With the release of their
new 1/10th 2wd buggy, the Cougar SV, Schumacher Racing is back in full
force in the off-road arena, ready to compete with other players already
on the scene. And with this new car, Schumacher sticks with their
philosophy: Innovation and thinking out of the box. As you will see,
this car is loaded with nice features and incorporates technological
innovation never before seen in a complete kit.
First, let’s go back into
the past to see what the Northampton based RC company has accomplished.
Created
in the late 70's by Cecil Schumacher, a former engineer from the so
famous motorsport company Cosworth, Schumacher Racing started making
some upgrade components such as the presently common ball differential
initially introduced in 1/12th. In
1981, Sir Schumacher designed his first car, the XL,
a 1/12th scale car designed around a chassis made with a Polycarbonate
channel. Two years later appeared the C-car,
a car designed to run on carpet and which included features that can
still be seen in modern 1/12th scale car. The company won with this car
two European championships. During the mid 80's, off-road racing became
more and more popular and Cecil Schumacher introduced the Competition
All Terrain, or CAT:
a 1/10th 4wd buggy which won the world title in 1987 driven by a certain
Masami Hirosaka. The first 2wd came
with the Top
Cat, an innovative car with inboard laid-in suspension equipped on
the front end (similar to F1) and a stamped aluminum chassis. This car
was followed by the Cougar
and the Cougar
2, both of which were evolutions of the Top Cat. In
the mid 90’s, Schumacher produced the Cougar
2000, a brand new car with carbon fiber low and top desks. At this
period in time, on-road racing regained terrain with 1/10th Touring Car
and Schumacher Racing consequently
developed the Mission
series to compete. In addition,
he developed his own range of products which included some nitro cars.
In 2008, Robin Schumacher, Cecil' son (who took over the company), and
his team introduced an innovative 3 belt transmission 1/10th 4wd called
CAT SX. And now today, with the introduction of the Cougar SV, the
off-road product range is fully loaded.
Innovation
Keyword and trademark for
the British carmaker, the SV makes no exception in term of innovation.
Let's have a quick look as we will go more into detail later.
Although the overall design
has been known for years, Schumacher has pushed forward with this design
as all previous mid-motor cars come only as conversion kits (not
withstanding a few attempts in the mid-90's) by designing every single
component from front to rear bumper. This design also includes a
suspension controlled by big bore dampers and, a first for a 2wd, a
possible switch of the rear dampers. The car was made to use only one
Lithum-polymer battery either in stick or saddle so you can forget about
the Sub-C cells!. The transmission also has 5 pinions with some
interesting features incorporated into it.
There is even more but we'd
better keep that for later.
Overview
The
kit comes in a standard but well designed box; white background, the
car's name as well as a photo of the side view of the car. The box
itself seems strong enough to be used in the future to store items such
as tires and spare parts. Inside the box, you have various plastic bags
containing all components from plastic to carbon fiber to bodyshell and
undertray, only rims are left free. No tires are included in the box as
these are up-to the driver and related to the track on which he will be
racing the car. It’s kind of obvious, but the instruction manual is
provided to guide the new owner through the build-up but also provides
help setting up the car depending on the track condition. There are 52
steps to assemble the entire car.. One thing must be made clear, the
Cougar SV is a racing machine that can be tuned to give the best to the
driver - some advice is always welcome, especially with a new car. This
manual deserves a good reading prior to starting to put together parts
and will give some ideas about the required tools as well as basic
adjustments you have to make while the car takes shape. Even if the
Cougar is available in two definitions, there is only one manual. The
kit provided is the Pro Spec. By looking through the manual, you may
notice the difference with the Race Spec Car.
Some tools are included
within the kit, 3 Allen keys (1.5mm, 2mm and 2.5mm), buy you'd better
get a 2mm hex driver as you need to use it almost during the full
assembly process, your hands will be grateful. Among the tools you need
to have, you can add a 3mm and 4mm nut drivers as well as a scalpel and
pliers.
The stage is set so let's
build this car as shown by Schumacher Team Driver Pavel Balint.
The
kit comes in a standard but well designed box; white background, the
car's name as well as a photo of the side view of the car. The box
itself seems strong enough to be used in the future to store items such
as tires and spare parts. Inside the box, you have various plastic bags
containing all components from plastic to carbon fiber to bodyshell and
undertray, only rims are left free. No tires are included in the box as
these are up-to the driver and related to the track on which he will be
racing the car. It’s kind of obvious, but the instruction manual is
provided to guide the new owner through the build-up but also provides
help setting up the car depending on the track condition. There are 52
steps to assemble the entire car.. One thing must be made clear, the
Cougar SV is a racing machine that can be tuned to give the best to the
driver - some advice is always welcome, especially with a new car. This
manual deserves a good reading prior to starting to put together parts
and will give some ideas about the required tools as well as basic
adjustments you have to make while the car takes shape. Even if the
Cougar is available in two definitions, there is only one manual. The
kit provided is the Pro Spec. By looking through the manual, you may
notice the difference with the Race Spec Car.