| Aug. 23 2003 Review |
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 Scalextric-USA FLY of Spain Celebrates an American Icon: Corvette C5 Z06 50th Anniversary Commemorative Edition By Shawn Smith (SJSlots) Click here to have Genie read this review out loud to you in Microsoft Agent AUDIO! There are very few automotive fans that might dispute that the Chevrolet Corvette perhaps most symbolizes the "American driving spirit". The Chevrolet Corvette is also the most easily recognized car model that speaks to American horsepower and performance. FLY has been no stranger to the American made Corvette in recent years. In fact, FLY has produced ten different Chevrolet Corvettes in 1/32 scale since 1999 yet all of them to date have been in full race trim. This time around however FLY breaks the tradition of producing the full race versions and have decided to focus their attention on the 50th Anniversary edition of the street legal Chevrolet Corvette performance coupe. Looks: Let me start off my declaring that this model from FLY is absolutely beautiful! Gorgeous as it is however there are some things that need to be pointed out that may or may not spark quite a bit of controversy within the ranks of 1/32 scale slot car racers and collectors. Ready to burn a little rubber?  First, take the time to briefly study the 1:1 prototype picture above. This picture will be the focus of our discussion on how well FLY has recaptured the Commemorative Edition Corvette and will also spark many heated slot car message board debates on just how important discrepancies are when it comes to 1/32 reproductions.  What a sight! Unwrapping my Scalextric-USA sent FLY Corvette C5 Z06 I almost began to cry. Not because of the issues we will soon be addressing but rather because this car is just so attractive! I could feel my smile running from ear to ear as I lifted the clear plastic cover to get a better look at my new pride and joy. The blue used to replicate the car's finish is deep, matches the prototype pictures wonderfully and is as flawless a finish as I have seen yet on any mass produced ready to run slot car. The white stripes with red trim are equally as well done being both sharp and rich in color and the Corvette emblems and fender badges follow suit to make this model one that may be terribly hard to resist making into a display only "shelf queen". The familiar blue FLY Car Model identification card is of course included and licensing requirements have dictated the addition of the holographic General Motors "official licensed product" label for this car. If GM found it ok to stamp it with their seal of approval then who am I to judge? A reviewer, that's who!!  Having the case top now removed I first was drawn to the fact that something seemed a miss with our four FLY produced wheels. Referring back up to our prototype picture you can clearly see that FLY has decided not to replicate the anniversary edition's star shaped ten spoke wheels. Our model comes instead with BBS style rims that closely match the wheels used on the recently released FLY Lola B98/10. At first I thought these were the exact same although a closer inspection proved that not to be the case. The center hub detailing is slightly different from the Lola which leaves me wondering why, if they went about the trouble of making modifications to the wheel for this model, they couldn't have replicated the prototypical wheels a little more effectively.  The next point of interest lies in the tiny and delicate roof mounted antenna found on FLY's recreation of our commemorative edition C5 Z06. I couldn't seem to find this roof-mounted antenna in any prototype picture that I found so I again was left wondering what might have been FLY's inspiration for this bit of detail. Perhaps this is an additionally offered Chevrolet satellite navigational feature that comes as an option… then again maybe not.  One of the more heated discussions will no doubt be sparked by what is missing from the picture above. Please notice that our Z06 Corvette is DRIVERLESS!! Yes, that's right, the FLY Corvette Commemorative Edition arrived at my front door missing its pilot!  This is not a flaw in production. There is no hole in the seat where the driver should go that might lead me to think the driver was overlooked in the assembly phase. This is not the first time FLY has left a driver out although to my knowledge those other times were on "special edition" presentation models and not for "crystal case" releases. Maybe Chevrolet requested this specifically so that their Corvette emblems could proudly be displayed on each of the bucket seats?  Additionally there are a few other small details that need to be looked at. If you look closely to the bottom of the nose on our slot car Corvette above you will see FLY's addition of two small projector style driving lights just to the inside of each front turn signal. These were not found on the prototype pictures although I again can't rule these out as a factory installed option and regardless they look great on the model and are a nice piece of added detail.  