Cougar 2 Team_Rebuild for racing

[Groomi]

Just ground down an old flat screwdriver to use as a diff adjustment tool. Angle is just right to fit the diff screw if approached from infront of the driveshaft. Should make finding the optimal diff setting much easier.

[Groomi]

Hello all.

I had another great day at Eden Park Raceway where there was a larger turnout than last month and the conditions were a little warmer, but very, very greasy and slippery. The circuit layout was another very twisty affair with two big jumps and two short straights either side of the banked 'Raceway' corner where I was giving away huge chunks of time to the brushless/lipo cars.

I started off the day by running some yellow minispikes in practice to learn the circuit and set the diff and slipper up. Ended up with a beautifully smooth diff. Bolting on the silver minispikes to the rear gave an absolutely planted rear end with bucketfuls of traction. The silver cut staggers suffered from clogging up, but as most people were running them it was a fairly level playing field. A few has silver minispikes for the front, but by the end of the day the track had cleaned up enough for the cut staggers to be the better bet.

Suspension-wise I initially struggled with too much bouncing, but solved that by setting the spare shocks up to 4 holes with the green AE springs. With those fitted, finally the suspension felt supple and reactive like my mates SV. It translated to a much more driveable car with some good laptimes cropping up but ultimately my inconsistent driving held it back.

With three heats of 2wd buggies, another three of 4wd, one of 2wd truggies and another of 4wd stadium trucks, qualifying was reduced to three rounds before the finals. My results are below:

Round 1: 4th of 7
Round 2: 5th of 8 (Should have finished 2nd but blew it with some terrible driving on the last 3 laps!)
Round 3: 4th of 8

That qualified me in 3rd for the C final with 6 or 7 runners. At the end of lap one I had worked my way through to the lead and held what should have been a comfortable gap, but then I crashed dropping to 2nd and over-drove again trying to get back on terms. Ultimately I finished 3rd - 23rd out of a total 28 runners.

Obviously I'm disappointed that my driving is so bad, although it doesn't really come as a surprise. Encouragingly the car is really progressing. It had none of the turn-in issues that I previously struggled with (except for when the tyres clogged up off-line), traction was excellent, understeer was dialled out during the day and it rode the jumps very well. Sturdiness was still very much appreciated with a few big crashes causing no damage whatsoever (except for a magically disappearing steering link). I overheard a few comments about the huge bumper, but hey - it's doing it's job just fine and is staying for now!

For the first time I found myself wanting more power in places, but I think I'll hold off the jump brushless/lipo for now. Instead I'll refurb an old 11 triple brushed motor and run that next time for a little extra pace.

I think the ride-height is perhaps a little low, so I'll play with that. I want to make some new custom shock mounts anyway, so this should be easy to achieve.

In other news, my mate qualified his SV in 9th for the A-final and after running as high as 3rd, finished 6th in the end. We both agree that 3-lap races would suit us best!


Finally, I expect to have a two month break before next having the chance to race, so it's time for some serious mods. I think it's about time for a mid-motored C2 don't you?

[DerbyDan]

Really enjoyed reading your little report on your days racing, sounds like you are having alot of fun & learning alot about your Cougar as you go

I think the most encouraging thing for you at the moment is that it appears your choice of car is not hampering your progress... if anything the rear motor layout in the wet slippery conditions maybe an advantage, the only benefit for you if were to run a modern car like the SV is that you would be able to copy set-ups/gleam advise from others running them.

[Groomi]

Thanks Dan. Yes, I agree that the rear motor is probably currently an advantage although there are still various rear motors being raced at EPR, so it's a varied mix. I'm pretty sure there is still more pace to come from the car and definitely plenty more to come from me if I can stop crashing.

Thinking overnight a little more and I think the shocks still need some tuning. Probably time to play with oil weights a bit more - 32.5w in the rear sounds like something worth trying. The great thing about running two sets of shocks is that I can make a 'change set' while keeping a 'control set' for comparison, then once the change set are proven to be better, they become the control and so on.

