Schumacher Racing Products

Last updated

Schumacher Racing Products
Company typePrivate Limited Company (Ltd.)
Industry Racing
Founded1980
Headquarters Northampton, England
Key people
Cecil Schumacher
Robin Schumacher
Phil Booth
Brian P. Vogt
Products Radio-controlled cars
Number of employees
30
Website www.racing-cars.com

Schumacher Racing Products is a British manufacturer of radio-controlled cars and accessories.

Contents

Stock Schumacher Menace GTR with body off. Schumacher GTR stock body off.jpg
Stock Schumacher Menace GTR with body off.

History

Foundation

The founder, Cecil Schumacher, was a Cosworth transmission engineer who was recruited from Borg Warner to lead the design team to adapt the Hobbs transmission (which he had worked on) to handle the Cosworth DFV's power. Cecil spotted his workmates driving radio-controlled cars on the company's helipad and decided it needed a ball differential after noticing the cars skittered. He soon started noticing different ways these early primitive cars could be improved. Having noticed high tyre wear he introduced the ball differential to radio-controlled cars. [1] [2]

in 1981 Schumacher Racing Products was formed in Northampton, England after a local model shop requested the ball differentials that were being used successfully by Cecil's son, Robin and his friends. Schumacher soon started selling internationally.

The company has always operated out of Northampton [3] but sources some components from China like most other RC companies; however, the majority of manufacturing remains in England. Cecil Schumacher's son Robin Schumacher took over the business in 2001.

1980s

The first car to be produced by Schumacher was the XL Lexan chassis pan car in 1981 which had a highly flexible chassis suitable for indoor racing. This was followed in 1983 by the "C" car which was made out of fiberglass reinforced epoxy resin sheet and designed specifically for racing on carpet. It included many features that are still around on every modern 1/12-scale car. Racing wins include the euros in 1985 and 1988.

In the latter half of the 1980s, off-road RC cars increased in popularity. In 1986 the first 4WD 1/10-scale off-road buggy was launched, called the SWB CAT. This was the beginning of the CAT (Competition All Terrain) brand for Schumacher. This first variant SWB (Standard Wheel Base) 4WD car was a success with RC fans, becoming popular when Masami Hirosaka won the 1987 IFMAR off-road RC World Championships [4] .

1990s

Following the success of the first generation of off-road CATs, Schumacher continued to produce many off and on-road electric cars. The popularity of the touring car class seriously affected the off-road world during the 1990s. Schumacher stepped down the development of this class throughout the 1990s. Schumacher then started producing niche vehicles in the "fun" car sector, with high-power/speed nitro-powered models capable of speeds exceeding 80 mph.

2000s

In the 2000s, the Schumacher product line-up continued to include "fun" cars, with increasing numbers of nitro products. However, it remained in the 1/10 competition touring cars market.

2010s

The increasing number of cheap, high-volume, low-margin, ready to run cars produced in Asia meant the company could no longer produce nitro cars or fun cars. Schumacher now concentrated on the high-level 1/10-scale electrical competitive market. Alongside their Mi touring car range, the company re-entered the off-road scene with the CAT SX (4WD) and Cougar SV (2WD). Vintage racing of older designed cars became popular with Schumacher re-releasing the CAT XLS in 2017 and then the Top Cat. In the mid 2010s, a number of lower priced competition cars were introduced in order to help the sport grow. The Mi1 touring car was introduced alongside the top spec version. In order to re-establish 1/12th electric carpet racing, the Superstock and Eclipse range was launched. Schumacher also increased its distribution of other none-competing RC products.

2020s

In January 2020 Schumacher won the IFMAR 1/12 World Championships held in Milton Keynes.

Racing Success

IFMAR World Championships

YearTitleDriverModelReferenceReport
1987 1:10 4WD Off-Road Flag of Japan.svg Masami Hirosaka| [5] CAT XL [6] report
20201:12 Elec. Track Flag of Germany.svg Marc RheinardEclipse 3 report
20201:12 Elec. Track, Stock Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Andy MurrayEclipse 3 report

European Championships

1985 - Andy Dobson 1:12 1988 - Phil Davies 1:12 1988 - Jürgen Lauterbach, 3rd 1:12

ROAR National Championships

YearTitleDriverModelRef.Report
19871:10 4WD Off-Road Flag of the United States.svg Jim Dieter"Dieter" CAT [7]
19951:10 4WD Off-Road Flag of the United States.svg Brad ReelfsCAT 2000 EC

