes the car, at the moment, the worst looks wise.

One other problem, that exists in every car, is the tendancy for the motor to pop out of the mount, the easiest and most effective fix I have found for this is to tape the motor onto the chassis with duct tape.

This holds the motor tight and is easy to remove when required. 

To do this first remove the motor from its mount, then cut a strip of tape about 90mm long, trim it to the same width as the length of the motor. Then with the sticky side outwards, slot it through the gap in the chassis for the motor and secure it on one side. Next slide the motor through the loop and click it back into the mounting ( see third chassis from left in the pic above and left). pull the tape loop tight round the motor and secure it onto the other side of the chassis (see pic above right), fold it round the chassis and trim to fit. This will hold it secure and trouble free. For the sticky side of the tape on top of the motor you can cover it with more tape or simply use a moist finger to remove the glue.

HOT ADDITION!

As I published this Gaugemaster contacted me with two pictures to add to the review, it seems Fly also recognised the motor bouncing problem and have solved it in the latest magnet (yes magnet!) release of the EVO 2RS Porsche - How? exactly the same way as above. It seems this is the way to go..

This is how the car comes from the factory ! Note the magnet holder between motor and axle?

I will add this version of the Porsche 911 GT1 98 to the review as soon as I get it to test. Watch this space.

The metal rims for each car are very high quality, light and a smooth, tight fit onto the axles which are hardened so over tightening the grub screw does not make the wheel hard to remove later by burring the axle. The inserts are seperate and a tight press fit onto the rims, with each car being different save the Porsche and Saleen which share the same pattern.

Lola B98/10

Porsche 911 GT1 98 & Saleen S7-R

Ford Capri RS Turbo

Tyre compounds are similar to Slot.It P2 racing, smooth, take truing easily and benefit from a little of it but wear fairly fast until you learn the cars enough to stop tail sliding too much. If they used these tyres on their standard cars I would be a very happy guy, especially on Scalextric Sport and Carrera.

Onto the Technical Specs for each car and you will see the only one that differs signifigantly is the Lola. In track testing this, combined with the guide position gives a remarkable result.

Porsche 911 GT1 98

Saleen S7-R

Ford Capri RS Turbo

Lola B98/10

Then we set off for the track, Lane 3 on Mugello is the smoothest and all the cars are direct from the box with amost no alterations (see below). After balancing the wheels & gears and loosening the body on all the test cars (including the Sloit.Its), times fell by around 0.5 to 0.8 seconds so you can see this makes a very worthwhile excercise. Also worth a mention is the difference in the number of screws used to fix the chassis to the body, the Saleen uses just one at the rear of the car so when loose, body rock is along the centre line of the chassis on the screw and the locating lug in the middle of the front grille. The Capri has four, one in each corner so the body rock is less pronounced when loose. Both the Porsche and Lola have a three screw tripod set up which allows a body rock somewhere between the Capri and Saleen. Make of this what you will but the Saleen was hardest to find the balance between to little and too much rock.

Look at the results for the Lola! At nearly 1 second faster than the next quickest, this HAS to be a car for the competition collection. Its handling is great, smooth and balanced with less of a tendency to tail slide when pushed a little too hard.

I had thought the Capri was a great production model but the Lola B98/10 blows it out of the water.

I also found that both the Saleen and (to a lesser extent) the Porsche suffered from the venturi fins at the rear catching on the track with anything but the smoothest, flatest layout. A simple and gentle trim to get a backwards rake to each sorted the problem though. This mod WAS done to both before testing as it affected them so much on 'Mugello'.

So here we end up with 4 cars designed to race competitively out of the box and more so with a little tuning. Have Fly delivered?

Yes, in my book, for the non mag racer these cars are winners even if the looks suffer at times. 

There is a version of the Porsche out now, that comes in a special set (what's new there!) with a Fly Pro Controller (45Ohm) that has a magnet fitted. I have not seen the car or its set up but I can't imagine it is worth loading these cars up with magnets, that seems to me to be simply negating the wonderful components and balance used in these cars.

Enjoy!

Swissracer (2004)