1/32 FLY Panoz LMP-1 Roadster slot car review at SCG

Slot Car Garage - Info about Slot Cars

September 2000 Review

Item reviewed here was donated to us by Slot Car World for review

FLY #A92 Panoz LMP-1 Petit Le Mans 1999
1/32 Slot Car Review

Features:

Front Mounted Mabuchi S Motor
Wide Silicone-Type Rear Slicks
Highly Detailed Body and Interior
Typical FLY Quality
Neodymium Traction Magnet

Overall Rating:

4 out of 5 tires

Purchase this item from Slot Car World

These reviews are done on my custom Carrera 1/24 Exclusiv road course layout.

Test Drive Results - Ten Lap Sprint:

Lane	Best Lap Time	Average Lap Time	Chronometer
1	4.289	4.710	0:51.559

* Data does include some minor wrecks during the course of the trial run...

Test Drive Observations:

The Panoz automobiles have taken the world by storm. They are being produced for the street and the track. One of the latest cars from FLY is this Panoz LMP-1 Le Mans "Roadster" 1/32 slot car. Many people like the styling and I guess you can either love it or hate it. The one thing about Panoz cars is the Ford V8 powerplant :) Let's see how this car pans out.

The car itself is another highly detailed and high quality offering from FLY. FLY has done another fine job on this car with precise and clear markings. The fit and finish is top notch. The open cockpit is well detailed and we get a nicely done driver figure. The new roadster body is done well and we get the usual front-motor mounted chassis with a drive shaft to send power back to the rear wheels. This way FLY gives us a full depth interior and driver.

FLY cars are pretty quick and this one is no slouch on the track. The car has quick acceleration and pretty decent power from the common Mabuchi S endbell drive motor. The car uses the ever popular round neodymium traction magnet in the rear to keep the car planted on the race course. This helps the car tremendously but it still suffers from oversteer aka fish tailing when trying to go full throttle out of the turns onto the straights. You could probably get used to it but it's insane to try to race against a smoother running automobile with this car. The FLY Vipers seem much more planted and glued to the track than this Panoz LMP-1. You could probably fine tune the chassis a bit with some lead weight, etc.

Driving the car around the curves is pretty easy to do. You need to remember it does spin out if you tend to open up the throttle on the car. It is still well planted and with some patience you can get the car running pretty good. I really like the unique styling of the car. You can race this car around with Vipers and other Panoz cars without much trouble in keeping up with them. Just have to keep an eye on those fragile mirrors. The rear wing is pretty solid and suspect it will hold up against minor crashes.

There isn't much to hate about this car but the problem lies in the fact that when you want to go fast the back end comes out on you. The car otherwise is a pretty decent and the styling / detail is top notch on this 1/32 scale slot car. I do hope that FLY figures out a way to quiet their drivetrain as it is loud when running this car. I guess the plastic body and chassis amplifies the noise of the gears more with the front engine rear drive configuration.

This car is getting a 4 out of 5 tires rating. The problem being the way the car handles going out of the turns. Once the car breaks loose there is no coming back but that is one consequence of magnet racing. They should also find a way to cut down on the noise a bit for the car. Most people collect these cars and don't run them much but you should get a good running car for the money you spend on these. This is a nicely done car overall and I really appreciate the effort that FLY puts into these 1/32 slot cars. Now, again if we could only get our street or muscle cars in 1/32 scale. At least we know not to expect a 1/32 Pontiac Aztek slot car :)

Slot Car Garage Review Rating: 4 out of 5 tires!!!

Head back to the main reviews section for many more reviews of slot cars and related items...

Some other reviews:

Current and Past Reviews (some from Slot Car Racing on the Net):

Return to Main Reviews Section - Read more of my personal reviews and other reviews of related slot car items including cars, sets, parts, etc. involving all the scales (1/24, 1/32, HO)
More Slot Car Test Drive Results - Current data from testing on my Carrera 1/24 Exclusiv track. Includes results from 1/24 and 1/32 scale slot cars.
Slot Car Test Drive Results - This is a run-down of the various slot cars I tested with their average, best lap times and the total time it took the car to complete the ten lap trial run. These cars were tested on my Riggen 1/32 layout.