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Old 2008.01.02, 12:51 AM   #1
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New Version Firelap 2.0

I just recently ordered two Firelap 2.0 McLarens from ToyEast for Christmas. It was due to arrive on the 26th of December 2007, but it only got here on the 2nd of January 2008 due to the Christmas rush. Everything that I ordered arrived, however, one of the Firelap boxes had a small dent in it due to shipment. But none of which are ToyEast's fault.

Review of the Firelap 2.0

The Firelap McLarens were packaged well. What's included in the package are:
Firelap 2.0 chassis
McLaren body
AFM2 Transmitter
Instruction Manual
Parts Bag

The looked pretty good and as a previous owner of a Kyosho MR02, the Firelap stands up to the nearest competition. However, the plastic parts are not as well molded as Kyosho, but I'm not complaining for the price. As promised by Fangel from Firelap/Iwaver, the new chassis did come in a dark plastic color instead of the previously released light gray chassis. Because of this I am sure that what I got is the new Firelap 2.0. What I cannot confirm as of now is the durability of the chassis as I have not yet played with my Firelap as I am writing you this article. But one thing I definitely noticed is that the Firelap now has a servo saver. It was pointed out before that the old Firelap chassis didn't have a servo saver and merely have a plastic gear which looked liked one, but didn't serve a purpose. Now I can proudly say that the new Firelap does have a functioning servo saver.

Review to be continued...
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Old 2008.01.02, 01:43 AM   #2
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Thats great! Im thinking of buying one myself because it is compatible with Mini-Z parts etc and is so much cheaper and still seems like a quality car. Can't wait for the review

Hope it comes out great!
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Old 2008.01.02, 03:28 AM   #3
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Continuation...



The McLaren body looked nice, but there were some imperfections here and there. I’m not complaining as the imperfections were small enough to ignore. Everything looked fine until I mounted the body on the chassis. Once again, the body sits a bit too high on the chassis that made it have a silly stance. I was expecting Firelap to do something about this but a little modification should solve this problem.




The chassis looked good. It’s very well made compared to the previous version of this car. The plastic parts snapped perfectly in to place without a hitch. The only problem I saw with the car is that the gear differential felt a bit too tight. But this could be a good thing if you’re racing on a slippery surface. Because I drove the car stock, it didn’t have bearings which made me feel a little bit of torque steer. But yet again, you can always remedy this by buying a set of ball bearings which I believe is a must for all racers. The suspension worked flawlessly. The rear h-plate looked a bit flimsy, but it does the job for now. It was a surprise to see the front suspension working so well. The king pins were not that smooth but smooth enough not to bind, a great plus for the new Firelap 2.0. The only weird thing I noticed that my yellow McLaren came with black front springs, but the silver one came with green springs. I don’t really know if there’s a difference in spring rate or if it’s just aesthetics. Everything looked well for the new Firelap 2.0, until I decided to install batteries. My 700mah AAA Sanyo batteries fit in well, but I couldn’t say the same for my taller 900mah AAA Sanyo batteries. I wouldn’t call it a snug fit as I could see the plastic flexing just to accommodate the taller batteries. But a quick fix for this is by trimming or bending the battery terminals on the chassis. Overall, I’d say that Firelap got the car right this time, but some things can still be improved on here and there.




The kit includes an AFM2 transmitter. I have previously purchased an AFM2 radio set a couple of months ago and I see some improvements from the one I got in my Firelap. The new one felt a bit more solid and the throttle and steering controls were better. Since the car does not include a brake function, the ABS capability of the transmitter should come in handy. It’s not that big to be jumping for joy but I sure do appreciate Firelap for continuously improving their product.



In the parts bag, you get as assortment of spare parts and some option parts. Here’s what’s inside:

3 Pinion gears (8T, 9T and 10T)
Motor mount spacers to adjust the gear mesh
Extra wheel nuts
Extra king pin c-clips
2 extra front tie rods (just not sure if they’re different in toe set up)
An extra motor mount to change it from an MM to an RM
H-plate for the RM set up
Gear cover
Antenna
Pinion gear remover
Wheel nut wrench

Overall, Firelap has given a solid deal. I cannot say that the car's solid, but they were able give us a pretty good car for an affordable price. I am happy to see the improvements they have made over the previous car. It's a fun toy which can be turned into a racer which can only give you lots of fun.

