FLY Car Models Lola T70 Mk3B with NR3D chassis, etc

Recently, I stumbled across a stop-motion animation series on YouTube called "The Wind in the Willows", produced by Cosgrove Hall Films in the UK.
The Wind in the Willows (Full Movie)

It’s a traditional British puppet show-style production, and everything from the script, direction, and puppet design to the voice acting and cinematography is done so well that it feels like a waste to leave it just for children. After discovering around 50+ episodes on YouTube, it’s become a perfect bedtime ritual for my wife and me. Even after watching the same episode multiple times, we never get tired of it.

The Wind in the Willows was one of Cosgrove Hall Films’ early major successes in stop motion. The 1983 film was adapted from Kenneth Grahame’s 1908 classic and won both a BAFTA and an Emmy. Its popularity led to a follow-up stop-motion series for Thames TV / ITV Network also by Cosgrove Hall. The voice cast featured (L to R) Peter Sallis as Ratty in TV series, Michael Hordern as Badger, David Jason as Toad, Richard Pearson as Mole, and Ian Carmichael as Ratty in the first film and narrator in TV series.

And perhaps best of all, watching this show finally helped me understand the meaning behind the "Toad Hall Racing Team" name that sometimes pops up in Western motorsports.

Like Toad himself, I’m completely enchanted by the joys of motoring.
It made me want a car that would let me and my wife relive the spirit of Toad’s adventures. Then I remembered that FLY once released two versions of a Lola with Toad Hall graphics printed on the body.

I vaguely remembered from racing it some 20 years ago that the FLY Classic Series sidewinder Lola T70, like the Ferrari 512S, had trickier handling than the Porsche 908s or 917s. So this time, I decided from the start to build the new Lola with a 3D-printed chassis.

Shapeways, which I had once relied on for 3D-printed parts, went bankrupt and later restarted under (I assume) new management. But it’s now a B2B-style 3D solutions consultancy, and honestly, I can’t figure out how to order products from them anymore.

So I went looking for a direct purchasing option and got in touch with Vasco Cunha of National Racers 3D (NR3D). I ended up buying a T70 chassis compatible with the Slot-it sidewinder motor pod—not the all-in-one type. There weren’t any in stock at the time, so I waited a bit until they were reproduced and shipped out.

With the stock full-depth cockpit that comes with the FLY body, there’s no room underneath for a Slot-it motor mount. Sure, I could cut down the stock cockpit and driver figure as usual to make a shallow upper-half version, but I was in the mood to take it easy.

I’d always been curious about the ThunderSlot T70 Cockpit Kit, so I decided to give it a try. I also ordered the Engine & Exhaust Kit from LEB Hobbies just in case, but I ended up not using it.

I already knew that gluing and truing FLY stock rubber tires on the plastic wheels with stock rear axle from FLY could give great grip. But since the stock tires get super gummy when hot, truing two sets would be a hassle. So I took the easy route this time as well.

Older cars like the FLY-Classic series have very narrow wheel wells, so I need hubless aluminum wheels to make them fit. I ordered CB Design aluminum wheels, spyder inserts & 3-spoke knock-offs, and XPG urethane tires from Slot Car Corner.

For finishing the wheels, I didn’t go with metal primer and gun-metallic paint. Instead, I used a "Birchwood Casey Gun Blue Touch-Up Pen" from my airsoft hobby, which I started three years ago. Since it creates a black oxide layer on the aluminum surface through a chemical reaction, it’s more durable than paint, doesn’t affect the clearance for the inserts, and — best of all — gives authentic finish you'd see on a real gun's non polished metal.

The inserts, being resin, were just lightly sprayed with regular gun-metallic paint from a can.

After assembling all the chassis components, I installed the ThunderSlot cockpit kit into the body. I didn’t end up using the Engine & Exhaust Kit—instead, I slightly modified the original FLY parts and reused them. For the headlights and taillights, I added an LED kit from Z-Machine.

Finally, I finished it off with tire decals from Patto’s. I really love Patto’s decals—they’re thin yet tough, the ink is very opaque and durable, and they’re just excellent waterslide decals overall. I even bought a pair of Tamiya curved scissors just for cutting those arc-shaped tire decals. Compared to regular straight scissors, they make the job feel about 30% easier, at least to me.

Now I’m looking forward to running it again at my friend’s circuit in Osaka. “Poop-poop! Brum-brum-bruum!”

Ninco Lancia Stratos Rally

This was just before Ninco withdrew from the slot car market. Back then, cars like their Stratos and Ford Sierra received barely any promotional push, didn’t generate much buzz, and frankly, I doubt they were ever produced in large numbers. At the very least, I never saw them lined up on any commercial tracks, nor did I ever get the sense that everyone had one tucked away in their slot car pit box. They never became "must-haves" like some other models.

Here’s the Ninco model that kicked off the project.

That said, I’d say Ninco’s take on the Stratos is, IMHO, the definitive version in terms of proportions. As far as the body is concerned, there’s nothing I’d want to change. The chassis, though, had some room for improvement. Despite featuring suspension, it barely had any travel. The stock tires were also unnecessarily fat and square-edged, making the whole setup feel a bit clumsy.

Here’s the images of the real car.

I want to strike a good balance between the running performance as a slot car and capturing the feel of the real car’s suspension.