Related Research Articles

Radio-controlled cars, or RC cars for short, are miniature model cars, vans, buses, trucks or buggies that can be controlled from a distance using a specialized transmitter or remote. The term "RC" has been used to mean both "remote controlled" and "radio controlled". "Remote controlled" includes vehicles that are controlled by radio waves, infrared waves or a physical wire connection. RC cars are powered by one of the three energy sources—electricity, nitro fuel or petrol. Electric RC models are powered by small but powerful electric motors and rechargeable nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd), nickel metal hydride(NiMH), or lithium polymer (LiPo) cells with the former two being the most used. Both NiMH and LiPo have advantages and disadvantages in various RC applications where NiMH is mainly used for recreational and LiPo for more demanding purposes. There are also brushed or brushless electric motors—brushless motors are more powerful, long lasting and efficient, but also much more expensive than brushed motors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Federation of Model Auto Racing</span> World governing body of professional radio controlled car racing

The International Federation of Model Auto Racing (IFMAR) is the world governing body of professional radio controlled car racing.

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Associated Electrics, Incorporated of Lake Forest, California, is one of the world's leading manufacturers of radio controlled cars, trucks and accessories. Associated Electrics is now owned by Thunder Tiger Corporation from Taiwan. The company is usually referred to as Team Associated.

Masami Hirosaka is a Japanese radio controlled car driver who is considered to be the world's most successful with a record fourteen IFMAR World Championships in 1/12 scale electric, 1/10 scale Pan, 1/10 scale 2WD off-road and 1/10 scale 4WD, all electric. Hirosaka's peers have nicknamed him "Master Masami". He was considered to be one of the highest paid drivers in RC racing, until he retired from the activity. His last IFMAR race was the 2008 world championship in Thailand. His retirement ceremony was on May 3, 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ball differential</span>

A ball differential is a type of differential typically used on radio-controlled cars. It differs from a geared differential by using several small ball bearings rotating between two plates, instead of bevel gears.

Kyosho Corporation is a Japanese company based in Tokyo, which operates internationally under the name KYOSHO. The company's main office is located in Chiyoda, and the production headquarters are located in Atsugi, Kanagawa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yokomo</span> Radio controlled cars

Yokomo Co. Ltd. is a Japanese company from Adachi, Tokyo that specialize in radio-controlled cars, it was one of the first manufacturers in Japan to build their own RC cars, sell upgrade parts and it also invented the option RTR cars, but most notable of all is their long-running "Dog Fighter" series of radio controlled buggies, and ultimetly a strong entry on Drift RC Cars mainly through its successes in racing.

The IFMAR World Championship for 1:10th Electric Off-Road Cars is a world championship radio controlled car race sanctioned by the International Federation of Model Auto Racing (IFMAR). It takes place biennially on odd years since 1987 in its current format but inaugurated in 1985 as a championship for Stock and Modified class It is considered by the radio-controlled modelling industry to be the most prestigious event in the calendar that a number of mainstream hobby and toy brands have fielded factory entries.

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Tamiya <i>Avante</i>

The Tamiya Avante is a historically significant 1/10 scale four-wheel-drive electric offroad competition buggy released in 1988 as Tamiya's 72nd radio control kit under catalog number 58072. The car was designed by Tamiya's veteran designer, Fumito Taki, famous for introducing Tamiya into the radio-controlled car markets and for its better-known cars, including the Sand Scorcher.

Jared Randall Tebo is an American radio-controlled car racer from Raymore, Missouri who specializes in off-road racing driving for Mayako.

Kyosho Burns is a 1/8 scale four-wheel-drive, two stroke, off-road competition buggy which was released as a kit from 1987 up until 1992, with five different specifications to meet different price points. It had a robust platform which was easily upgradable with good performance even at an entry level. The success of the platform also lead to it being used for Kyosho's 1:8 scale monster truck, the USA-1 Nitro Crusher.

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References

  1. "Interview with Cecil". RC Racing TV. 2006. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  2. Burr, Norman (12 June 2015). First Principles: The Official Biography of Keith Duckworth. Veloce Publishing. p. 156. ISBN   9781845845285 . Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  3. "The Hobby Hub". Radioracecar.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
  4. "Past IFMAR WC´s – 1987 IFMAR Worlds Championship". 12 November 2010. Retrieved 26 November 2015 via YouTube.
  5. "FLASHBACK FRIDAY: A complete timeline of Schumacher CAT 4WD buggies". www.liverc.com. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  6. Interview with Cecil, RC Racing TV, 2006, retrieved 29 July 2012
  7. Rich Hemstreet. "'87 Off Road Nats" (PDF). Dirt Burners Magazine.