New Schumacher Cougar SV

[KC]

http://www.racing-cars.com/images/cougarSV_black_ftq_1000.jpg
http://www.racing-cars.com/images/cougarSV_black_side_1000.jpg

My next purchase.
Touring Cars are old hat!

[scotty]

More so since we went rubber?
Stunning
LOL

[mark79]

The Durango 2wd for me I think. Next Xmas pressie :razz::razz:

Better start saving now if the 4wd price is anything to go by

[raymondkerr]

The Cougar SV has just won its first outing with Simon Moss behind the sticks, Worksop Indoor Winter Open, this weekend.

http://www.oople.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38996

Looks a very nice car indeed, can't wait to see under the bodyshell.

[mark79]

Looks a very nice car indeed, can't wait to see under the bodyshell.


Pervert :-P

[Dom]

Guys - saw it close up at the weekend and spent a while talking with Simon Moss' dad and Phil Booth. The car is truly awesome. Easy to drive and goes around the slippy floor and through chicanes like a 4WD.

And Simon was visably coasting after 2 laps, as he'd built up a gap by then that gave him the wins easily.

Plus, Simon accidently pushed a 2mm hex wrench THROUGH his hand while get some parts of his Cat SX on Saturday early on, so most if not all the 2WD wins were with plasters on the back & palm of his hand.

Sorry I wasn't allowed to take any photos on the inside (I did ask politely and was politely declined!). It has a unique and simple flex adjustment utilising the top deck/battery clamp.

[Dom]

Info on SV on Schumacher site and on Oople.

Oh, btw, if anyone's interested, I've been spotted on a couple of vids of the event.
I'm at marshal point 2.

Ash Williams posted this vid on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcRRu6Szbrk

And there's Jimmy's on-car video from the same race - http://vimeo.com/9162884

Sorry, but there's no acrobatics from me...

[raymondkerr]

Hey Dom,

I saw the onboard camera video the other day, some top notch footage from Mr oOple. Just seen the other vid as well, thought it was you marshalling in the background, track looked fast. Hopefully the rest of us will be up for a trip down to worksop this year.

Do you have the results for the 4WD, can't seem to find them online, only seen the 2WD results so far ?

Raymond

[Dom]

Rob sent me the links for both results.
Here it is:
http://bbk-online.net/bbkresults/

Okay, I'm going to come clean now. I got humped in 4WD. Dead last.

Car took a hammering three times during the day and I had to rebuild the front end three times. Front Damper stay was dremeled each time as getting a 511 FDS was impossible so I was making them from HB D4 Rear ones! £12 a pop!

I did do some decent laps - only a sec off the pace of the best F345 guys, but couldn't keep the car together. Obstacles seemed to relish being attacked - I had such a time keeping the car in one piece, well I started to fear breaking it and know now I must have been backing off, which in turn ruined the lap times.

2WD was better. Car went well; did rounds 2-5 with the Mid-XXX which was better.
Round 5 was a no-brainer as I was struggling with tiredness. Brain was fried.

So those interested, I'm in the following races:
2WD: 3,14,26,41,50
4WD: 2,15,23,36,48

All the excuses out. I'm happy the cars are going a lot better now than the week before. I know I needed a lot more practice before racing there.

On a side note - without offending track building at Falkirk, there does need to be a little more speed build-up between obstacles - I think there's some benefit to putting in a few less obstacles at Falkirk, and let the cars attack each obstacle with more speed - it's different than if the track is just obstacle after obstacle. It's hard to explain in a words.

We're good at picking our way across many obstacles, but there's a different skill required to cover open ground quickly, then brake hard and short and lose the minimum time so we get over the obstacle, then get on the power quickly to get to the next one.

All the National tracks are in bigger areas, so can have many obstacles and have high speed sections in between. We can do the same by building fewer obstacles - the ones we have can still be big. Its just that it took a while for me to adjust.

Just a thought - maybe once in a while we can do a high-speed track to try it out?

[mark79]

I was actually thinking that watching the petit race. When me and Raymond went to Bury it was very similar with bigger in between bits and the obstacles, although tricky ,weren't quite as technical (i.e less low speed more medium to medium/low).

From the photos last weeks track looks more like Petit for example and more high speed.

i agree with having this kind of set up more than normal for the same reason, i would like to race down south next winter and not get destroyed on the fast bits like at Bury (hopefully the TC's will help too).

[Dom]

Thats right - the technique with National tracks like Worksop and Maritime is very different to the tracks we make.

You've really got to fly at them, and getting the car handling while it's still going half-speed is very tricky and means a more precise car handling and setup is required. What was working picking through the technical track, was all over the place on the slippy floor.

I'm not having a go at the technical tracks either - they're brilliant and loads of fun, but I was thinking they take ages to build and clear away and maybe it doesn't need to be as much.

If we built the corner table top, long ramp, a few well placed hop jumps just before chicances, etc, there'd still be plenty of interest, but plenty of speed as well. We could put out less carpet as well.

I think it's worth mixing up the styles occasionally; if you guys are racing down south at Regionals or Nationals, you'll want to be well practicised at the track styles they run.

[raymondkerr]

I too think that "toning down" the technical bits at Falkirk would be a good idea. I think on feb 28th for the charity event, it will be interesting to see how the track fairs being all carpet with only the small wooden jumps. I'm all in favour of mixing it up, we'll have to convince our resident track builder though ;-)

[mark79]

Shouldn't be a problem considering he's had loads of experience down south on that very track type. So has Ross and Jason for that matter.

Could be onto something here guys that could help us 'train' for bigger races.

Groovy

[ross minimad]

I understand your argument about less obstacles, however from racing at outdoor nationals rather than the big indoor meetings you find that even big open long tracks are full of obstacles big and small and throughout a lap you rarely get a smooth or 'easy' section even if some of the lap looks easy. Even just hitting a small one inch high bump or pot hole can really through the cars around...... we found that the best way to practice for this was by building tracks that don't give a single break but make you work for the full lap........ as this is how you have to drive at the big national off road meetings as certainly by the end of the day at a national the tracks are cut up and riddled with holes which are just begging for the unsuspecting driver to slip into them, and you really need to have the reactions of a snake to deal with those situations..... hence our 'demanding' tracks.

[Dom]

Ross, you are right - I was down to Wales in December & did a recce of the Talywain track ahead of this years 2010 National - it may be all astroturf, but the straight was like a ploughed field, with carpet on it!

I believe they are in the process of resurfacing the land and re-laying the turf, but yes, even with astro, there are still bumps and ruts to negotiate and pick your way thru.

And you are v.probably right - it's not as if I have been going round the Falkirk hall as quick as the regulars. I think that practice on any track would benefit me. I have too much off-time these days and the thumbs get rusty very quickly.

I was also knackered after the drive down, no decent sleep at the B&B on either Friday or Saturday night, so that won't have helped the concentration.

I'm on the hunt for old astro turf myself - I plan to build a small but complex track at the back of our garden, practice as much as time (and Mary!) will allow....

If anyone knows of any, I'll happily take it off their hands...

[mark79]

Speak to the csor guys. They've got loads left. Prob enough to make another big nitro track!

[Dom]

Speak to the csor guys. They've got loads left. Prob enough to make another big nitro track!

Cheers Mark. I'll get in touch with Dave Rollo via their forum.
I take it he's the man to make a decision?

[mark79]

Yeah, Dave or any of the commitee guys (Euan, Pete & stephen -races the cat sx at Falkirk) I've prob missed someone there but that's as good as my memory gets I'm afraid!

[testarossa]

I like the wheels, the dotted one.. It's cool.