Schumacher 1/12th cars

[CAT3K]

I love the Lexan cars. I have adverts here somewhere for the XL and maybe a review of the XL and the C car.

Out of curiosity, was the lexan thing big elsewhere? I've seen quite a few lexan based cars designed in the UK, but just wondered if it was more of a UK polished floor phase before the carpet era.

From memory there were a few makers of lexan cars, Nodis, Schumacher, Sarik Vacform and Phantom. I've been looking for all of them, but i've sever seen one for sale

Paul.

[Jirka]

Thank You V12 for this info about early 1:12 racing. I didn't know that 1:12 cars were run on slippery wood surfaces. Driving and racing must have been quite different than in carpet, sounds to me almost totally different class.

Jirka

[V12]

I love the Lexan cars. I have adverts here somewhere for the XL and maybe a review of the XL and the C car.

Out of curiosity, was the lexan thing big elsewhere? I've seen quite a few lexan based cars designed in the UK, but just wondered if it was more of a UK polished floor phase before the carpet era.

From memory there were a few makers of lexan cars, Nodis, Schumacher, Sarik Vacform and Phantom. I've been looking for all of them, but i've sever seen one for sale

Paul.

My personal favourites are Delta cars (any) with the Lexan cars right behind. I have ads for the XL from RRC and French magazine. I knew the XL was coming to the shops and bought it right after hitting the shop. Later I made my own Lexan car.

I think those polished floor tracks were also common on maybe all European races in the beginning. During summer outdoor on asphalt and during winter the polished floor tracks. We saw polished floor tracks in France even years later with offroad.

The Lexan cars were very popular too at least in Germany with the XL and the Gemini SLX also some homebuilt cars. I know also being used in Austria, France and Italy but I don´t know if that popular as in the UK and Germany. But I never saw a Phantom in person, just at magazines.

I know there were some flat Lexan chassis cars from Neil Francis and Rob Gammon in the beginning with the U-shape cars following but I don´t know anything from Nodis and Sarik. Do you have pictures?

Actually I never thought of finding any Lexan cars because of their rarity but then I was offered a Phantom chassis at the end of the year and found this XL just with the new year starting.

[V12]

Thank You V12 for this info about early 1:12 racing. I didn't know that 1:12 cars were run on slippery wood surfaces. Driving and racing must have been quite different than in carpet, sounds to me almost totally different class.

Jirka

Yes that was something completely different. But not only wooden floor but also synthetical floor at sports halls. Actually something as driving on ice. This is where the Lexan cars really did shine as their chassis was soo soft so they generated a lot more grip than anything else. You have to see you could twist a XL chassis at a maybe 45° angle each side. But this also was the problem when the carpet tracks did appear, they were much too soft then. Schumacher made a newer version chassis then with a lot less cutouts but soon afterwards released the C-Car then.
Regarding tires for that polished floor tracks you can see some very special tires at the XL which were developed by CS-Electronic in the beginning. Afterwards the siliconed tires did appear what was even better, if you got a supersoft tire and the right silicone. I still have a bag of silicon tires from my XL left at home.

[CAT3K]

My personal favourites are Delta cars (any) with the Lexan cars right behind. I have ads for the XL from RRC and French magazine. I knew the XL was coming to the shops and bought it right after hitting the shop. Later I made my own Lexan car.

I think those polished floor tracks were also common on maybe all European races in the beginning. During summer outdoor on asphalt and during winter the polished floor tracks. We saw polished floor tracks in France even years later with offroad.

The Lexan cars were very popular too at least in Germany with the XL and the Gemini SLX also some homebuilt cars. I know also being used in Austria, France and Italy but I don´t know if that popular as in the UK and Germany. But I never saw a Phantom in person, just at magazines.

I know there were some flat Lexan chassis cars from Neil Francis and Rob Gammon in the beginning with the U-shape cars following but I don´t know anything from Nodis and Sarik. Do you have pictures?

Actually I never thought of finding any Lexan cars because of their rarity but then I was offered a Phantom chassis at the end of the year and found this XL just with the new year starting.

I've loads of pictures and articles of the lexan cars. Here's a few of them, i'll probably post some of the lexan articles in the scans section when i get a minute

This is the Sarik car, it actually says it's polycarbonate, but that's close enough to lexan..





Here's the Nodis car. I'll post the rest of the article up later, it has a review of the then current lexan cars. Notice at the top of the page they're showing the Schumacher XL being twisted, that's how flexible they were





Paul.

[V12]

Thanks for the pictures. I bought a lot of stuff from Nodis later but never saw this Lexan chassis before.

