Search the Community

What's this? Another Back to the Track thread? Yes - I periodically start these whenever I get the urge to go racing again. 2024 was perhaps my best year of racing ever, completing all rounds of the Iconic Cup for the first time. It was hard work - 6 weekends away from home plus the bonus non-championship round at Cotswold. But there was a moment when I was sitting on the tarmac, watching the end-of-season trophy presentation, the sun on my back, the tyre dust on my face, additive on my fingers and the smell of the previous night's barbecue smoke in my clothes, when I reflected back over the miles driven, the time on track, the battles, the passes, the crashes, the breakages, and I was temporarily overwhelmed with emotion. What an adventure. What a journey. I was certain, as I set off on the 4+ hour journey home from Halifax with the entire season behind me, that I would be back again in 2025. 2025, however, brought fresh challenges. Not least, the Iconic Cup's schedule was punishing - it would have been hard to cover my fuel costs for the first 3 rounds. Losing Mendip Raceway meant there was no home race for me. Sealing the deal was the fact that the entire series got fully booked out within a few hours of opening, while I was busy racing at the Modelsport 50th at the beginning of February. But - all is not lost for 2025's racing plan. A new race series - the BRCA Sporstcar Endurance Championship - pits teams of 4 drivers against each other, driving modern touring chassis with Le Mans Hypercar bodies and 21.5T brushless motors, in races ranging from 2 to 6 hours in length. This is something I've wanted to do for years. Sadly I missed out on Mendip's endurance race last September by dint of Facebook's wonderful algorithm deciding I didn't need to know about it until it was too late to get a team together. The only endurance I've ever driven was a 2-hour buggy race on A1 Racing Club's astroturf track. It was dark by the time we started, it rained throughout the race, and our re-release Sand Scorcher suffered a number of problems - not least the universals coming lose every 5 laps - but we finished top of our class by being the only SRB entry to finish. The ciders we sipped after the race had ended were some of the best we've ever tasted. Almost a decade later, a racer who I know from a local club but haven't seen in years, posted on Facebook saying he was entering his TRF-421 in the Sportscar Endurance series and was looking for drivers. I jumped in straight away, offering my services and - I hope - accurately and honestly describing my abilities as someone who is definitely not quick, nor skilled at car setup, but careful, dependable, and doesn't crash much. At least - that's how I was in M-chassis in 2024. My relatively high place in the Iconic Cup championship didn't come because I was topping the timesheets (far from it) but because I was consistent, stayed on track, picked up points in every race and was always there on track while others were spinning off it or haemorrhaging parts. However, this was only in the M-chassis class. I haven't driven a 4wd touring car in anger since the TA-05 IFS was a current car. I had a brief stint racing a stock TT-01E with a Fat Fox body at my local club, but that was a few years ago now. 2019, by all accounts, and I wasn't very good at it. So - I figured my best chance of not embarrassing myself and my team mates at the first race of the season was to get myself something modern and head along to the local club to get my eye in. If I can handle a modern touring car around a tight and technical club track with a 17.5T brushless in it, a 21.5T car on a nice big outdoor circuit should be easy by comparison. Modern TCs are seriously expensive - way out of my budget - but with the new Schumacher Mi-9 on the market and Christmas just over, there were a few Mi-8s for sale in the Book of Face. A week later, this landed on my doorstep.

I've just finished assembling the Cougar Classic and I have a few questions. Please note that I am a complete Schumacher noob so I am not familiar with "Schumacher-ness". First, what's with the self-tapping screws into aluminum? Is there a screw kit with normal machine screws? I ran across some mentions about screw kits and now I understand why people ask. Second, I assembled the shocks per the instructions. They seem massively stiff. I think the pistons should have larger holes and/or the kit oil is too heavy. Are there upgraded pistons or should I just enlarge the notches currently there and maybe switch to a lighter oil? Third, I literally crushed the metal ball thingy trying to get it into the ball end for the front shock. There has to be a better option. Ideas? Lastly, does anyone have the ball bearing steering in stock?

