FLY Panoz LMP-1 Roadster S with Olifer 3DP-Chassis and ThunderSlot Motor Pod

The FLY Panoz Roadster S follows the same FR layout as the real car. For a conventional front-engined slot car, it actually runs fairly well — as long as the magnet is left in place. But compared with Slot.it Group C and LMP cars, its performance is honestly nowhere near competitive.

That felt too sad for a car which, in the real world, had managed to defeat machines like the Audi R8 LMP and BMW V12 LMR from time to time.

So over the years I tried all kinds of things ― eventually even relocating the rear motor support while retaining the original front-motor inline layout in order to install a Slot.it Flat-6 motor.

But the stock spring-type driveshaft joint kept failing under torsional load. I lost three of them, all eventually twisting themselves apart under power.

Then I ran into another problem: genuine replacement joints had become extremely difficult to obtain. So, with no other choice, I had no choice but to commission custom-made stainless-steel replacements from a spring manufacturer, built to my exact specifications. Even so, four out of the five one-off pieces eventually twisted themselves apart as well.

At that point, I finally gave up on the idea of a high-powered FR-layout slot car.

Then, after leaving the project untouched for almost ten years, I recently decided to revisit it as part of my “lighten the burdens of my heart before I die” campaign.

Once I fully understood that the real weak point of a high-powered front-engined car was the driveshaft joint itself, I remembered that I had actually purchased two Olifer 3DP chassis for the Panoz back in 2018.

There were two versions available: one for Slot.it mounts and another for ThunderSlot mounts. Choosing between them was difficult. I was already familiar with Slot.it motor mounts, while I had never used ThunderSlot mounts before.

But by that point ThunderSlot had already been around for about three years, and the worldwide consensus was becoming clear: ThunderSlot was simply on another level.

So I bought the Olifer chassis designed for the ThunderSlot motor mount, along with a ThunderSlot anglewinder mount… and then let them sit unused for eight years.

Eventually I abandoned my attachment to the FR layout and rebuilt the car as an anglewinder.

The result was astonishing.

The car suddenly developed unbelievable road holding, almost like it had magnets installed. I even checked it on a setup plate because I suspected magnetic downforce, but there was proper ground clearance everywhere. So rather than motor magnetism, I think it’s simply the characteristic of the ThunderSlot mount itself.

Man… this thing is seriously impressive. I was completely prejudiced against it for no reason.

Incidentally, for the suspension I used foam rather than metal springs.

And during setup, the following video from the NorCal Slot Car Scene YouTube channel was extremely helpful:

NorCal Slot Car Scene

FLY Porsche 911GT1 Evo／Gunnar-Porsche G99 with Olifer 3DP-Chassis

The colorful “Hole in the Wall Camp / Victory Junction Gang Camp” car had originally been a gift from a friend many years ago.

On the real car, the front tires had an extremely low-profile, wafer-thin appearance.

But on FLY’s slot car, the thick square-shouldered front tires protruded awkwardly beyond the front fenders, making the car look so clumsy that it barely resembled a 911GT1 at all.

For a long time, that was one of the main reasons why FLY’s 911GT1 remained unpopular. The first thing I wanted to fix was exactly that.

So my first step was to give the front tires a much lower-profile, flatter appearance, then trim the wheel hubs to reduce the track width enough to tuck the wheels properly inside the front fenders.

At first I continued running the car on the original FLY chassis.

But after discovering Olifer’s 3D-printed chassis, I became curious and decided to build one in anglewinder configuration.

The improvement was substantial.

The car suddenly became genuinely enjoyable to drive, and I immediately wanted a second one so my wife and I could race together.

So I tracked down another Gunnar-Porsche G99 ― the “Honor the Florida Mako Fighter Squadron” version ― and built it to the same specification.

The differences in tire wear and tire decals simply reflect the fact that the two cars were built at different times.

Mechanically and performance-wise, however, they are completely identical.

Scalextric McLaren F1 GTR with Olifer 3DP-Chassis

For decades, British miniature brands such as Airfix, Corgi, and Matchbox had a reputation for being exceptionally good at capturing proportions, and Scalextric’s F1-GTR clearly inherited that same strength.

I compared it side-by-side with older offerings from Ninco, MR Slotcar, and RevoSlot, weighing overall body proportions, chassis construction, and price.

For me, Scalextric offered the best overall balance.

And honestly, the long-term availability and accessibility of spare parts is another hugely important factor that should not be underestimated.

For a while I simply ran it in standard non-magnet form, but eventually I wanted to build something capable of racing alongside my FLY 911GT1 using an Olifer 3D-printed chassis.