After seeing the Sarik car yes I remember I have seen this one time but my opinion is the same as in the past, this is not a car I would like. Looks somewhat curious and cheap comparing with the other Lexan cars.

Carrera in Germany also had a Lexan car but this never went to production stage.

Polycarbonate is just the name for this sort of material. It is made from different companies so the tradename is dependend on the production company. But we found differences in quality of those.
Lexan is the tradename of General Electrics.

Are those ads from RRC magazine? Which issues?

[CAT3K]

Thanks for the pictures. I bought a lot of stuff from Nodis later but never saw this Lexan chassis before.

After seeing the Sarik car yes I remember I have seen this one time but my opinion is the same as in the past, this is not a car I would like. Looks somewhat curious and cheap comparing with the other Lexan cars.

Carrera in Germany also had a Lexan car but this never went to production stage.

Polycarbonate is just the name for this sort of material. It is made from different companies so the tradename is dependend on the production company. But we found differences in quality of those.
Lexan is the tradename of General Electrics.

Are those ads from RRC magazine? Which issues?

The lexan cars appear in about issue 3 and end about issue 7 or 8. They were only really prevalent for about 2 years it seems.

Back on topic, here's a few of the XL chassis adverts from the start, it seems they were changed slightly over the years.

Starting with the earliest.







Paul.

[DerbyDan]

WOW! Thanks for your lasts set of scans Paul - great info!

V12 - I assume you got your XL from the member on Tamiyaclub? I made an offer on it too, but due to Xmas expenses, what I could justify on spending on another car was not enough to secure the deal... but i'm glad a true fan of these rare cars now has it (& I believe you still got it for a bargain price )

Although I did race an RC12 for a short while my main interest is with off-road buggies, but this 'Lexan car' would have been interesting to own... I would have taken it back to its birthplace.. which is not to far down the road from where I live

[Jirka]

Thank You V12 for this info about early 1:12 racing. I didn't know that 1:12 cars were run on slippery wood surfaces. Driving and racing must have been quite different than in carpet, sounds to me almost totally different class.

Jirka

Yes that was something completely different. But not only wooden floor but also synthetical floor at sports halls. Actually something as driving on ice. This is where the Lexan cars really did shine as their chassis was soo soft so they generated a lot more grip than anything else. You have to see you could twist a XL chassis at a maybe 45° angle each side. But this also was the problem when the carpet tracks did appear, they were much too soft then. Schumacher made a newer version chassis then with a lot less cutouts but soon afterwards released the C-Car then.
Regarding tires for that polished floor tracks you can see some very special tires at the XL which were developed by CS-Electronic in the beginning. Afterwards the siliconed tires did appear what was even better, if you got a supersoft tire and the right silicone. I still have a bag of silicon tires from my XL left at home.

I remember when I first saw 1:12 pan cars (mid 80's) that people used rubber (or silicone based material?) sheet from table tennis racket around tires. The used one sheet that was from the middle of the racket sheet layers, the one with small spikes next to each other. They did drove on carpet, but I can now see that those might have worked also much better on much slipper surfaces than "modern" 1:12 tire material.

Jirka

[V12]

I was the first for making an offer and it was no bargain but somewhat "affordable".
You can be sure I´m really a true fan of these cars especially as I was racing a XL in 1982.

[DerbyDan]

I was the first for making an offer and it was no bargain but somewhat "affordable".
You can be sure I´m really a true fan of these cars especially as I was racing a XL in 1982.

Sounds like you are the 'worthy' owner of this facinating car

I would love to have seen such cars racing on the slippery non-carpeted tracks back then, but alas I would only have been about 5 years old at the time Should imagine it would have been quite a spectacle! My local club (that I ran in the late 90s) used to race on an actual disused ice rink with our touring cars, we only had two long lengths of carpet, leaving the rest of the track laid on the dusty/painted concrete floor that once was covered in ice... it was great fun 'Scandinavian flicking' the cars between the corners

Interesting to hear about the tyres & techniques used to get them to work/improve grip... funny to think that after all these years with all the products now on the market for R/C racers we are still modifying parts to get our cars to perform better...

[Bob-Stormer]

I'll post my Schumacher C-car.

[camlchris]

I'll post my Schumacher C-car.

Wow ! NIB !!!

[paul_A]

…
Although I did race an RC12 for a short while my main interest is with off-road buggies, but this 'Lexan car' would have been interesting to own... I would have taken it back to its birthplace.. which is not to far down the road from where I live

I've never been at the factory myself - but come time …
but I know that there is a Lexan car "at home" - to be axact at the factory (which has moved since the days of XL and C-Car and early CATs)

and it should be very similar to this one

[GJW]

nib bob trust you, show us some more stuff you have mate. i have heard about your collection