There is still an amount of play at the front end that I don't like (although I have been advised it probably makes little difference), but like many of these things the placebo effect of making it 'right' is probably worth something. A 2-bearing mod for the front wheels is essential I think...

[DerbyDan]

Just visited the EPR website.... I remember the name from the 90s but didn't realise that it had fallen into disuse & has been ressurected back to raceable condition!

Looks to be a very challenging track - so I wouldn't cut yourself up over making errors! I had a similar experience at the Silverstone winter series meeting (Rnd.4) on Saturday, I did my last qualifying run without making any errors & scored an 11th in round which I was well pleased with considering the strong competition securing myself 6th in the 'B'. For some reason I seemed to forget how to drive in the final race, finding myself last after the first couple of corners - then making mistakes from then on due to driving too hard trying to catch up!

[Groomi]

Yes, driving too hard is so easy to do! I don't remember whether I was any good or not as a teenager (I certainly had little idea about setting a car up), but I do know that I didn't get flustered and just drove the same regardless. Why is it now as an adult, the red mist descends and it all goes pear-shaped so easily LOL?

[vwjuice]

The car looks great. Glad to see that another vintage car tearing up the track with the modern cars.

I have the same problem man. I can drive great for 17 laps, but the last 3 laps I throw it all away and then try so hard to drive fast that I over shoot most corners and end up losing a bunch of time.

[fakiee]

Hello all.

I had another great day at Eden Park Raceway...

Wow, I didn't know this club was so close to me, i live in Lewisham so only 20 minutes away . I've never raced before, maybe its time I gave it a go!

So good to see more people racing vintage buggies!

[Groomi]

Give it a go. Pretty sure I was racing against an RC10*, but I'm not an expert, so can't be certain.



* Yes, I beat it...

[Groomi]

Hello all!

Yes, I am still alive but real life work has got in the way of all things RC for the last two months. So with the last round of the Eden Park Raceway Winter Series taking place today, I found myself desperately trying to incorporate the latest updates to my C2 at 2am on raceday...

Over the last two months I have acquired a Schumacher Cougar SV which I am going to rebuild and experiment with a few ideas. This will become my main race car, so the C2 is close to being pensioned off for now. However, the SV came with a LiPo battery (dead) and an Ansmann ESC. My plan therefore was to run the old LiPo which I originally acquired with the C2 and the Ansmann ESC. For reliability I bought a plug-in LiPo protector as the ESC doesn't feature one. So the plan was to run the same 14T brushed motor but with LiPo power and the Ansmann ESC.

First up I had to make a revised version of the top deck to allow for the longer length of the LiPo pack. I'd had to fit a power switch to the ESC as the previous owner had just twisted the wired together. With this in mind, I thought it wise to make sure the old ESC would still fit. Due to the rushed nature of the work, I'm not particularly happy with the quality. (Old on left, new on right):


One of the key requirements of the revised servo deck was the ability to change the battery pack without having to remove it. In doing this I have swapped the battery clamp for a standard 'Team' spec item which has been keyholed for simple removal. The LiPo protector is strapped to this.


Unfortunately the Ansmann ESC has wires sprouting from it all over the place. Coupled with the rushed installation, I wasn't happy with the look of the wiring but it would have to do:


And so it was with some trepidation that I arrived at EPR this morning. With the untidy wiring, I had an uneasy feeling that there may be some electrical issues, so I took the old ESC and Nimh packs for backup.

In practice I did several short runs to identify which tyres to use and to tweak the suspension settings. I'd rebuilt the shocks last night (30 oil in rear with 4 holes, 35 oil in front with 4 holes) and ended up setting the car up with the same rideheight as before but with more droop - this certainly improved ride over the bumps. Running with the LiPos I was impressed how much quicker the car was. Sure, it wasn't as fast as the brushless cars, but it was quick enough to make life difficult for people trying to get past. A definite step forward.

In the first round of heats, I was running really well (probably around 6/7th out of 10) before the car slowed before finally stopping with about a minute left to run. The symptoms were as if the battery had discharged, but upon checking back in the pits the battery was fine. And so commenced an infuriating day where I failed to finish every one of my four heats with the same problem happening sooner and sooner.