I never had any intentions to do a documented build of this other than what I would normally do for myself either now or when I originally bought the kit but a comment and subsequent response in @Superluminal build thread with his lovely Kyosho Ultimate SB Dirt and Schumacher Cougar Classic it seems there may be some interest. We will see! The backstory! As it turned out I bought the kit literally weeks before the Laydown (LD1) was released which if memory serves improved a few things and was, at the time somewhat annoying and ultimately serves me right for jumping in without any real research! It was intended to be a fun build of a ‘proper’ kit and just for myself to run rather than the kids to destroy or take to a track and ‘race’. I had no intention to do more than run it with the kids. Sacrilege to some I accept. Also initial intentions had been to build it stock. That soon changed! I got carried away buying a lot of ‘Option Parts’ (Schumachers Hop Ups) some for no other real reason than they were available. In hindsight all a bit silly. I did show some restraint however. I didn’t buy them all! I started building it. It never got finished. For me life got a tad messy for a while and it all, the Schumacher and the Tamiya’s, went in a box and into the loft to be forgotten about until recently. At the time I never did get around to buying the option parts for the front yokes and hub carrier’s or the rear hubs but at some point I must have decided not to bother and built those stages up with the kit parts. I don’t actually recall doing so, so it must have been around the time things got complicated and I was distracted/looking for a distraction so built them. On getting it back out I had a good look at what I have, namely a perfect, partially built car, but an old one now at least in terms of this type of car and most parts are now discontinued or hard to obtain. Whilst initially thinking what to do I decided to have a quick look for those missing parts and I managed to find them from multiple sources. I hit the buy button and pretty much sealed it getting finished! They are pretty much non existent now with the rear hubs going out of stock after I purchased that set. I wouldn’t be surprised if the other bits hadn’t too by now. Lucky and already expensive too at this point! I have now completely stripped the car back and it is now ready to rebuild and finally finish what I started several years ago. If I am being honest, right now I am undecided whether this will end up a shelf car or if I’ll fit electrics and run it. On the one hand it feels a shame to not run it but on the other the difficulty in obtaining spares has me leaning towards it living on a shelf once complete but I’ll see how I feel as things progress. Before we get there though I best get it back together! So what am I starting with then? So obviously as the thread title and box give away this is the Cougar KD with the ‘D’ denoting Dirt Spec. Also available at the time was the Cougar KC with the ‘C’ this time denoting Carpet Spec. Of the two specs the KC was the more adjustable car with the transmission having 4 mounting positions (the KC was belt driven) and also more chassis stiffness adjustments available. The two kits also came spaced with different differentials. A gear diff in the KC vs ball diff in the KD although either could be fitted depending on preference. At the time I was actually half tempted to buy both kits. Fortunately for my bank balance I never did! Anyway. Hopefully as I go, some find this of interest and a bit different to the usual builds.

Back in 1987, I was in secondary school in Singapore. I manged to persuade my parents to get me a Hotshot the year before. I wanted something more race oriented even though I have never raced and will likely never see any track time. Well, I did see track time but that was nearly 20 years in the making. Anyway, I managed to pester my folks to purchase an Optima Mid which I still have until today. Shortly after that acquisition, I heard that the Mid had taken second place in the worlds. Very impressive. Who was the culprit that beat my beloved Mid ? Non other than this Schumacher Cat that I'd never even heard of. The car that beat my Mid. Much hate. If not for this car, the Mid would have world champion. Fast forward to 2017, the CAT XLS was re released. I purchased 1 kit on a whim, did not purchase any hop ups at all. Left it in the store for years until last month. Saw some Youtube videos of Masami driving a re re CAT XLS. Decided that it was finally time to make an attempt on the CAT XLS. Started with the body

Had a Schumacher Bosscat since 1992. Its been sat in the garage for a number of years now but I decided it was time to get it working again. Thought it might be interesting to do a rebuild with a few modern upgrades. Only just started really but ill continue to add updates as the build progresses. Hoping to install some of the latest Cat XLS upgrades as well so if anyone has attempted this yet I would be grateful of any advice you might have. Especially the transmission and alloy upgrades. Also waiting on some custom painted body shells. Bosscat rebuild https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0yGgZLKuGMIMAz

Like new, never worn XL bargain at less than half the price. £50 For pics see link to my Tamiyaclub showroom https://www.tamiyaclub.com/trades_model.asp?cid=122750&id=23103

I’m a big fan of re-release kits, for me it’s being able to get kits I always wanted as a kid but couldn’t afford. Over the last few years Schumacher have entered the market with the Cat XLS & the Topcat. Anyone have an information on the next Schumacher Classic release? Personally i’d like to see the Storm truck, cougar 2, Bosscat or Cat 2000, but there’s a few other kits in the timeline if Schumacher is working in chronological order. Procat or Cougar could be next although to me they are quite similar to the 2 already released. The Shotgun might not be a bad option? I just hope Schumacher continue do the Re-release path so we can get to the kits I mentioned eventually.

