Problem Fly Ferrari 365
I love the Fly Ferrari 365, it is a great looking car, the problem with it was that it was a very poor slot car, and it was just not possible to race it.
Many people have had problems trying to run this car in non-mag form, especially on wooden tracks. My car was no exception, it desloted very easily, both rear hubs were cracked causing uneven running, it also sounded really rough due to a very poor gear mesh. The central propshaft bearing kept popping out of it's housing and the front wheels were very loose in their housings and rubbed on the front arches.
All this does not seem very promising, but there really is a lot of potential in this car, with a little,( well quiet a lot really), work.
My solution to the problems is as follows:-
The front mounted motor location, does not help the handling of this car at all. Other front engined Fly cars can handle very well, for example the Fly Viper is a superb handling car in both magnet and non-magnet form.
I decided to move the motor location to the rear of the car, still keeping it in in-line configuration. This involved removing a section of chassis in front of the rear axle. The best way to do this is to insert the rear axle bearings, (in this case Slot.it ones), in the axle holders, fit a Slot.it axle and crown gear, and place the motor in the approximate correct position and mark the chassis. I use a dremel equiped with a cutting disc to remove the marked area.
The photograph shows the cutting work completed. It now requires hand finishing with fine files. The hole for the crown gear has also been enlarged to permit the use of the larger Slot.it crown wheel.
The next operation is to fit some motor supports. I use two small sections of PCB, (printed circuit board), fixedto the chassis with two part epoxy resin.
The photograph below shows the motor mounts in position:-
When the mounts are dry it is possible to shape them to fit the motor. It is important to ensure that the armature is in line with the centre of the crown wheel to ensure a smooth mesh. When you are satisfied, fix the motor in position with two part epoxy and allow to dry.
The wheels I used on this car were BWA 32005 on the rear and BWA 32003 on the front. Tyres are Ortman Fly Classic Slicks and Slot.it zero grip fronts. Inserts are BWA Ferrari 5-spoke.
Due to the amount of chassis material that needs to be removed the rear section of the chassis needs reinforcing or "wheel hop" will be experienced. I do this by adding two pcb braces, between the motor and the rear axle shoulders, fixed with two part epoxy. The photograph below shows one of the braces in position:-
We can now trurn our attention to the front end of the car.
The front stub axles are replaced with a standard Slot.it 54mm drill blank, cut to the correct size. I like to allow a little vertical movement in the axle so I open out the axle holders with a small round file.
At this stage I also add some sheet lead to fill the void left by the relocated motor.
I replace the rather shallow Fly standard guide with a Slot.it Universal screw fitting unit, complete with Parma racing braids. New motor wires and eyelets complete the chassis work. I hold the wires in the correct position with a small piece of masking tape:-
At this stage I removed the existing interior as sadly it won't fit the new motor layout, and replaced it with a Gom Ferrari 575 lexan unit. I also removed a few millimeters from the rear bodymounting post, to lower the rear of the car.
The only thing left to do, before mounting the body is to paint the inside face of the wheels matt black and fit the BWA inserts.
The finished car is shown below. I am really pleased with the performance of the car. It will lap my track in 4.1 seconds which puts it on par with a very good, tuned Fly Classic car, it is also very smooth and a real pleasure to drive.
Many people have had problems trying to run this car in non-mag form, especially on wooden tracks. My car was no exception, it desloted very easily, both rear hubs were cracked causing uneven running, it also sounded really rough due to a very poor gear mesh. The central propshaft bearing kept popping out of it's housing and the front wheels were very loose in their housings and rubbed on the front arches.
All this does not seem very promising, but there really is a lot of potential in this car, with a little,( well quiet a lot really), work.
My solution to the problems is as follows:-
The front mounted motor location, does not help the handling of this car at all. Other front engined Fly cars can handle very well, for example the Fly Viper is a superb handling car in both magnet and non-magnet form.
I decided to move the motor location to the rear of the car, still keeping it in in-line configuration. This involved removing a section of chassis in front of the rear axle. The best way to do this is to insert the rear axle bearings, (in this case Slot.it ones), in the axle holders, fit a Slot.it axle and crown gear, and place the motor in the approximate correct position and mark the chassis. I use a dremel equiped with a cutting disc to remove the marked area.
The photograph shows the cutting work completed. It now requires hand finishing with fine files. The hole for the crown gear has also been enlarged to permit the use of the larger Slot.it crown wheel.
The next operation is to fit some motor supports. I use two small sections of PCB, (printed circuit board), fixedto the chassis with two part epoxy resin.
The photograph below shows the motor mounts in position:-
When the mounts are dry it is possible to shape them to fit the motor. It is important to ensure that the armature is in line with the centre of the crown wheel to ensure a smooth mesh. When you are satisfied, fix the motor in position with two part epoxy and allow to dry.
The wheels I used on this car were BWA 32005 on the rear and BWA 32003 on the front. Tyres are Ortman Fly Classic Slicks and Slot.it zero grip fronts. Inserts are BWA Ferrari 5-spoke.
Due to the amount of chassis material that needs to be removed the rear section of the chassis needs reinforcing or "wheel hop" will be experienced. I do this by adding two pcb braces, between the motor and the rear axle shoulders, fixed with two part epoxy. The photograph below shows one of the braces in position:-
We can now trurn our attention to the front end of the car.
The front stub axles are replaced with a standard Slot.it 54mm drill blank, cut to the correct size. I like to allow a little vertical movement in the axle so I open out the axle holders with a small round file.
At this stage I also add some sheet lead to fill the void left by the relocated motor.
I replace the rather shallow Fly standard guide with a Slot.it Universal screw fitting unit, complete with Parma racing braids. New motor wires and eyelets complete the chassis work. I hold the wires in the correct position with a small piece of masking tape:-
At this stage I removed the existing interior as sadly it won't fit the new motor layout, and replaced it with a Gom Ferrari 575 lexan unit. I also removed a few millimeters from the rear bodymounting post, to lower the rear of the car.
The only thing left to do, before mounting the body is to paint the inside face of the wheels matt black and fit the BWA inserts.
The finished car is shown below. I am really pleased with the performance of the car. It will lap my track in 4.1 seconds which puts it on par with a very good, tuned Fly Classic car, it is also very smooth and a real pleasure to drive.
