I now have the Andretti and Nilsson Lotus 78's in my collection. Have not run them yet since they are being stored for retirement (getting real close!).
Anyone know why the Andretti version has no Goodyear logos (wings and tires)? The Nilsson has them and looks much better. Maybe they will do a two car set of Andretti/Peterson versions?
Without the magnets on my Sport track, they run very much like a similar Scalextric F.1 car. They are slower because the front tires scrub the track and because I have to run urethanes on them instead of silicones. The front suspension design would be OK if it worked as planned, but it does not as the wheels are so tight they do not turn freely, even if they were not toed out all the time.
One buys these cars because one likes them, not because they want good performing cars.
We race the 70s Fly and Scalextric F1s about 3 or 4 times a year in my club as a special event. The fast guys have disconnected the steering on the Fly cars so the wheels track straight. With a bit of work the Marches and the Lotii are great runners. The Williams needs much more work. In typical Fly fashion, the car must be completely disassembled and rebuilt. The Scalextric cars suffer from very fragile wheels and axles that are made from a very soft steel so they bend very easily.
On my Williams car the gears came adrift from the idler axle and from the motor driveshaft. I have yet to finish a race with a Williams car since I have been sidlined each time with a mechanical failure forcing the switch to a backup car.
Carefully clean everything and glue the gears in place and leave sufficient clearance on the shaft mechanism for the gears to spin freely. Use Goop to glue the motor in place. I use plastecine for weight and jam it into every available space up front to keep the nose planted. My Williams cars are now quick and I'm waiting for our next race to see if I got it right.
I race on Luf's Targa: rather technical MDF no magnet track. After replacing the tyres with Luf's own urethanes, truing the tyres and just doing normal blueprinting, my original Lotus 78 is stunningly quick. How quick? Darn near competitive with my NSR's is how quick! Best lap of 8.435. For perspective: my personal perspective on the Targa is that anything that does a lap under 9 seconds is a quick car, under 8.5 is seriously fast and my fastest car (NSR Mosler) has done a 7.91. Typical NSR times are around 8.1 - 8.3 seconds.
Anyone who has raced on the Targa can probably confirm that getting an essentially stock car around the Targa in under 9 seconds is not a trivial matter. For a stock F1 to get down to under 8.5 is just amazing. This without even adding any lead.
PS: my car still has the front end "squint" (gross toe in on the front wheels): does not seem to bother it that much. Another thing to look out for is the rear suspension detail. On mine, the suspension upright, if (correctly) placed outside the exhaust, deformed the bottom suspension arm downwards to such an extent that mine touched the track. I moved to be inside the exhaust: looks not quite right (if you look at it closely) but it solves the problem. You also then have to look for possible exhaust rubbing on the tyre.
Very important: these VERY wide tyres take a lot of truing as not only are they wide: they come with a pronounced convex surface. But once they are true and flat on the track, urethanes really grip well.
My Lotus flies..... It just needed 2 hours of work out of the box..... I like it - but I hate when a new car needs work just to get it rolling
The Williams cars seem to have the poorest QC... 2 I have had the braids locked solid with solder.....The 3rd had a cracked gear - on that middle idler gear.
I have two March and they run great non mag with urethanes, slightly better than the Scaley 312 and McLaren. My Williams I run with a small magnet, to give speed between modern and older F1s, but it runs very well! I plan to try to match a Lotus to the WIlliams when I get one.
interesting, Thank You ALL! i have extra Slot.it &/NSR kit, for rear-drive/Tired replacement. i have NOT tested yet!. Keep the info coming for comparison~ thnx
There is a nice report how to tune the Fly Lotus. Unfortunately is in German... http://www.freeslotter.de/board13-he...chen/?d03f6b85
There are many pictures in there. If you need additional translation I would help you...
Regards,
Thomas
Our club has found that both Fly Lotus and Williams cars run very well with a few modifications. Most of our tracks are plastic, plus one wood track. We swapped out the rear stock plastic hubs and rubber tires for Slot.IT F1 wheels and Supertires F1 silicones. Changed the braid to a softer set, typically SCX Pro, and finally, disconnected steering 'linkage' which allowed the guide to move a bit more freely.
Re ran a 7 race series this past season using these two Fly cars, plus the Scalextric McLaren and Ferrari Grand Prix cars. There was no dominant car type, the Lotus, Williams and Scalextric cars each won at least one race. The Scalextric cars typically had more top end on tracks with longer straights, but the Fly cars won more than the Scalextric cars.
Here's a video of one of the races held on Scalextric Sport track, unfortunately most of the shots were of the Scalextric cars. Early in the video you can see a Scalextric McLaren overtake a yellow Fly Lotus on the main straight, but the Fly starts to catch up with the Scalextric on the curves.
Ironically, just last night we ran an IROC race on a wood track with just the Williams and Lotus cars, and they were pretty equal performers. Definitely not just shelf queens, these cars can run!
Last edited by NJSLOT1_32; 07-12-2012 at 09:39 AM.
I recently purchased the Flyslot Nilsson Lotus 78 to add to my F1 collection (I now have racing pairs for each decade from the 60s through to today). I was disappointed in the quality of this car, and I am not an overly picky purchaser. I love my Fly March 761, so I was hoping for similar quality on this car.
My first version of this car had the rear axle binding on the wing/motor cover, and the side tampo on the car was not aligned correctly. Rather that mess with it, I simply returned the new, unused car (no problems at Mini-Grid in Toronto for that) and got a version that had correct gold tampo and the rear axle turned freely.
On this car, the front wheels do not rotate freely at all. One side is worse than the other. Is there a simple way to improve or "free up" the front wheels so they spin easily? I dont have this problem on my March 761. Will they loosen up with track running?
These quality problems, combined with the fact that I need to spray a coat of gloss clear coat on this car, have led me to conclude the quality of Flyslot is inferior to the older Fly brand. Hopefully they will improve over time.
I had this problem with the front wheels on my 78. I removed the offending wheel and found a bit of flash on the hub. After trimming this carefully off with a scalpel,the wheel spins freely. If they did a none-steering front end,I think that would be better. I agree that the quality of these cars could improve,but I still hope they release the Renault!
TED.....
Thanks guys. I did work on the front wheels and got them freed up a bit more.
Unfortunately, while pulling the front wheels off the axle, I broke the very small, thin plastic "link" between the slot guide and front axle that provides the steering for the front wheels. This is a very flimsy part! I followed the tips on the German web site (thanks tomato 007) and glued the front axle in place, which improves the performance of the car, but I must admit I did like the steerable front wheels. Oh well.
The rear tires seem softer, and less convex, than the old Fly tires on the March 761's, so that is good, BUT they are very, very, loose on the hubs. How do you guys glue the tires onto hubs? What glue is safe for the rubber tire and plastic wheel hub?
I did clear coat the body with Testors model master clear coat, and it came out nice and smooth and glossy. I did not mind the mat finish on the model, but I was worried about damaging the gold tampo/decals, so now they are protected.
In defense of this slot car, I must add that the scale body and detail work on this model is superb and the engine details and driver figure/helmet are top notch. I cant wait to get all the small deficiencies corrected and get her on the track.
Flyslot Lotus 78 Questions
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