I’m spending a lazy Sunday afternoon building my Schumacher CAT XLS Masami and found a nice technique for Step 10 where the axle joints are put together. This step is notorious for being a pain but I’ve found a nice technique that makes light work of it and thought I’d share: https://twitter.com/m_lave/status/1267093600317378562?s=21 hopefully this is useful! Matt

Hi just got a set of Schumacher Vee truck tyres so I rootled through my spare wheel and tyre stock and found a set of Blitzers rims. Perfect for what I want. I decided to smarten them up but when I got to the last one, one of the fronts I realised quite a bit of the rim is missing, so not really usable. As they won’t fit on my upcoming Dual Rider with 3 wheels😂 I need a replacement. Does anybody out there have a spare Blitzer/Agroshot front wheel. Don’t care what colour red, white, yellow or dyed/painted already?🤞🏻

Hi there! Cleaning out garage and have this 98 collecting dust. Came across this site when I was searching for people who might be interested. It worked properly last time it was driven, about 10 years ago or so. Dont know if I dare to recharge it since the batterys might be outdated, what do you think? I have alot of spareparts. Eventually more than in the pic. Even have the original carton with manual! Some part have started to collect some rust, and is probably in need for some love. Feel free to ask me questions, I'll try to respond the best i can. I am located in sweden and posting would be possible. Far as price conserned, its kind of what is offered and would be worth of shippment since I dont have much clue about this stuff.

This was a car that growing up I was never really bothered about but when news came it the re release I had to have this for my collection which includes vintage Egress, Avante 2001, Top Force Evo, Dynastorn, YZ10-94 and a MR4-BX Worlds. Being used to Tamiya level of quality I was somewhat disappointed with the finish of some parts, soldering of the roll bar, and how the steering is very stiff no smooth or ballraced. But understanding this is a 80s design.

Hello everyone, I search a comparison about this two cars : Schum Cat XLS Masami vs Tam Egress. I search a vintage car to run on astrostuff and carpet. In the beginning I thunk the Egress is a good car not perfect like a Top Force but good enough for astro and carpet. It’s easy to find videos of an Egress built and videos of the Egress runs on-road or on a parking. But it’s difficult to find a video of a run of an Egress on real off-road track. It’s easier to find videos on real offroad track of a Cat XLS (especially with Masami) and in this videos the chassis seems so perfect. Can you give me your opinion about this 2 cars, please ? Thank you for your answer. I hope you understand me... my english it isn’t perfect, sorry

Hi All, I have some tyres that I got as a job lot with my Thunder Dragon many many years ago. None of them are reallt suitable for my TD and rather than chucking them out, I am hoping they will be of use to you guys. All are used but good condition without splits. Make me an offer on any of them, so long as postage is covered to UK as a minimum and PayPal gift is sent I don't mind what they go for. Some I can see are Hot Laps and some others are Schumacher. Afraid I don't know what cars they are for. Please don't let them go to waste. I posted a thread last year about these tyres and there is some helpful info in there (among comments from me struggling to post images ) https://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/topic/82276-vintage-tyres-quiz/&tab=comments#comment-663640

I got myself a Procat since I have always been curious about it. A friend of me used to race Schumacher cars back in the days, and I couldn't understand why he would do that instead of Tamiya :-) So ever since that time I have wanted one, and now I got one. I have decided that I will do a restore on this one and it will be a runner, that i could use in vintage races. Here is how the car looked like when i got it I haven't done much to the car yet, but i have dyed the wheels pink and have collected parts i need and other that i now know that i don't need. This is the state the car is in now, most of the parts have been disassembled I will be making some carbon fiber parts for it, to save the old parts until it goes to the shelf. The originals being 2mm, i will be using 3mm CF to make it a bit stronger I should mention that this will be a longterm project as i hardly find any time for RC these days.

For Sale:- Schumacher height gauges they are practically new in there original case. £18 posted UK

Hi, since I'm mostly into Tamiya it would be nice to open my mind a bit more and get to know what people consider the absolut must have vintage car from the different brands. To me it's as follows: Tamiya: Egress Kyosho: Javeline Marui: Ninja Graupner: Renault alpina Schumacher: pro cat I know there are several other brands, so feel free to enlight me :-)