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A long-awaited car landed in my lap Thursday while working at Electric Dreams, as I do each week:
What a beauty! The initial impression is fantastic, typical of all the cars that come from Policar. A very nice finish, exquisite details and overall a very visually impressive offering.
As always, the first thing I did once it was out the box was to start taking it apart, as I always like to grind the tires and do some basic setup. It was there that I started to notice little things that will tend to spoil some folks' experience, so I thought I would highlight them along with the fixes.
First off, the front axle is too short for proper engagement in the wheels. With push-on wheels one wants the axle to penetrate all the way into the wheels to get them rotating as true as possible. Unfortunately, the 48mm axle used in the car only leaves a tiny amount sticking out the suspension when it is in full engagement with one wheel:
Since the total engagement in each wheel about 2.5mm, it did not make sense to try to even the axle out between the two wheels, so I cut a new axle from 3/32" piano wire to a length of 51mm, and that allowed the front wheels to be fully press on and still leave about 1mm of sideplay. Problem solved.
Then it was onto the rear. I noticed that the lovely exhaust moldings are attached only at the rear of the car and that the front ends were hanging well below the chassis and looked like they would drag the track:
There is a small protrusion on the side of the motor pod that makes for a very convenient attachment point for the front of each set of exhausts, and a small drop of super glue was all that was needed to correct this issue. On the right side of the car body, there is a little silver molding down low that needed to be trimmed a bit to allow the body to fit well once it went back. I forgot to take a photo of that, I will add it later.
While I was looking at the exhausts, I noticed that the chassis was not flat, but had a large gap under the center of the car:
The car does not have a full chassis ,of course, like all the Policar F1s there are two screws that attach the front end to the motor pod. As you can see in the photo, the front end of the pod is pointing downward by quite a few degrees. I removed the front end, the motor and the two layshafts in the transmission, and laid the chassis on my steel plate straightening fixture, then held it down with a few big magnets. Then I found one magnet that was as thick as the offset between the pod base and the underside of the attachment segment of the pod (3mm). Once this was all in position, I heated the front end of the pod carefully with a heat gun for a while till it was too hot to touch, then left it to cool while I ground the tires. Once cool, the pod was nice and flat and the whole deal went back together nicely.
On reassembly, I decided to clean up the messy soldering on one motor lead and discovered that the capacitor that is soldered between the motor connections needs to be bent down ward in the chassis to ensure the body fits back easily, but otherwise there was no issue re-assembling everything. The rear suspension detail on this car is nicely done in that there are no pieces that need to be removed or bent to separate the body and chassis.
Once on the track, I was back to Wow again. The car runs very well, at least on a par with the Policar Lotus 72, which I have found to be the fastest of the breed so far.
So all in all, a satisfactory purchase. I don't mind working on the cars I buy, and I don't expect them to be perfect for the price we pay, but sometimes I do wish that there was a little more care taken when they are assembled.
I hope this helps anyone else looking to add this car to their collection.
What a beauty! The initial impression is fantastic, typical of all the cars that come from Policar. A very nice finish, exquisite details and overall a very visually impressive offering.
As always, the first thing I did once it was out the box was to start taking it apart, as I always like to grind the tires and do some basic setup. It was there that I started to notice little things that will tend to spoil some folks' experience, so I thought I would highlight them along with the fixes.
First off, the front axle is too short for proper engagement in the wheels. With push-on wheels one wants the axle to penetrate all the way into the wheels to get them rotating as true as possible. Unfortunately, the 48mm axle used in the car only leaves a tiny amount sticking out the suspension when it is in full engagement with one wheel:
Since the total engagement in each wheel about 2.5mm, it did not make sense to try to even the axle out between the two wheels, so I cut a new axle from 3/32" piano wire to a length of 51mm, and that allowed the front wheels to be fully press on and still leave about 1mm of sideplay. Problem solved.
Then it was onto the rear. I noticed that the lovely exhaust moldings are attached only at the rear of the car and that the front ends were hanging well below the chassis and looked like they would drag the track:
There is a small protrusion on the side of the motor pod that makes for a very convenient attachment point for the front of each set of exhausts, and a small drop of super glue was all that was needed to correct this issue. On the right side of the car body, there is a little silver molding down low that needed to be trimmed a bit to allow the body to fit well once it went back. I forgot to take a photo of that, I will add it later.
While I was looking at the exhausts, I noticed that the chassis was not flat, but had a large gap under the center of the car:
The car does not have a full chassis ,of course, like all the Policar F1s there are two screws that attach the front end to the motor pod. As you can see in the photo, the front end of the pod is pointing downward by quite a few degrees. I removed the front end, the motor and the two layshafts in the transmission, and laid the chassis on my steel plate straightening fixture, then held it down with a few big magnets. Then I found one magnet that was as thick as the offset between the pod base and the underside of the attachment segment of the pod (3mm). Once this was all in position, I heated the front end of the pod carefully with a heat gun for a while till it was too hot to touch, then left it to cool while I ground the tires. Once cool, the pod was nice and flat and the whole deal went back together nicely.
On reassembly, I decided to clean up the messy soldering on one motor lead and discovered that the capacitor that is soldered between the motor connections needs to be bent down ward in the chassis to ensure the body fits back easily, but otherwise there was no issue re-assembling everything. The rear suspension detail on this car is nicely done in that there are no pieces that need to be removed or bent to separate the body and chassis.
Once on the track, I was back to Wow again. The car runs very well, at least on a par with the Policar Lotus 72, which I have found to be the fastest of the breed so far.
So all in all, a satisfactory purchase. I don't mind working on the cars I buy, and I don't expect them to be perfect for the price we pay, but sometimes I do wish that there was a little more care taken when they are assembled.
I hope this helps anyone else looking to add this car to their collection.
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