Vintage WRC Cars (5) NINCO

＜Citroën C4 WRC＞
Judging by the era of the real car, I suppose this was released around 2009 or 2010.

By that time, my interest in the WRC had already faded considerably. Around me, most slot car racing activity had shifted toward anglewinder JGTC cars and Megane Trophy racing instead.

I first became interested in the C4 while searching for a suitable rival for the unexpectedly successful Scalextric Lancer Evo 7 I had prepared earlier.

This was before I discovered the Ford Focus WRC 2001, and since my collection contained very few Citroëns, I began looking into either the Xsara or the C4.

Among the various Ninco C4 versions, this Red Bull car was apparently the only one equipped with large-diameter wheels as standard.

I knew, of course, that Sébastien Loeb had been dominating the WRC during that era, but beyond that I had no particularly deep attachment to the car itself. It was a fairly casual choice.


＜Mitsubishi Lancer WRC04＞
Looking at the base of the crystal case, this one was labeled “2005 Limited Edition,” although I do not remember ever seeing it back when I first entered the slot car hobby.

Perhaps I simply had no interest in cars like this at the time.

After obtaining the Citroën C4 WRC, however, I reconsidered things and decided that the Ford Focus WRC 2001 was ultimately a more suitable counterpart for the Scalextric Lancer Evo 7.

That left the C4 without a partner, so I searched for something appropriate and eventually settled on this Lancer WRC04.

Both the C4 and the Lancer WRC04 received the usual preparation work: the magnets were removed and ballast weight added, the rear tires were replaced with Paul Gage PGT urethanes and trued, Z-Machine LED lighting was installed, and finally Patto tire decals were applied to complete the cars.

Vintage WRC Cars (4) MSC Competition

＜MG Metro 6R4＞
Both the real cars and the slot cars possessed astonishing specifications and obvious potential on paper, yet once you actually drove them, the reaction quickly became: “...So what exactly am I supposed to do with this?”

Since the real cars never truly achieved major competitive success, they already carried a sort of “undisputed champion of bench racing arguments” reputation to begin with.

As for MSC’s Metro itself, simply taking it out of the box and driving it normally was already a challenge.

At the time, we mainly raced non-magnet cars on commercial wood tracks, and on heavily twisted downhill combination corners ― something like Laguna Seca’s corkscrew sections ― the Metro would often suddenly spin in place or violently roll over even when the throttle was being handled carefully.

The motor felt considerably stronger than its label specifications suggested. Yet despite using an FK180 can, the power delivery felt unusually peaky.

Ordinarily that would be something to celebrate, but I began suspecting that much of the power was simply being wasted through the chassis itself due to insufficient rigidity.

Still, the car had a uniquely fascinating driving character unlike anything else, so I spent a great deal of time experimenting with tires and weight distribution in an attempt to tame it.

After roughly a year of trial and error, I ultimately replaced the motor with one from a FLY truck, and only then did the car finally develop reasonably manageable handling characteristics.

After that, the Metro sat untouched for nearly another decade.

Recently, however, I finally installed LED lighting, replaced the tires with a set of Paul Gage PGT urethanes, trued them, added Patto tire decals, and completed the renewal.

Vintage WRC Cars (3) Revell-Monogram

 
＜Opel Ascona 400＞
For many years, my Revell Ascona 400 sat quietly in the collection as one of those cars I was content merely to admire.

But when I finally decided to turn it into a “hot” car, the very first thing that bothered me was the front axle shaft, which was far too short. The front wheels sat buried too deeply inside the fenders, making the car look nothing like a proper Ascona 400.

That had to be corrected first.

Initially, I considered replacing the axle with a commercially available shaft of the correct length. However, both ends of the stock axle were knurled, and pulling them out of the wheels by force would inevitably enlarge the axle holes in the plastic wheels themselves. Trying to achieve proper concentricity afterward using a precision blank axle felt like unnecessary suffering.

Instead, I carefully worked both wheels outward little by little, evenly on both sides, while keeping enough engagement that the wheels would not fall off entirely. Once the tread width looked correct, I checked whether sufficient grip still remained between the axle and wheels.

To fill the newly created gaps, I temporarily removed the wheels completely and inserted spacers on both sides. Afterward, I carefully reinstalled the plastic wheels perfectly straight and fixed them in place with CA glue.

This method was only possible because Revell’s plastic wheels use unusually long hubs.
From there, the rest was fairly straightforward.

I replaced the original guide ― which required Revell-Monogram-specific braids ― with a normal Ninco guide, removed the chassis magnet and added ballast weight, replaced the rear tires with Paul Gage XPG urethanes and trued them, and also bonded the slightly off-center front wheels and tires into solid assemblies before machining them perfectly round on the truer.

