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Schumacher Racing Products

Company type	Private Limited Company (Ltd.)
Industry	Racing
Founded	1980
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 (or just Schumacher) is a British manufacturer of radio-controlled cars and accessories with a primary focus on high-end racing products.

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 large areas that these early primitive cars could be improved. Having noticed high tyre wear he introduced the ball differential to radio-controlled cars.

These ball differentials were used by his son Robin then his friends then local model shop requested to stock it and soon international orders followed. It came to the point that Cecil Schumacher was making more money from this side business than through his employer. So in 1981 Schumacher Racing Products was formed in Northampton, England.

The company has always operated out of Northampton but sourced some components from China like most other successful RC companies; however, the majority of manufacturing remains in England and Schumacher remains very much an English company. 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 intentionally highly flexible chassis suitable for indoor racing. This was followed in 1983 by the "C" car which was made out of fibreglass 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; race 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 launched the CAT (Competition All Terrain) brand for Schumacher. This first variant SWB (Standard Wheel Base) 4WD car was an instant success with serious RC fans with its popularity cemented into history when Masami Hirosaka won the 1987 IFMAR off-road RC World Championships having been lent a works car after Schumacher scouts noted his driving form during practice sessions.

1990s

Following the success of the first generation of off-road CATs, Schumacher continued to produce many successful 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 through the 1990s. Schumacher was then starting to dominate a niche in the "fun" car sector, with high-power/speed nitro-powered models capable of real speeds in excess of 80 mph.

2000s

Over the turn of this century the Schumacher product line-up became quite familiar with the "fun" cars with increasing number of nitro products; however it remained in the 1/10 competition touring cars market.

2010s

The flood of cheap high-volume low-margin ready to run cars produced in Asia meant the company no longer produce a nitro car or fun car. Schumacher now concentrate 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 move was made to help the sport grow with the introduction of a number of lower priced competition cars. The Mi1 touring car was introduced alongside the ever evolving top spec version. And then a move was made to re-establish 1/12th electric carpet racing with the launch of the Supastock and Eclipse range. It also increased its distrution business of other none competing RC products.

2020s

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

Racing Success

IFMAR World Championships

Year	Title	Driver	Model	Reference	Report
1987	1:10 4WD Off-Road	Masami Hirosaka|	CAT XL		report
2020	1:12 Elec. Track	Marc Rheinard	Eclipse 3		report
2020	1:12 Elec. Track, Stock	Andy Murray	Eclipse 3		report

European Championships

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

ROAR National Championships

Year	Title	Driver	Model	Ref.	Report
1987	1:10 4WD Off-Road	Jim Dieter	"Dieter" CAT
1995	1:10 4WD Off-Road	Brad Reelfs	CAT 2000 EC

BRCA Nationals

BRCA

National Manufacturer Series

Great Britain See Schumacher BTCC

Competition cars

1/10-scale 4WD off-road buggies

1/10-scale 2WD off-road buggies

1/10 4WD electric touring car

1/12 2WD Electric Pan Car

1/12 GT12 circuit and 1/12 oval

Other Cars

Footnotes

References

1. "Interview with Cecil". RC Racing TV. 2006. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
2. Burr 2015, p. 156.
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. https://www.dirt-burners.com/rcdox/Race%20Reports%20etc/1987%20ROAR%20US%20Nationals%2C%20Atlanta%2C%20USA%20%28RCCA%2C%20dec%2087%2C%20US%29.pdf
8. "View topic – Schumacher time line". RC10Talk.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
9. ^ "CAT K1 Aero". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
10. "CAT K1". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
11. "New CAT SX3 Launched". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
12. https://web.archive.org/web/20090816041310/http://www.glypo.com/reviews/catsx/index.php. Archived from the original on 16 August 2009. Retrieved 29 June 2014. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
13. "Big Body Clip 1/10 – Metallic Purple (8) # CR079 from Schumacher RC Racing". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
14. "Schumacher CAT4000 Prototype – Simon Moss". Oople.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
15. https://web.archive.org/web/20040604054055/http://www.racing-cars.com/cat3000.asp. Archived from the original on 4 June 2004. Retrieved 29 June 2014. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
16. "Cougar Laydown". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
17. "Cougar KC". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
18. "Cougar KC". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
19. "Cougar KF2". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
20. "Cougar KF". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
21. "Cougar KR". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
22. "Cougar SVR". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
23. "Cougar SV2". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
24. "Cougar SV". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
25. "Mi5evo". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
26. "Mi1v2". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
27. "Mi5". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
28. "The new Mi4CXL has been officially... – Schumacher R/C Racing". Facebook. 24 January 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
29. "Mi4CXL". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
30. "Mi4CX". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
31. "Mi1". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
32. "Mi4LP". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
33. "Mi4". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
34. "Schumacher Mi3.5 Competition TC | The Latest RC Racing News!". Socialrc.wordpress.com. 3 July 2008. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
35. "mi35". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
36. "Let's Build a Schumacher Mi3! – R/C Tech Forums". Rctech.net. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
37. "Mi3". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
38. "Mi2 EC". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
39. "Mi2". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
40. "Mission". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
41. https://web.archive.org/web/20020404230600/http://www.racing-cars.com/sstaxis2.asp. Archived from the original on 4 April 2002. Retrieved 29 June 2014. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
42. "Schumacher XL | Classic RC". Classicrc.wordpress.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
43. "Schumacher B-Car | Classic RC". Classicrc.wordpress.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
44. Original Pan Car Advert
45. "Schumacher SPC | Classic RC". Classicrc.wordpress.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
46. "Fusion 28 Turbo". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
47. "Schumacher Menace GTR". Rcuniverse.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
48. "Fusion 21". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
49. "View topic – My Vintage Schumacher Daytona Project". RC10Talk.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
50. "Fusion 28". Racing-cars.com. Retrieved 26 November 2015.

Works cited

• Burr, Norman (12 June 2015). First Principles: The Official Biography of Keith Duckworth. Veloce Publishing. ISBN 9781845845285. Retrieved 14 June 2016.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

External links

• Official website http://www.racing-cars.com
• Official Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/SchumacherRC/
• Independent Fan Forum http://www.oople.com/forums/
• Many dedicated Facebook groups exist

• Schumacher Racing Products
• Radio-controlled car manufacturers
• Toy companies established in 1980
• Companies based in Northampton
• 1980 establishments in England