I systematically removed the LiPo protector and ran it - same problem.
Swapped the ESC for the old one - same problem.
Changed the transmitter batteries - same problem.
Swapped the receiver for my mates spare (with receiver) - same problem.

At this point, with minutes before the B Final was due to start and with the car now sitting dead on the bench, I decided that the only electrical component I hadn't changed was the motor. So I replaced it with my spare Top Models Missile 14Quad that I used to race back in the day and hasn't been rebuilt in 20 years. The car started up so I ran to the track to take up last place on the grid.

Due to a couple of cars suffering more problems than mine, I was actually 8th of 8 on the grid. I had driven nine laps in anger all day, was now using an unfamiliar transmitter with random settings and no idea if my setup was still appropriate for the track conditions. In the short drive to the grid I adjusted the steering trim on the transmitter to get it tracking straight and thought to myself that is seemed to now have as much punch with the Nimh packs as it had earlier in the day with the LiPos. Interesting...

As the race started, I hung back through the first corner melee and picked my way up to take 4th. Trying to find out how the car handled without making any mistakes I revelled in the newfound power increase and most ussefully the massive improvement in steering control - this transmitter/receiver combo had completely transformed the C2! Whereas I had assumed it was my rusty driving that caused me to struggle with fine control, it turns out that I could now hit apexes, hold slides and massively reduce the number of crashes. I had a tight midfield battle during which I recorded my fastest lap time of the day and was narrowly beaten into 6th spot by about 2 tenths of a second. I was elated to finally have finished a race, but even more so with the level of control I had found!

Needless to say, my mate is now lending me the Core RC 3 channel combo from that race. I will be refitting the LiPos and the Ansmann ESC for its next outing and will really see what it can do then...


Meanwhile, this evening I decided to conduct a post mortem on the old motor. Looking closely there was some seemingly innocent crash damage to the rear of the car:


The motor showed the endbell twisted and crushed into the can:


And internally there was plenty of carbon dust and evidence of contact with the magnets:


I suspect the damage to the motor caused it to draw more current and then the safety cutout from either the LiPo protector or ESC were kicking in. So frustrating!



Mind you, it was strangely satisfying to bolt in the pink missile motor from my youth and go racing in the thick of it again. This driver just got bitten by the competitive bug again...

[Groomi]

Having moved on from racing this car to play with more modern machinery, the growth of vintage racing (and specifically the Iconic RC revival race this coming Sunday) have lead me to dig the C2 out and prep to race again.

Whereas the XLS I'm building is all authentically specced with full spike tyres on 2 inch wheels, brushed motor, ancient Hitec ESC, nimh cells, 27mhz radio gear and a handout transponder; the C2 is now sporting a shorty lip, Speed Passion Reventon R ESC with SP 8.5T brushless motor, 2.4ghz radio and an MRT personal transponder.

With the shorty pack being used, a quick fabrication of a new top deck enabled a well balanced installation (apologies for the poor picture quality):


Oh yes, and as befits someone who's been racing again now for almost two years - the learner bumper has finally been removed!

I can't wait to put this on the track again.

[stulec52]

This latest version is much more what I was thinking of doing.
Shorty pack, everything in line.
A couple of suggestions, get everything as close to the centre line as possible, and cut the wires down to neat lengths.

Also, when I ran mine with lipo setup I found running about 30g of lead up front really helped get the car to turn

[Groomi]

Yep, I ended up adding some weight upfront. The car ran faultlessly all day and was very well balanced. The track had a large table top jump which my C2 seemed to handle better than just about everything on the day - perfectly balanced in the air.

[DerbyDan]

This looks fully sorted now... I must admit I think I saw it running on Sunday... but didn't realise that it was you or I would have come over to say hi

Yes that table-top caught alot of people out (including me) & I just couldn't clear it - so settled for a more gentle approach with both my cars.

[Groomi]

Sorry DerbyDan, I was having such a mare of a day with my XLS (trying to be too retro) that I didn't really socialise much - kind of missed the point of the event.

I came 7th with the C2 which is more of a reflection of my driving than the car.