Home Racing World

Ok....I just received mine from Mike at Cloverleafracing. I haven't done anything to it nor have I ran it yet but I wanted to put out my initial observations. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures either.
When I opened the box I saw the car case with the red Flyslot card with the addition of "Powered by Avant Slot." I noticed there was a ziploc sandwich bag over the car with the lid taped to the base. When I peeled the tape and removed the lid from the base I realized there was no screw holding the car to the base, strike 1. After very carefully removing the car from the bag and base I noticed all 4 body screws were very loose, no biggie. I realized the front axle to be extremely sloppy with a lot of play. I observed there were no grub screws in the holes nor was there anything attached to the underside of the base, strike 2. I unscrewed the body from the chassis and noticed no grub screws on top of the front axle either. I put it on a test block for a few seconds and the gear mesh is tight and loud. The huge rear rubber tires both rub the wheel wells also.
So, not having time to mess with it now, I put it back in the box and resolved to the fact it is going to need some work.
The car is very nice looking and these are just my initial observations, having not driven it or done any work to it. I hope to have a chance to play with it later and share what I find.
I have a feeling with a little work this thing will be a rocket. Oh, and I also bought the aluminum AW pod, so I will be installing that as I work this one up too.
John

Thanks for taking the time to share your experience. It's a shame that Fly carried over their need to be tuned in order to run trademark to this new venture. I believe that most of us figured that their teaming up with Avant was going to solve problems, not magnify old ones.

This reminds me of the Mirage and Ford Le Mans Miniatures cars that were touted as being "Powered by Slot.it," which would lead anyone reading to the assumption that the car should run almost as good as it looks with only minimal fine-tuning. In reality, all it meant was that the car contained some Slot.it parts crammed in to a chassis by model builders instead of slot car drivers. Sure, some of the parts required to make the car move under its own power were present, but some key components were missing or not properly installed.


As an aside, I have been the victim of my own optimism in the past in relation to new slot car releases. Sometimes there is a car that I get so excited about, that I imagine it being slotting perfection. Then of course it arrives and either falls to pieces as I unbox it, or the wheels won't spin at all, or the guide won't turn, or there are horrific finishing flaws, etc...

When unrealistic expectations and a poorly executed product meet, it can be quite demoralizing.

Ok so it took me a while to get back to this but here it goes....
Basically I invested quite a bit more money into this car to make it what I wanted it to be.
Initially in stock form it left a bit to be desired, mostly in the handling department. With the stock tires and a 27k motor its not much wonder the tires spun and the tail end was all over the place.
So here is what I did....
I replaced the stock inline pod with the AW aluminum pod. Switched the Avant 27k motor with the Slot.it yellow Flat 6. I used Slot.it gearing for the pinion and spur gears. I utilized CB Design wheels all the way around. I kept the stock front tires and a set of Yellowdogs on the rear. I finished it off with Pattos Martini decals.
The results were exactly what I had wanted. Easily a second and a half off the times and the car is super fast and handles extremely well.
I am sure with some work in stock formation the car can be made to run very well, but this is the set up I wanted and it runs fast and looks very cool to boot.
Here are some before and after pics.
Enjoy...
John

Looks much better John.

Great information, thanks for sharing it.

I have been on the fence about the Avant inline pods. I am not much of a anglewinder fan and my smaller track isn't what most would call large.

So I have been thinking about going the other way and going inline on my Mirage models.

Congrats on getting it the way you wanted.

We have the inline pod also Harry.
Mike