Review: Serpent F110 Formula 1

I was really excited when I got my hands on my first Formula 1 car. That all changed, however, the moment I put it on the track. The tires were hard as rocks and no matter how much you tried to tune the car, it was still very difficult to drive. Over the past couple of years, the Formula 1 community has seen quite a bit of growth, including the progression of tire technology, the refinement of the suspensions and ESC and radio functions that allow you to cater the throttle response to your liking. All of these things have made F1 cars easier to drive, sparking the interest of some big-name manufacturers. What you see before you is Serpent’s entry into the F1 arena; the beautiful F110. Loaded with tiny electronics, this car is designed for pure performance.

AT A GLANCE
WHO MAKES IT: Serpent
WHO IT’S FOR: Intermediate to advanced
PART NUMBER: 410060
HOW MUCH: $279.99
BUILD TYPE: Kit

FEATURE BREAKDOWN
• The chassis is pretty standard as far as F1 cars go. There is a 2.5mm, carbon fiber main deck that everything attaches to, followed by a 2.5mm lower pod plate. Up front, the main deck is drilled to accept Serpent’s wing mount, a plastic piece that lets you attach one of two included Lexan wings (a high downforce and a low downforce). These holes line up perfectly with any Tamiya front wing as well, giving the F110 the green light in sanctions like the UF1 (where the hard plastic wing is required). The chassis is drilled to attach two types of battery mounts; one right behind the servo for standard packs and holes further back for shorty LiPos. The chassis has also been milled to allow the use of tape to hold the battery in. This millwork keeps the tape flush with the bottom of the chassis.

• The front suspension utilizes a coil-over kingpin design. You’ll then notice not one, not two, but three sets of turnbuckles. The first set is for adjusting toe, the second for modifying roll and the third for tweaking caster. There’s also an adjustable upper pivot ball for changing camber. What I really love about this front suspension is the use of ride height shims. Most cars require you to assemble the kingpin while shimming the steering arm up or down to set the desired ride height. The F110 uses shims (in 1, 2 or 4mm thicknesses) that slide under a secondary lower arm to get the same setting. These shims are then pinched between the steering assembly and the lower carbon fiber suspension arm, providing a rigid platform with near-zero flex. This allows the actual suspension to do all the work, but also makes the steering sensitive to inputs. A trailing axle setup might have been a helpful addition.

• The rear suspension features a side-link design with a threaded center shock and a single side-damper tube. The side links can be mounted at different heights and their rigid design keeps them from flexing under load. The side damper tube is made of aluminum and can be filled with whatever fluid you want to control the side roll. The big bore center shock attaches to a carbon fiber front mount that has four different mounting positions. The F110’s center pivot, a typical weak point in F1 cars, is made of plastic but has been designed with quite a bit of extra meat for durability.

• The steering on the F110 is a direct link setup right off the servo. The integrated servo saver will help protect the servo, but there seems to be quite a bit of slop in it. The servo is mounted in an aluminum ‘tower’ which also doubles as a caster-link mount; yes, you’ll need to trim the tabs off the bottom of the servo to make it fit. A pair of 3mm turnbuckles span out to the steering arms that include two mounting positions.

• The drivetrain on the F110 is pretty straightforward. Included is a lightweight, aluminum rear axle that feeds through nylon ride height spacers (multiple spacers are included for foam or rubber tire setups). A silky-smooth rear differential is standard as are the lightweight left and right hubs. Accessing the diff for adjustment is similar to most of today’s F1 cars; remove the axle ‘cap’ and adjust. The F110 rolls on shielded ball bearings.

• The F110 does include two front Lexan wings and a hard-plastic rear wing, but no body, wheels or tires. To spice this gem up (and make it UF1 legal), I painted, stickered and mounted up a Tamiya Ferrari F2012 body and a set of the TCS (Tamiya Championship Series) wheels and tires. The body is a multi-piece unit that, once assembled, looks spectacular on the F110. I also mounted up Tamiya’s front and rear wing kit (included with the body) for the full Ferrari effect. The TCS tires and wheels are the preferred UF1 tire setup at most venues so I’m very familiar with them and how they work.

PROS
+ Highly adjustable front suspension, including a trick ride height adjustment setup
+ Chassis accepts shorty or normal LiPo packs
+ Includes two front wings but can accept Tamiya-style front wing
+ Strong, carbon fiber lower front suspension arms
+ Lightweight aluminum/carbon fiber rear pod
+ Very smooth rear differential
+ Adjustable center shock locations

CONS
– Servo can only be mounted one way
– Quite a bit of slop in the servo saver

OUT TO PLAY
On the East Coast, F1 runs on the asphalt in the summer and the carpet in the winter. Thankfully we still had some good weather so I was able to take the F110 out into the sunshine for some hot laps.