At times like this, it is enormously helpful when cars ― like early-2000s Scalextrics, this Revell, or Ninco models ― use removable front axle bushings just like the rear axle. It makes setting the entire assembly up on the tire truer vastly easier.

Finally, I took one of the antennas taped inside the crystal case and mounted it onto the roof, installed Z-Machine LEDs in the front and rear lights, added Patto tire decals, and called the project complete.

Vintage WRC Cars (2) Scalextric

＜Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 7 WRC＞

While searching for a suitable rival for the Peugeot 307, I got another Scalextric rally car from the same era through an auction site ― only to discover that this one was two-wheel drive.

The car appeared in Scalextric’s 2002 new products catalog, and once I opened it up, I found it to be a very typical transitional-period design with a mixture of old and new features.

The disc guide had not yet appeared, but the lighting had already evolved from a single T4 miniature bulb to dual LEDs. However, these were not modern chip LEDs, but old-style warm-colored bullet LEDs with a strong reddish tint, and there were still no tail lamps at all ― only two headlights.

After replacing the guide with a Ninco regular blade, removing the magnet, adding weight, fitting N22 rear tires, and truing them ― the usual race-prep routine ― the handling became shockingly good. In fact, it almost reminded me of an NSR Abarth 500.

Of course, realistically speaking, the motor performance is entirely different, so it could never actually compete with an NSR Abarth. But despite its relatively tall body, it had that same peculiar sensation of gripping the track stubbornly through every corner. It was an outstanding success… which actually created a problem.

Because no matter how carefully you tune a Scalextric car, they almost never end up behaving anything like an NSR Abarth in the first place.

That made it surprisingly difficult to find another two-wheel-drive Scalextric car with a similar character.

A contemporary Subaru might possibly achieve comparable performance due to its similar body shape and proportions, but neither my wife nor I can stand the styling of the later Subaru front end with the round headlamp housings.

＜Ford Focus WRC Works 2001＞

So I started digging through even older Scalextric catalogs.

As for the first-generation Subaru and Ford Escort shown in the 1999 catalog, I already own the more recently retooled versions. Looking for something else, I eventually settled on the Ford Focus WRC released in 2000.

I managed to find a suitable new-old-stock example at auction and bought it. Even though I should really be reducing the number of “cold” cars in my collection, I somehow ended up increasing it again. Honestly, what am I even doing? Still, I might as well race-prep it properly and turn it into a car that actually gets driven.

Internally, the design was obviously older than the Lancer’s.

The lighting still used a single T4 miniature bulb, with transparent light guides distributing a dim glow to the left and right headlights. It was almost exactly the same system used in the 1999 New Beetle Cup Car.

Looking at the chassis mounting method, the body was secured by two screws at the front and one at the rear. However, that single rear mounting point did not connect directly to the body itself, but instead screwed into a pillar extending downward from the cockpit floor.

The problem was that the cockpit itself was not actually fixed to the body in any meaningful way.

There was no way the rear positioning could possibly remain precise like that.

Compared to the Lancer ― which already handled suspiciously like an NSR Abarth ― this seemed hopelessly outclassed from the beginning.

But after staring at it for a while, I noticed something interesting.

The rear positioning was not handled solely by the screw. Just like on the NSR Abarth, the rear number plate arm ― extending upward from the end of the chassis ― also slotted into the body to help locate the rear section. On the NSR, this piece functions as the license plate light housing.

So first, I cut away the useless pillar at the back of the cockpit. Since the cockpit itself floated freely anyway, I secured it to the body with plastic tape so it would not interfere with chassis float.

The rear number plate mounted at the tip of the upward chassis arm hooks into the rectangular opening for the body’s rear plate area. I carefully enlarged that opening slightly to create enough clearance for proper chassis movement.

Then, to prevent the assembly from slipping back out, I added a small plastic plate inside the opening to act as a depth-wise retainer.

From there, final rear-end tuning became a matter of gradually trimming or shimming around the opening until the handling felt satisfactory.

Just like the Lancer, I fitted a Ninco guide, removed the magnet, added weight, installed and trued N22 rear tires, and the car was ready.

Since I already had setup data from building the Lancer first, I also matched the added ballast weight fairly closely. Whether or not the handling characteristics ended up identical was less important ― at least numerically, I wanted both cars built to roughly the same specifications.

Driven alone, the Focus feels quite different from the Lancer.

But once both cars are on the track together, the pairing actually works surprisingly well. This should allow my wife and me to enjoy long, evenly matched races together.

The Focus seems to have a slightly higher top speed, though its brakes also feel slightly weaker. From here, all that remains is to let my wife drive both cars and decide which one she prefers as her own.