FERRARI 512 LM - SIDEWAYS
Ferrari 512 is Group 5 grid's Ugly duck, without any doubt the less attractive model. I guess that Pinifarina's main designer was on holliday and this car design was developed by a daltonic intern. This is the only way I can imagine the car's front part. But one day, tired of seen Scaleauto's or Sideways' BMW M1 in the Group 5 races, I decided to tune this car up. In the following article you will find how to do it.
As usually, we first approach the car's appearance...and yes, we easilly find out that the front is really horrible, it looks closer to subway design than to Ferrari, but being fair, the car is perfectly reproduced. To support my words we can find hereby some pictures. In fact, i can see one model that is making me think about re-painting my horrible "European University" livery...without any doubt the worst livery of this model.
Cars rear part is simply perfectly reproduced, white exhaust pipes, the car grid, windscreens, wiper, wheel rims, fake enigne(seen in the back windscreen) everything is perfect. Headlight are also perfectly reproduced, giving the same aspect of depth of the original model. I can only say that Sideways has done a perfect job(as usually) with this car.
MODEL'S MEASSURES
OUR TEST
We start with the original configuration, 11/28 transmission, 17.3 rims, flat engine. By chance it is the same engine that I used for Lancia Beta, and it behaves much better. It is a little bit slow, but we should have in mind that 11 teeth pinion it is not a good option for our Circuit. On the other hand, teh car behaves perfectly well, it is easy to drive and very noble. No all "out of a box" cars behave in such a way. Hereby you can see its chronos.
It is time to tune it up! I will configure the car just as we compete in our club. We use flexy chasis, offset 0.5 slot.it motor mount, 17.3 magnesium back rims, Sloting plus' Speed 5 engine. Change is impressive, now the car speeds up and brakes faster, soft suspension in the back of the motor moutn and ultra soft suspension in both sides of the motor mount improve stability to the maxium. New transmission 12/28 helps to make the car faster, and now the car is behaving like a GT car.
It still has original interior, so the body's weight is still 22.3 g. I'm going to use the lexan interior in the next test.
Now it is time to do the real test! We replace the car copkit by a lexan copkit. No we have lowered body's weight to 17.9 g. It is still heavier than Scaleautos M1(most used G.5 to compete, with it's 16.5 g.)
Now car is even faster and stops faster. It behaves like a GT car in corners, but what is even more impressive is that it speeds up like a dragster. We could make the car even more competitive lowering the back rim's diameter to 16.9 or 16.5 mm. But I like to keep cars original meassures to try to use its original hubs. Unfortunately they were heavily glued to the rim...so I have to buy new ones.
Under thes lines you couldd see the chronos, that could be lower in lanes 1 and 6, but our circuit was not behaving good today, it was a little too dirty. You can see that chornos are very similar, as it is really easy to drive this car.
RECOMENDED MATERIAL FOR THIS CAR
MOTOR MOUNT: CH60B-OFFSET 0.5 HARD MOTOR MOUNT
BUSHES: Rótula RRSS Victor's para eje 2,38 mm (3/32´´) - bolsa con 6 unidades
ENGINE: Speed 5 Engine Ref: SP090005
BACK SUSPENSION: Slot.it's large wide head screws CH59 - Slot.it's soft springs CH55A
LATERAL SUSPENSION: Slot.it's short wide head screws CH59- Slot.it's ultra soft springs CH55C
BODYSHELL SCREWS: SC-5127 - Tornillos semiroscados laton
FRONT TYRES: PA19 - 14.2 mm diámetro x 8 mm ancho.
BACK AXLE: PA01-54 Slot.it axle 54 mm
FRONT AXLE: the one included in the original car.
PINION: SIPPS12- brass 12 teeth pinion.
GEAR: GA1628-plastic 28 teeth gear
SPACERS: SC-1120b -Bronze1 mm spacers
FRONT RIM: Original plastic one.
BACK RIM: WH1230 magnesium 17.3x10 rim
FINAL CONCLUSSION
THE BEST
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Car's behaviour, the way it goes into a corner and the way it passes through it.
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Traction, what it makes it speeding up like a dragster.
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It is a car really easy to prepare.
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Exclusivity: if you use it in your club, you'll be one of the few to do so...as everybody trends to use Scaleauto's or Sideways BMW M1.
THE WORST
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Esthetic: car's profile and back are nice, but the front part is closer to a train or a subway than to a ferrary. There liveries nicer than "European University", but without any doubt, this livery I have is the uggliest!!!