FLY Ferrari 512 S Coda Lunga Sunoco Edition
By Shawn J. Smith

Wow... can you believe that it's been almost a year since I've last reviewed a new product from FLY Car Model? Seems like forever I can assure you however thanks to the gracious folks from Slot Car World the long FLY review drought is finally over! It's time to check out one of the latest FLY offerings in the form of the new Ferrari 512 S Coda Lunga 'Sunoco Edition'.

Appearance:



Ahh the colors of the Sunoco Ferrari long-tail! Wait, what's that you say? The Ferrari Coda Lunga never wore these colors in real life? That would appear to be true as I can find no evidence that this car ever graced a real world racing circuit wearing these colors. I've found lots of examples of this paint job covering the Ferrari 512 M yet with no images being found of this 512 S Coda Lunga the conclusion is that this paint scheme is purely a 'fantasy' livery.



Some what understandably I can see why many of slotting's 'purists' are, or will be, a little upset by this fictitious representation of such a historically significant race car. FLY Car Model, perhaps best known for recreating some of the world's most famous cars, has seemingly decided to cash in on the 'Sunoco' brand familiarity and in doing so have taken a few liberties in their modeling of this Ferrari.



Be that as it may there is still little doubt that this FLY Ferrari 512 S is one good looking slot car no matter how inaccurate the paint job is. While its fantasy paint job might keep it off of the shelf of a few collectors I have little worry about this car becoming a running racer for many slotting enthusiasts simply due to the recognizable name and striking colors.



In addition to livery there might also be a few other reasons why this model should be a true racer and not just another 'shelf queen'. Starting at the tail of the Sunoco Coda Lunga the next area of interest for me soon became the wide yellow racing stripes extending from the vents on either side of the engine bay and ending just before the angled rear spoiler lip. These stripes, while a nice contrast against the royal blue of the car, are too thin in their application and allow for a large enough percentage of the blue underneath to fade through causing the stripes to appear 'dull' or 'dirty'.



The next interesting bit of 'modeling' can be found on the roof of the FLY Sunoco 512 S in the form of the roof-mounted rear view mirror. The mirror itself is not the issue, as this is an accurately modeled feature of this car, although the color in which it was molded comes across as more of a 'fluorescent yellow' and draws attention to itself.



That takes us next to the wheels used on this model. While being decent representations of Ferrari rims these wheels are again a unique shade yellow that are different from the other yellows used on the rest of the car. I also feel the rim would benefit by having the outer lip painted silver and at some point I intend to do that myself.



Wrapping up the appearance portion of the review I have one last item to mention. Knowing this is nothing new to FLY I still have high hopes that one day they will work to improve their clear-coating, or lack there of, on all of their models. Aside from the main blue color of the car body the rest of the detailing is unprotected from scuffs and scrapes. How FLY can produce some of the most beautiful slot cars in the world yet fail to protect their paint jobs still confuses me. I guess if you're strictly a collector this isn't much of an issue for you but for those of us who do race these cars it would be nice to keep the wonderful paint detailing intact for as long as possible.



Performance:



All right, enough about the outside its time to open it up and take a look at the inside. Three screws hold the body of the FLY 512 S to its chassis, two directly in front of both rear wheels and one partially disguised by the cars guide and braids.



Now with the body off we are presented with a relatively open flat chassis pan, independent front stub axles and a separate rear motor pod that to be removed will require the removal of one additional screw hidden under the model's replicated engine detail.



Thankfully there isn't much of a need to remove this motor pod unless your intentions are to remove the round magnet that sits just in front of the motor. You can grease your gears and oil your axle bushings with the motor pod in place. And speaking of axle bushings it might be interesting to note that in place of the more familiar brass axle bushings this model is equipped with dark gray plastic bushings instead.



Yet another area where FLY leaves things unchanged can be seen in the excessively long sidewinder motor shaft. In the pictures both above and below you can easily notice how the motor shaft covers nearly a third of the cars rear tire. If you're a 'take it from the box and slap it on the track' type of hobbyist you might find this motor shaft to be a concern as depending on the tire profiling it could be highly likely that the two, the motor shaft and the tire, will rub together and cause unneeded friction. Sanding the rear tires to get them as true as possible will no doubt help alleviate much of this contact although I know several slot car racers who will take the time to cut this excess motor shaft off to avoid the contact all together.



So how did it run? It probably won't surprise you to hear that this newest FLY 'classic' runs similarly to all of the other classics of its type. The button magnet provides for a decent amount of down-force without making the car feel 'too stuck down'. Given the right amount of throttle, or maybe I should say too much of, the Ferrari 512 S Coda Lunga will toss the rear end out quickly but not too quickly that you can't anticipate it and recover from it should it occur.



Lap times during my testing, on the local 118' commercial four-lane Carrera track, hovered around the 12.50 mark with a best lap being recorded of 12.14 seconds. On lookers commented on how much 'punch' the motor seemed to have yet for the additional speed the motor appeared to be providing the lap times are what I would consider average for this class of car. Obviously some tuning would do a lot to improve on this, as my testing was done 100% box-stock, so I have little doubt this car could produce even faster lap times with just a bit of tweaking.

The Final Verdict:



The FLY Ferrari 512 S Coda Lunga Sunoco Edition might have a few marks against it, depending on your point of view, but it also has a lot going for it. The biggest points against it being the 'fantasy' paint job if you're a die-hard collector of accurately modeled Ferrari race cars, the odd-colorings of plastics used for it's details and it's lack of clear coat over markings like the rear racing stripes and 'Sunoco Team' graphics. In contrast the highlights include a 'fantasy' paint job that you wont necessarily have to worry too much about damaging while racing it, as you won't be tearing up your favorite historically replicated car, and a capable chassis that runs well while leaving some 'driving' in the hands of the driver.

Like or dislike the non-authentic paint job it doesn't stop anyone from having a great time with this car if your intentions are to drive it. Items like the roof-mounted mirror can be painted, as can the rims if it truly bothers you, so all in all it's a good car that many will no doubt enjoy and I certainly intend to be one of those enjoying it!


Special thanks go to Slot Car World for providing the new FLY Ferrari 512 S Coda Lunga for review. As always, please feel free to email me with any comments or questions about this or any other review and I’ll be happy to answer any questions that I can. Happy slotting!