So, I made a few adjustments. I extended the suspension travel significantly, narrowed the track slightly, and shaved down the tires―reducing the width and rounding off the shoulders.

After assembling the modified chassis, I ran repeated test laps, fine-tuned the weight distribution, and finally installed LED lighting from Z-Machine.

Here is the results.

With that, my ideal Stratos was complete.

SCX F1 2010 Custom McLaren & Renault

This time, I turned a black Lotus-Renault R31 into a silver McLaren MP4-25-ish build with a little tinkering.

As for F1 slot cars, I usually think of them as falling into two main categories: whether or not the front wheels steer. The ones that steer are in the minority, with only NINCO and SCX offering them. I, of course, enjoy slot cars with gimmicks like working lights and steering.

Strictly speaking, FLY did make F1 cars with steering, and they were great in terms of looks, performance, and handling. But every single one had a major flaw in the gear design, which meant they'd either wear down or break, leaving them useless. Finding FLY spare parts was a nightmare—nothing available in Japan, and it was the same everywhere else. After hunting them down, I ended up paying way more than the parts themselves just for shipping, and waiting days for them to arrive. I kept repairing the same car over and over, or sometimes I had to replace the whole thing and re-prep it for racing again and again. Eventually, I was just completely fed up and done with it all, to the core.

This is why I’ve long been a fan of NINCO Indy Cars and SCX F1s. In particular, I’m fond of the durability of SCX cars, even after crashes.

NINCO’s biggest issue is that the front wing breaks far too easily upon impact, as the material lacks sufficient durability.

On the other hand, SCX uses a lightweight and flexible material, along with a clever wing mounting method, making it really durable. Once built, I can run them for years and continue to enjoy them.

Because of this, I’ve custom-built several SCX F1 cars in the past. I typically combine two types of aluminum pipes to create a motor adapter and swap out the RX motor for a Hornby slim motor. For the rear axle, I used to glue F22 tires to Slot-it aluminum wheels and true them. I also minimize the addition of lead weights. This allows the motor, with its lightweight and flexible chassis, to rev up effortlessly to high RPMs, creating that perfect F1 driving feel that seems to scream toward the heavens.

When I see such a car steering through a corner, battling to make it through while maintaining just enough speed, I think this is the essence of slot car fun!

For this build, my goal was to use up some stock parts, so I decided on the motor first—Mitoos M6+. The body I chose is a 2010 F1 car, which I didn’t have before.

SCX’s 2010 F1 was only released as a yellow Renault R30, 

and the same body later came out as the black Lotus-Renault R31 in 2011.

I decided to use the stock R30 to build a cute yellow race car for my wife and modify the R31 black Lotus body into a silver McLaren "MP4-25"-ish for myself. F1 cars are very fragile and tend to fall apart after a single crash, so I’m not usually keen on customizing them.

However, just adding the distinctive shark fin shape of the F-duct that stalls the rear wing’s drag, along with slightly raising the nose, should make it look the part. After that, it will mostly be about painting and applying the decals, and it should look like a McLaren in the end. Luckily, I also had a Lewis Hamilton half-figure lying around in the junkyard.

For the chassis, I’ll leave it stock for now and see how it performs. Until now, I’ve mostly run cars on a wood track, where the tires need to be perfectly true, or else they’ll bounce. However, now I only race on a NINCO track, so this time I’m sticking with the stock axle without any modifications and see how they perform.

The motor feels heavy and seems to have a lot of torque. If I run it and find that grip becomes an issue, I’ll think of something to address it later.

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As for the real F1 cars, it’s been nearly 50 years since we saw the ugly ducklings on the grid. There was a time when F1 cars with a form that looked as if it were still in the experimental stage, drawing mocking laughter from the crowd or, conversely, love them because of their ugliness, cheering them on. But those days are long gone.

Since 1990, it’s been hard to tell which car belongs to which team just by looking at the livery, unless you're a fanatic and start inspecting minute details with a magnifying glass. No longer are there glaringly features, like having four wheels at the front or rear, or a front wing that looks like a round coffee table, or a rear wing with two rows front and back—features that, no matter how ugly, were easily recognizable at a glance.

Frankly, I haven’t watched F1 broadcasts in over 10 years. Nico Rosberg won his only World Championship in 2016, and by that time, I had already lost interest in F1 and wasn’t following it anymore.

But the seasons from 2010 to 2013 were the last to truly catch my attention, as the car designs changed drastically with each new regulation.

Even the controversial stepped noses of 2012–13 looked somewhat square and stylish compared to the even uglier “penis,” “walrus,” and “vacuum cleaner” noses of 2014–15.

What made the 2012 and 2013 seasons of uniquely individualistic F1 designs so fun to watch was how each team, while caught between regulations, aerodynamics, and aesthetics, offered their own solutions with various shapes. It was the first time in a while that F1 felt truly unique, and those two years were a blast to watch. However, the regulations from 2014 onward abandoned the idea that the balance between force and beauty was a key element of F1's allure.

After 2014, with the extreme low noses and lack of aesthetic appeal in the overall designs, I lost interest in F1. The new generation of F1 drivers started looking more like tennis players, and the races became more about placing the ball on the weaker side of the opponent, turning every race into something like a 2-hour tennis match. That was enough to make me completely lose interest.