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Last edited by mailboxck; 2008.01.02 at 03:47 AM.
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Old 2008.01.02, 04:18 AM   #4
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Thanks for such a precise review....that's what I was waiting for before buying one of the Firelap models.
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Old 2008.01.02, 05:00 AM   #5
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You're very welcome.

My question for Fangel is, will the I sport motor work for a stock Firelap 2.0?

Is the I stock motor really like an x speed motor?
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Old 2008.01.02, 02:55 PM   #6
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I don't think you have the body sitting right ... I had the very first firelap 2.0's before any of the updates ...

I also had the Mc'Laren F1 body and it sat down fine, it didn't stick up at the top like that.
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Old 2008.01.02, 07:04 PM   #7
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Well, believe it or not, I installed the body properly and that's how it looked. I actually got two and both sat up that high. I read somewhere that the reason for this was that the iwaver/firelap chassis were lower that's why the body stick up that high. Is this true?
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Old 2008.01.02, 10:28 PM   #8
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Another question for fangel, does Firelap offer replacement parts such as the chassis, motor mount etc? I can't seem to find them on toy east. Plus, will you release a graphite or carbon fiber h-plate? Because I dont think that the plastic will last long
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Old 2008.01.02, 11:10 PM   #9
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With a fresh set of batteries, I drove the car this morning. Since we have marble floors, i could only use up to around 20% of the throttle around our livingroom or else risk hitting something or spinning the car around. There was indeed a lot of torque steer but a ball diff and bearings should solve that problem. The car handled ok, even better if you remove the mono shock at the back.

But as I checked the manual, I was disappointed about some things that they didn't include in the box but labeled them on the manual:

1. Rear shock and spring for the RM set up
2. Front and rear springs with different stiffness

And while driving, I tried out the ABS on the transmitter. I found out that the ABS was useless. It removed reversed and what it did was put the car in reverse for a short blip when you let go of the throttle. I don't know if this is my fault or not but I was happy to drive it without ABS
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Old 2008.01.03, 07:10 AM   #10
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Since the Firelap came in MM, I tried the hardware included to turn it into an RM

By following Kyosho's example. We can see that it almost useless to run this configuration as the "shock mount" (looks like a T from above) on the motor mount hits the plastic part that's between the motor terminals.




But, after inspecting the Firelap's manual, I see that they have a different approach of mounting the shock. The plastic part between the motor terminals (different from kyosho) is actually their shock mount for the RM configuration. And an additional mounting point was on the motor mount. And the T shock mount is removed. Here it is:




So as you can see, the Firelap looks ok in RM configuration but different from Kyosho's approach.
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Old 2008.01.03, 07:36 AM   #11
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The ABS is worthless on a car without a brake function.

Good review. I hope you continue to document your steps. I got frustrated with mine and quit using it. My review went downhill, and I gave up on the car. Ive got enough Zs to drive, and stopped wasting my time with this one. It was a LOT slower than any Z. I put an ATM stock R motor, which is uber fast in other cars, and I couldnt keep up with a stock 02 on the straights.

I got one of the older grey FLs last year around Feb for my birthday. The Tx was awesome but only lasted about 5 months before the steering wheel started getting really hard to turn. A few months ago two of my friends and I bought the new versions all at the same time. I wanted a replacement Tx, and those guys wanted something better than the stock Tx, that they could run multiple cars off of. Well, long story short, none of the three Txs have ever worked correctly. On one model they work fine, but on the other 9 the wheels will only turn right, not matter which way you turn the wheel. Also, on mine the first model wont go into reverse. I know how to use the Tx, and have all the settings right. I tried a master reset on all three, but none of the problems were resolved. I wil say that fangel offered to help me out with mine. Once I found out that the other guys had the same issues (3 of 3) I wasnt sure if getting a replacement would be worth anything more than a waste of shipping fees for toye@st. The other two guys only run two cars, so they are fine readjusting the first model to run both of their cars. Ive got 7 or 8 cars, so I asked Santa for a Helios this year, and he brought me one

