RC equivalent of a “barn find”? Vintage Schumacher touring car.

[Fat Freddy]

So here’s an interesting one. This should probably be in the vintage section, but as nobody has posted in there for two years I thought it might get overlooked.

 

Are any of you familiar with this model and able to offer advice/tips, or just any useful background info?

 

There’s a bloke at work who’s occasionally shown a mild interest in my RC cars. Then one day he brings this toolbox into work and gives it to me.

 

Inside is an old Schumacher touring car.  Circa late 90’s, early 2000’s I think?

 

Haven’t done much research on the car itself yet and the guy himself didn’t seem to know much about it either. 

Apparently he bought it locally and the local model shop built it for him. I vaguely know the guy who built it, called Richard Stiles, an ex professional large scale racer I believe. Really knows his stuff, so I imagine it was tweaked to perfection at the time.

For it’s day, this thing must have been really top spec, Carbon fibre chassis, alloy parts.

It has an old skool tx/rx with a crystal thingy in it, and even has a long dead ni-cad still strapped to it.

 

As far as I can see, just briefly looking over it, the only things wrong with it are a stripped spur gear and the front bumper has been rotted by an old AA battery that had welded itself to it. Assuming I’m looking at the right parts, both are still available at about £5 each.

 

I’m just not sure what to do with it as the guy (is a tad eccentric and very hard to get a straight answer to any question….. ever) hasn’t actually said he’s given it to me, but has refused any money and then said he’s unlikely to ever want it back (unlikely isn’t never). So I’m reluctant to spend any actual money on it. I might invest a tenner in the spur and bumper foam, plus I have a cheap 2.4ghz tx/rx I could use, and a 2s lipo…. Hmmmm. 🤔

But where would I run it?

I’m guessing it’s intended for indoor use as it has about 3mm ground clearance. 
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts folks.😄

 

[Stormbringer]

very nice mate and it does look a hi spec car for its time 

maybe you can raise the suspension and use it on the road/carpark ?

[Kpowell911]

I had one of these back in the day, was very competitive 🙂 truth be told it would handle a brushless set up of today no problem, so provided you can keep it, Id stick a mild brushless system in it and run it on 2s 🙂

[Fat Freddy]

55 minutes ago, Stormbringer said:

very nice mate and it does look a hi spec car for its time 

maybe you can raise the suspension and use it on the road/carpark ?

I had a similar thought. Plus the stock wheels are tiny, so maybe a set of slightly larger wheels with rally blocks might help with ground clearance too?

[Fat Freddy]

26 minutes ago, Kpowell911 said:

I had one of these back in the day, was very competitive 🙂 truth be told it would handle a brushless set up of today no problem, so provided you can keep it, Id stick a mild brushless system in it and run it on 2s 🙂

You had one? So am I right, was it intended for indoor use?
As you’ve worked on one, what do you think of Stormys suggestion to raise the suspension? Is that do-able?

Or would it be a bit sacrilegious to use it outdoors? I can’t see that drive belt standing up to too much gravel and muck. I don’t want to be that guy who ****ed up a piece of RC history 🤣

[Kpowell911]

1 hour ago, Fat Freddy said:

You had one? So am I right, was it intended for indoor use?
As you’ve worked on one, what do you think of Stormys suggestion to raise the suspension? Is that do-able?

Or would it be a bit sacrilegious to use it outdoors? I can’t see that drive belt standing up to too much gravel and muck. I don’t want to be that guy who ****ed up a piece of RC history 🤣

Its just a race spec touring car from that era. Its nothing “major” so to speak, so use it as you see fit. Its not particularly rare or expensive so dont worry about that. 
 

Some race series were indoor (usually carpet or polished floor), some where outdoor, just depends what part of the world you lived in, and what was the local track/club. They”ll be  set up different depending on the surface, but it was mainly tyres that were the big change. 

[Kpowell911]

A new “Mission” would come out every few years, youd have a few options, there’d be a club spec one, then a better one etc. all the manufacturers were doing it. Associated, HPI, Losi, X Ray, HB etc. If say associated won the worlds that year there would be a “Championship Edition” released. Im guessing it still goes on today. 

 

for example, its a bit more complicated now as theres more than one version of a kit, but this is the equivilant of what you have today. The Mission word got shortened to MiX

 

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/product/1342668?gclid=Cj0KCQjw--2aBhD5ARIsALiRlwBQns8f-SwC4Lrc8Ff2spDQoGwt3JdX28a9yNcnHpq-71zst7IKgzgaAnLxEALw_wcB

 

Heres a picture I believe of 2 of my Schumacher Mi2s (centre and right)

 

 

So think of those two as your Mission’s children lol

 

 

Edited October 28, 2022 by Kpowell911

[Hell horn.]

I'd check with him before I put any parts in.  Let him know your happy to get it running again. But you want to be sure he is happy for you to do it and cover the costs if he wants it back.  Then if he is.  Take it apart.  Clean it up and grease everything needed.  Check over it all.  Adjust suspension if needed to run on road.  Drop some new wheels on it.  And don't run a lipo on it.  As I doubt the ESC will be take one. Best double check that maybe. And see how it goes 

[Fat Freddy]

2 hours ago, Hell horn. said:

I'd check with him before I put any parts in.  Let him know your happy to get it running again. But you want to be sure he is happy for you to do it and cover the costs if he wants it back.  Then if he is.  Take it apart.  Clean it up and grease everything needed.  Check over it all.  Adjust suspension if needed to run on road.  Drop some new wheels on it.  And don't run a lipo on it.  As I doubt the ESC will be take one. Best double check that maybe. And see how it goes 

Agreed. I thought it might be safer to remove the original electronics altogether, rather than risk overheating a 20 year old ESC (no idea how reliable they were back then?). I think I’ve got a 1060 ESC somewhere and I have a cheap transmitter/receiver I’m not using.

Then if he wants it back I can just put the original equipment back in.

Might do the same with the wheels/tyres.
 

 

[Stormbringer]

sounds like a plan mate 

[ReggieC]

Schumacher are great for still sticking parts for old cars. I'm currently doing up an SST99 pro, which is the older brother of what you've got there. Schumacher also re-released the original Mission design as the MI1 a little while back so you should have no issue with part supply.

 

Running it outside would be fine, tarmac/asphalt race tracks were around long before carpet racing. 

 

There's a lot of people who'd probably be interested in the period electronics if you were interested in selling them on. There's a couple of vintage touring car/electronics groups on Facebook 

[Fat Freddy]

7 hours ago, ReggieC said:

Schumacher are great for still sticking parts for old cars. I'm currently doing up an SST99 pro, which is the older brother of what you've got there. Schumacher also re-released the original Mission design as the MI1 a little while back so you should have no issue with part supply.

 

Running it outside would be fine, tarmac/asphalt race tracks were around long before carpet racing. 

 

There's a lot of people who'd probably be interested in the period electronics if you were interested in selling them on. There's a couple of vintage touring car/electronics groups on Facebook 

Interesting, thanks. I’d need to be 100% sure he’s actually given it to me before I start selling parts. My Mrs reckons he’s just waiting for me to say I’ve given it the once over and he’ll ask for it back, but I’m not so sure.  I’ve tried asking, but he never gives a straight answer, preferring vaguely cryptic comments and leaving you to figure out what he means. 🤷‍♂️