Brimod Prototype Car

[dinglem]

[Dadio]

Those knuckles look a lot like the alloy hot shot knuckles I had on my old racer , possibly TMS knuckles ? If you imagine the chain drive proto as the earlier chassis then at an earlier stage of development more out sourced parts might have been used that would be made in house later on .

[dinglem]

And now the MMS Concept Car from April '87... there was a bit of Brimod in this car as they used their shocks as standard for their kit. Not identical, but similar, and built just a few miles apart.

2019-12-21 22_55_22-Microsoft Edge.png (252.85 KiB) Viewed 1825 times

2019-12-21 22_55_22-Microsoft Edge.png (252.85 KiB) Viewed 1825 times

[dinglem]

Another bit of detective work finally paid off this afternoon.

I had remembered seeing an article on the Brimod team which had three yellow and black 'Team Brimod' Optima Mids lined up... I read it back in the day but had never forgotten it. One of my friends had his old mag stash to hand so i messaged him to get him to check through the 1988 editions... BINGO! He found the picture.

Adam, Eliot and Dave are the names of the team drivers on the cars... so now i have to find out their surnames somehow.

The same friend then read the race article with which this picture of the three cars was associated.... and he discovered this little snippet.

So fast-forward a few hours and i had tracked the original Brimod test driver down, messaged him, got his phone number and had spoken to him for about half an hour about the team, the cars, and this 4wd car in particular... he had run the 4wd prototype in the event featured in the magazine! He had been heavily involved in the design and testing of the car and knew a lot about the drivetrain and belt tensioner etc.... I have sent him pictures of the chain-drive gearboxes and the little metal gear cover behind the motor and have said i will call him again in the New Year to talk some more. I have also asked him about the bodyshell he ran on it.

An amazing snapshot of the history of this car which i should now be able to use to fill in the blanks in the story. Pretty pleased!


Merry Christmas everybody!

[jwscab]

The cast knuckles look like kyosho parts. Nice detective work on tracking down the team driver.

[RC10th]

Foam tires on the #1 car ?

[dinglem]

Looks like it. From the other pics in the article the track seems to be indoors, or at least certainly very flat.

[Dadio]

If you could just get a few pictures of the chain drive chassis you might be able to make a replica , well done tracking down the team driver he could well be the key to cracking this one !

[dinglem]

Yes - i think this is the best chance I have of documenting as much information as I can.

This guy was very heavily involved in the design stages and although he left the build to the brimod folks, he then subsequently test drove for them and suggested any necessary changes. He also had info such as the fact that every single Brimod shock was machined by Tony Britten on his lathe in the Brimod workshop. He threaded them all himself and made the adjustment spinners. The hex adjusters were eventually used in a bid to speed up production and shave costs a little. They could not afford to copyright anything they did, however.

It was always the dream of Tony Britten to build a competitive 4wd car; the 2wd was a stepping stone towards this, and the 4wd car was the one which Tim Lucas eventually tested for the Brimod team.

I have asked a load of questions over the past couple of days so i will call him up in the New Year and hopefully get some answers. Bodyshell used, what happened to the 2wd prototype cars, why the chain drive boxes, why the small metal gearbox behind the motor, why the cars never made it into production, how did the 4wd run and did he have much success/failure with it? Who were the other test drivers, if any, did the car have a name (or nickname), did he use this Nosram esc which came with the car? Lots of questions there, all of which i have sent to him in various messages since we spoke. If anybody else has another question you think i should ask then please fire away.

I will see what he comes back with.

[dinglem]

Been fighting with myself trying to decide which tyres to go for on this. I literally hate modern tyres even though i know they are totally the best for modern astro tracks.... about 18months ago i was determined to try old school stuff at our vintage meeting over in the UK and ended up running Losi -X-patterns on the rear of my Meteor.

This year I tried the old Schumacher Minispikes as i love their low-profile look.

I remember seeing an above shot of a Dunn Pro Radiant sporting Losi X-patterns front and rear and it looked super cool, so when these popped up a couple of days ago I grabbed them. Great price too.

Again i like the low-profile look of the X-patterns, so we'll see how they look when i eventually get home and manage to fit them.

[dinglem]

OK, so i just got off the phone to Tim Lucas, the ex-Brimod test driver. It turns out that this was the actual car that he drove, covertly, in around '87 - '88. He told me that the Brimod guys entered it in secret into the Stafford round of the Radio Race Car Off-Road 4WD National Series (I am looking into there was a Stafford round in either year to pin that date down). That was the first run out for the car and they were given permission to enter it without it being an 'official' car at that stage. Only the race hosts knew what it was. The team disguised it by fitting a yellow and black Brimod team colour Pb bodyshell onto it, and also ran an actual Pb Mini Mustang with the same shell as well as a decoy/distraction.

They had a strong relationship with Mick Goddard of MG motors, so the MG Magnum that came with the car from Brimod is more than likely the one used in the prototype - as seen in the mag article pictures.

The Schumacher link is very very interesting. The Brimod team had dealings with Cecil Schumacher in the early days and were involved with the SWB CAT prototype cars, and they did indeed develop the prototype Brimod shock absorbers for that project. The deal was that these Brimod units would be fitted on all CAT models sold, but Cecil Schumacher wanted them to all be branded as Schumacher shocks, but have Brimod manufacture them. Tony Britten was not having that so the deal fell through. It was a similar deal for the CAT XL saddle pack chassis, which was made in prototype form for Cecil at the development stage, but again this was to be branded as a Schumacher product so the deal between the two companies was never made and Schumacher went with their own design. I imagine that means this Brimod saddle pack chassis is one of very few made. I have another thread in the Schumacher section on here relating to this, with a few pictures of these prototype shocks, so i will add this information there also.

The Brimod car never went ahead due to the costs involved. CML in the UK were approached to possible market and sell the car but the demand for such an expensive car was not considered high enough and the numbers thrown about just did not add up so sadly the project was shelved. At around the same time the Varley family/CML/MMS were also developing their 'Concept Car' 4wd RC10, which probably didn't help.

Tim still races in the UK, and so i have asked him whether he will have the first drive of this prototype car when it is eventually built - seems like the right way to go

[Dadio]

That's just all so cool , well done with the research and thanks for sharing it , giving the first test drive to the original test driver , well that needs a video !

[Dadio]

Reading about the Cecil Schumacher link and his possessiveness (long word ,thank god for auto correct) of the marketing I'm starting to develop a picture of the guy , he was also working with PB and went a separate way .....Schumacher was the one who eventually prospered while PB and Brimod left the scene , just leaves me questioning about the weighting of the give and take in those relationships ?

[dinglem]

Yes, I can see exactly what you are saying there. Totally uncompromising but efficient.

The test driver also sent me a photograph of the old Brimod premises, and gave me a detailed description of the operation. All very Heath Robinson! It was run out of the back of a courier business shop and was essentially just a small brick-built outbuilding in the back garden which housed a drawing board and some cutting/milling machinery. It was a one man band, a father and son outfit.

There are some visual similarities between the Brimod shocks and what became the Schumacher versions if you look closely at them. It would clearly have been a major scoop for Brimod had they closed the shock deal, as I am certain they could have reaped the reward from the huge CAT sales over the years. I am sure they would have been able to exploit the manufacturing link somehow. I am really pleased to have located a pair of those early prototype Brimod shocks shown in my other thread anyway

[Dadio]

When I saw your name on the build of the month contest I had a sneaking suspicion you were going to drop a nuke on it with this car ! But not yet.