I found the same problems with mounting, but believe its the body, and not the chassis. All three of ours sat like yours does, and sat the same way on my old FL chassis. The old one had the same problem. Its nothing that cant be fixed with remounting the side mounts, and/or some well placed shims

new version


old version before mods


and after some slight modifications


Here is a link to my PB gallery hosting all the pics that I was going to use when I did a review. There are also older pics from the first FL I bought and kind of reviewed. The old thread is floating around here somewhere.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v6...relap/?start=0


Im not sure if toyeast carries the replacement parts you are looking for, but Kyosho parts are a direct fit (one of the huge advantages to this chassis), and are readily available in the states.

In my kit I had all the parts to switch to RM from the MM set up. There are some mounts that go onto the RM pod that allow you to use the same shock/spring from the MM set up, so you should be good to go on that one.

I had one of the old Iwaivers, and it came wiht a few different grades of springs. I was kind of dissapointed when my first FL didnt come with them aswell, but for the $$$ I really couldnt complain about the extras that came with the box set.

Good luck, and agin continue to document this as you use it.

Oh yeah, Ive got a question; will you be racing this at any point? or is it going to be an "around the house beater" ?
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Old 2008.01.03, 07:59 AM   #12
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Thanks for the compliments.

Fortunately for me, the two cars I got were ok. Steering, throttle etc. But these cars are not technically mine. One is sold and the other one I am still selling. I do have another one coming soon for myself. As of now, they will be a living room racer but there are talks of opening up a shop within the year.

Yep, it's the bodies fault and not the chassis. Thanks for the tip!
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Old 2008.01.03, 09:06 PM   #13
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I actually replied yesterday, but the post disappear! (V.V) Anyway let me replied to them one by one.

Let me start off by saying, Thanks for the great review!
The Spring color issue was actually the factory once decided to shipped with color spring which is the same as the black one, but we had warn the factory afterward to pack according to spec. So this has been fixed and future product would be shipped as black.

The Steering issue that you had could be easily fixed with Ball Bearing and Differential upgrades. Also the battery has always been an issue for not this product but all the other product out there, but it could be easily fixed with just some pushing or pulling on the metal contact.

I'm glad that your TX feels more solid, since we did warn the factory to assemble it more carefully and make sure the parts are not just thrown together.

NR2 stock will run with i-plus motor with ease. The i-stock motor is similar to the original X-speed motor.

We currently don't have all the original parts in our store since most of the parts has been put into production and not in spare parts.

The ABS function is kinda useless for me too, basically you could do better controlling the throttle with your own skilled finger. But ABS should serve beginner well.

As for the body issue, I think I have to agree with Hrdvr. I believe it is the body itself causing the problem, I'll reflect that to the factory to get it fixed for next production. In the mean time I guess you would have to fix it by remove and re-gluing the side body mount.

Thanks for the review again, and I would like to point out that the Firelap NanoRacer 2.0 has greatly improve on quality and performance. For the price, it is a great deal for both introductory product and for skilled racer.
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Old 2008.01.03, 09:48 PM   #14
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Wow! Thanks for the speedy reply fangel. This is why I like iwaver and firelap. Yep, I believe the steering issue will be fixed with bearings and a ball diff. I have both, just didn't install them yet.
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Old 2008.01.03, 11:08 PM   #15
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I just installed a ball bearing kit. It fitted well, but I had to dremel the rear motor mount a bit to fit one of the bearings properly. This is certainly a bad thing for a beginner. But hey, now it fits ok.

After upgrading to ball bearings, the car felt a lot better. It handled like it was a whole new car. It did have torque steer but it's more controllable now. And on a marble floor, I could actually do "controlled" drifts. Well, I can only do a 90deg turn while drifting and it's not always good. But still, I can drift!
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