Finally, the last discrepancy I found can be located on the rear quarter panels of our model in the form of the yellow side marker lamps. Almost every C5 Corvette I've seen came equipped with red side marker lights instead of FLY's use of yellow although I do give the credit for FLY making these out of separate pieces of clear plastic and not just painting these on.  One last point of interest before moving on the chassis is the level of detail FLY has applied to the dashboard features. Not only did FLY use silver, blue and red accents on the Corvette's dash but look closely (if you can, it's hard to get the digital camera to focus on detail so small) and you can see the extremely well detailed gauges behind the steering wheel. I may be wrong about this… but by where FLY has painted the needles for both the speedometer and tachometer, this car is doing 100 miles per hour while it's sitting still! So…I found quite a few things that might make or break this car if you are a fan of exact scale replication. Only you can decide if these will be bothersome enough for you to avoid this car...although if you do I feel that you are depriving yourself one of the most beautiful present day models produced by FLY yet. Performance:  Now with our exterior addressed we can focus our attention to where the similarities to the 1:1 counterpart stop. To remove the body of the FLY Corvette you simply need to remove three equal length screws (green dots above) from the chassis bottom. While you're here though make sure to stop and appreciate the details applied to the bottom of this chassis. Note first that our motor is in the rather prototypically correct front in-line drive configuration. This is framed by the painted lower front suspension details and additionally detailed dual exhaust pipes leading back to wonderfully added rear end mufflers.  Flipping the chassis over you can easily see that this car offers quite a bit of room for tuning. A large flat space separates the rear end from the motor location and would make a nice place to add some weight if you prefer to run your cars without the magnet.  In the back end we can see the Corvette's spring loaded drive shaft that delivers power via a brass pinion gear and plastic axle gear through brass rear axle bushings. Both bushings were very snug in my model and didn't require gluing although I added a small drop just in case. The FLY bar magnet sits slightly forward of the pinion gear and provides ample down-force without making the car feel too stuck to the track.  Revisiting our non-prototypical wheels we can see FLY's use of a nice 2-piece rim design. While they may not be official Anniversary Edition wheels they do look good, had no excess flashing in the rims and were found to be very true during my testing.  Jumping up front we find FLY's use of independent post axles to hold on our front wheels and while mine came without excessive free play there are some racers that dislike this axle design and may opt for a solid front axle replacement. Before you go getting that solid front axle ready however be prepared to get out the Dremel and cutting discs as the front motor shaft will need to be cut flush to get anything even remotely looking like a solid axle into this chassis. Without the front axle modification mentioned above I am happy to say that, once again, I have been blessed with a FLY car model that required no significant modifications for the car to perform as a "ready to run" slot car should. I oiled my bearings and motor shaft ends, greased my gears, adjusted the braids and finally trued my rear tires. Placing the car in to the slot and applying throttle sent this car singing around my track and while it did take a few laps to begin quieting the rear gearing the gear noise was never what I would consider excessive and barely was worth mentioning. The Final Verdict:  No driver figure to steer the Corvette C5 Z06 Commemorative Edition around the track, wheels not matching prototype offerings of the 1:1 version and small other details like an unusually placed roof antenna and what do you have remaining? Well… a beautiful slot car to run around your track if you can bring yourself to actually race this car. I am normally not one to place a car on the shelf with the intention of never running it again although this car might make me change my mind. I have 1/18 die cast models that don't make me stop and stare nearly as much as I did while writing this review with the car sitting in front of me. A driver figure would be nice to keep in form with every other car that I have and more correctly matching wheels are about the only things keeping this FLY Corvette from being what might be an exceptional slot car. Special thanks go to the great people at Scalextric-USA for providing me the chance to get a better look at this latest FLY release. As always, feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions and I will be happy to answer anything that I can. Happy slotting! Shawn Smith Smith79179@netscape.net |
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