Fly Ferrari GTO Roadster

Fly Ferrari GTO Roadster Final Report

It’s finished!  It really is!

We would love to see this in 1:1 scale diving through the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca or powering up the hill toward start-finish at Road America.  We can just imagine the Ferrari V12 wail amid all the rumbling Ford and Chevy V8s.  We could imagine it at the Pebble Beach Concours with pride of place as the rarest and most desirable Ferrari of all time.  That’s one of the truly cool things about the slot car hobby — you can build and race cars that never existed but should have.  We had so much fun creating this “phantom” car that we have even written a unique history for it.  It isn’t true but it could have been. First, however, a recap of the project.  We built this car to the Slot Car Challenge 1 rules, starting with a Fly E1801 250 GTO as specified.  Here’s a list of the performance mods we did to it:

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Monogram Lola T70 Rebuild

A Technical Article From the Electric Dream Team:

Monogram’s Lola T70

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Using the Scalextric Dunlop Bridge With 4-lane Tracks

A mini-techarticle from the archives of Bob Ward…

Many slot car hobbyists have asked whether the Scalextric C8332 Dunlop Bridge and its predecessors, including the now-discontinuedC641 Goodyear Bridge, can be used on a 4-lane track. The bridge is just wide enough at the very bottom to clear a 4-lane Scalextric track, but the bridge curves inward sharply enough that the cars on the two outer lanes would hit it. However, if you make a structure at each end that will raise the bridge high enough to clear the cars it will span 4 lanes. The drawing shows the end of the bridge raised 2″, which will clear most 1:32 scale slot cars, but if you plan to run Fly racing trucks or cars with really high wings you may want to raise the bridge 3″. If you build up the supporting structures for the bridge from layers of ¬º” modelers’ plywood or sheet styrene you can build scale stairs into the structure, allowing your miniature race spectators to get down to ground level. Use ordinary woodworking glue to laminate wood layers together or CA glue with plastic. Add to the top of each structure a square of thinner plywood or plastic as a locating lug for the end of the bridge.

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Building the Fly Ferrari GTO Roadster

Fly Ferrari GTO Roadster Final Report (Sep. 4, 2009)

It’s finished! It really is!

We would love to see this in 1:1 scale diving through the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca or powering up the hill toward start-finish at Road America. We can just imagine the Ferrari V12 wail amid all the rumbling Ford and Chevy V8s. We could imagine it at the Pebble Beach Concours with pride of place as the rarest and most desirable Ferrari of all time. That’s one of the truly cool things about the slot car hobby — you can build and race cars that never existed but should have. We had so much fun creating this “phantom” car that we have even written a unique history for it. It isn’t true but it could have been.

Read more on Building the Fly Ferrari GTO Roadster…

Gear Pullers and Presses

As the number of new slot car enthusiasts we deal with increases we hear from some who are not familiar with gear pullers and presses. These simple but effective tools are a must for any racer who wants to change the pinion gears on his motors.   Gear changes, of course, are an essential part of tuning cars for optimum performance on any particular track and power supply.   Pullers and presses are designed to exert steady, even force to install or remove gears without damaging them or bending motor shafts.

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Maximum Performance From Press-on Plastic Wheels, Gears, and Slip-on Tires

Maximum Performance From Press-on Plastic Wheels, Gears, and Slip-on Tires

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Race Tuning the MRRC Chaparral 2F

by Rex Easley

There isn’t an RTR slot car on the market that doesn’t have a lot of potential for increasing its performance. But where do you start to unlock all that potential? We get a lot of e-mails and phone calls from newcomers to the hobby asking just that question in one form or another. This article will take you through some of the basics of tuning an RTR car for better performance and help answer those questions.

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Simple Performance Upgrades For Monogram Greenwood Corvettes

by Arie Viewer

 

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Track Power Basics

by Arie Viewer

 

 

Before you can get maximum performance out of your slot cars you need to be sure you’re getting maximum performance from your track and power supply.  If either of these systems is not performing properly your cars won’t either.

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Affordable Race Sets For Beginners and Children

 

by Arie Viewer

Before you can expand your race set into a dream layout you need to get that first set.  Also, Christmas is coming, and you may be looking for a starter set as a gift.  If you know that you, or the person you are buying a set for, will be sticking with the hobby for the long haul it makes sense to buy the largest set your budget can comfortably handle.  But if you are buying for a child or even an adult beginner and you don’t really know for sure whether he or she will stay with it, you will probably do well to start with a smaller, less expensive set.  Remember that no matter where in the size and price range you start it’s always easy to expand to whatever you want.  The most important thing about a starter set is that it has to provide the beginner with a fun, successful first experience with slot car racing.  That means the set has to go together easily, work well right out of the box, and have cars that are easy and fun for a beginner to drive.  And for kids, especially, the cars need to be durable and crashworthy.   Here are some race sets at different price points that make excellent beginner sets:

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