STEERING
If you follow the instructions, the front links will give the F110 quite a bit of camber as well as toe-out. Both of these can aid the car in steering, but typically you only want that if you also have a ton of rear grip. Because our test track hadn’t been completely prepared prior to the run, I had to re-adjust the camber and toe to a more moderate setting. Even tuned out a bit, the F110 had fantastic steering. There were times where it did seem a bit twitchy so I brought it back in to make a few changes. The first thing I did was modify the caster, a setting that most F1 cars don’t have the option of doing (unless they have aftermarket parts). I pulled the tires off and gave the caster turnbuckle a slight twist, matching the same tune to the opposite side of the car. Back on the track, there was a definite difference in handling; it wasn’t near as aggressive as before and much easier to drive, but it seemed a little lazy. After another 20 or so laps I brought it back in and played with the caster (taking a touch out), camber (adding a degree or two) and toe (out for more aggressive turn-in). These settings all work together but there is certainly a fine line with all of them for that perfect feeling.

ACCELERATION/BRAKING
I’m very familiar with the TCS tires and am aware of the immense amount of grip they produce. Once up to temp, they provide great acceleration and cornering capabilities and complement the F110’s build setup well. On our test track, straight-line acceleration was awesome! You could see a tiny bit of squat as power was applied; the rear end just planted itself and the F110 was gone. Running in the UF1 Series, I know the rules state that a F1 car can only run a 21.5T brushless motor and ESC in ‘blinky’ mode. While you might think that sounds weak-and-wimpy, you have to remember that these cars weigh nothing. Once the track started building a groove, this Tekin-powered, 2WD road rocket was passing 17.5T touring cars on command. This combo (juiced by the TrakPower 4500mAh shorty LiPo) provided an excellent electronics package for the F110.

HANDLING
After we did the photo shoot, I removed the stock servo saver and went with a Kimbrough aftermarket one. This tightened the steering up immensely and allowed me to really get a feel for the F110 without the wandering caused by the stock unit. It’s pretty easy to get around the track at a respectable pace, but if you really want to go fast, you need to concentrate. Keep focused and this car will reward you with some stellar laps. The corner speed is fantastic; mainly because it takes very little input from the wheel to turn the car. There’s very little tire-scrub through the corner which helps keep up the pace. By the same token, however, if you do crank the wheel too much you’ll scrub a LOT of speed, so there is a fine line. The rear of the F110 is locked in; probably a good place for most people. I like the rear of my F1 to move around a little bit more but that can be easily tuned with a set of side springs or perhaps damper tube fluid. A fast section in the center of the track has a slight hump and, if you hit it just right, you’ll catch a teeny bit of air. The F110 doesn’t mind the jump but absolutely hates the landing. It would get all squirrely when it landed and out of control, so I had to adjust my line slightly to go around it. Not a deal breaker by any means but something to look out for.

DURABILITY
I spent quite a bit of time detailing the body and wings and was trying my best to be careful with the F110 on photo shoot day. After all the pictures were done I started picking up the pace a bit to see how hard I could push this car. I had a light tap on the boards here, a bump with touring cars there, but nothing that should break any parts. I did notice that the servo saver seemed to gradually be getting worse the longer I drove it, so I removed the unit to make sure I built it correctly. I had; it was just getting worse. I’ll be replacing that before the next time it hits the track.

SPECS & TUNING OPTIONS
DIMENSIONS
LENGTH: 16.3 in. (415mm)
WIDTH: 7.09 in. (180mm)
WHEELBASE: 10.6 in. (270mm)

BODY, WHEELS AND TIRES
BODY: Not included
WHEELS: Not included
WHEEL ADAPTER TYPE: (F) Bearing-supported, (R) 14mm hex
TIRES: Not included

SUSPENSION
TYPE: (F) Kingpin coil-over, (R) Side-link pod
SHOCK POSITIONS: (F) Fixed, (R) 4-Front mount, 1-pod
CAMBER: (F) Pivot ball, (R) Fixed
ROLL: (F) Adjustable heights, (R) Fixed
WHEELBASE: Fixed
RIDE HEIGHT: (F) Shims, (R) Axle-height inserts
MISC: NA

STEERING
TYPE: Direct with integrated servo saver
TOE: Turnbuckle

CHASSIS
TYPE: Flat
MATERIAL: Carbon fiber
THICKNESS: 2.5mm

DRIVETRAIN
TYPE: 2WD
TRANSMISSION: Direct drive
DIFFERENTIAL: Ball-type
GEAR RATIO: Optional pinion gears
BEARINGS: Metal shielded
CLUTCH TYPE: Conical-washer slipper

WRAP UP
The Serpent F110 is a great car with tons of potential. If you’re someone that loves your test-and-tune days, this car will keep you busy! It accepts all the current electronics, current tires and can be built to adhere to the UF1 ruleset. It also has the added benefit of coming with a lot of the tuning options as standard equipment that most of the others don’t. Parts support might not be mainstream, yet, but I see that changing in the near future. Go get yourself an F110 and let this Serpent show its fangs on the track!

LINKS
Airtronics, airtronics.net, (800) 262-1178
Kimbrough, kimbroughracingproducts.com
Serpent, serpent.com, (305) 677-3253
Tamiya, tamiyausa.com
Tekin, teamtekin.com, (208) 634-5559
TrakPower, trakpowerusa.com, (217) 398-8970