Flyslot Williams FW08C

[HomeRacingWorld]

[Reslotted]

I've got to say Harry, great review as always.
But unfortunately I'm am pretty disappointed with the car. As a classic F1 Buff, I was looking forward to these releases.

They may have gone to the effort of the strange gearing to impress the collectors and scale purists but then missed the mark with the poorly moulded airbox and wings.

They've also missed the mark with the racers I think. I thought we'd seen the last of that dodgy set up, with the Williams FW07 as we returned to normality with the Lotus. The march and lotus were so good out of the box that I cant see why they would change that set up. So what if it required a little Hump (although they cleverly disguised that with both the March and Lotus).
First and foremost these are meant to be operating slotcars and some sort of parity in a class would be desirable from the same manufacturer.

I was super exited about this series when announced and virtually guaranteed I was going to part with serious cash in order to obtain them. But now I feel that may not be the case.
Although this is the first cab off the rank and things may improve. The first Andretti Lotus had it's flaws too (so much that they have re released it) but subsequent ones got better. My Ronnie Peterson one is perfect as can be in almost all aspects of performance, finish and Scale detail. Hopefully subsequent version of this will also be better.

[ListerStormGT]

Great review Harry, I like the car but I think I will pass and wait for the Policar classic F1 cars. Those 4 gears just seem like over engineering and what do you do once they wear out?


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[chappy]

I received my new Senna car and as others have stated the aesthetic quality is definitely lacking.
The driver figure is as Harry pointed out sitting to high, and imho a bit on the chubby side.
For the rivet counters it definitely misses the mark.
When I put it on my wood track, it actually ran well, although not on the pace of the Lotus and March models.
As with my other Williams cars with the strange gearbox configuration, I felt this was the problem in speed and smooth quiet running. What to do?
A while back when trying to achieve parity between the 3 cars, I set to work on the Williams gearbox.
One thing that is obvious is the friction created by the design. The gearbox alone has a large surface over the first driven gear, and the successive gears creat more friction. Then the axle and sleeve even more, and the axle into the bushing more again.
All of this seems to add up to excessive surfacefriction at a number of different spots.
How to reduce the friction?
I first took the gearbox out, a fairly easy operation with 2 screws holding it in place. The gear comes apart in 2 pieces. I then took my pin vise and started to drill holes through the empty gear box using a small bit, sorry I cant recall the size. I went from top to bottom and side to side in about 5 or 6 areas.
I then cleaned out the plastic burrs created within the gearbox by my drilling.
This did 2 things, reduced the surface area inside the gearbox creating less friction, and gave me some extra lube points.
Next was the two angle gears , but there was not a lot to do there except check for good lash and remove any flash from the molding process.
Now onto the axle with the sleeve. The main purpose of the sleeve is to act as a spacer from what I could see.
So it was a tight fit on the axle , and to loosen it up I used the same technique as I did on the gearbox.
it loosened the sleeve up a bit and gave some more spots for lube.
Next onto, the bushings, andnthe intakes .
Again I used the pin vise to creat less surface area therby reducing friction and allowing better lube access.
So after all this what did I find.
I now had a Williams which was faster, smoother and closer to parity with the Lotus and March.
I also still had pretty good braking as there is still more friction surface than on the other 2 cars.
It worked for me and only took about 10 minutes to accomplish.
It didnt effect the strenght of the gearbox or other parts.
So there you have it, my solution to improvement on the Williams and the strange gearbox set up.
Bob

[HomeRacingWorld]

Now that is enthusiast grade tuning.

Thanks for sharing this, I'll give it a try.

[Reslotted]

I took a slightly different approach with my FW07.
Step1
Instead of opening up the car, I opened the trades forum in HRW.
Step 2
start a new thread, added a picture of the car and some writing
Step 3
Await a reply
Step 4
Post Williams
Step 5
Two weeks later it came back running very much better but looking like a Pioneer Mustang :D :D :D :D :D

[chappy]

Ted if you ever do that , and a Javelin comes back , let me know will ya. Lol
Bob.

[ElSecundo]

The only rational explanation I can come up for those fronts wheels involves drugs. Beyond that, I got nothin'.