My original CAT XL - freshly uncovered

[dinglem]

So i have contacted the guy I sold my original and early CAT XL to recently - turns out he still has the car, which he modified for carpet racing bitd.

He has dug it out from storage for me to have a look at - i would love to have it back to restore it. Sadly the original, early curved bumper has gone....

Looks like it now has an aftermarket CF chassis and has had some mods done to the rear suspension to lower it down a little. Option House front shockers too. Would be great to have my old car back

Looks like it is going to need a bit of work(!) He has several other cars which I am also chasing, 870c, PB Maxima and a Sand Scorcher.

Does anybody have any info on the chassis and top plate by any chance? Same goes for the rear shock mount.

[Danf1275]

Looks to have gained some Bosscat suspension parts front and rear, plus Bosscat rear shock tower. Rear toelinks are a bit homemade - inner joints are off Bosscat front upper wisbones.

[dinglem]

Yeah - somebody else has just said Bosscat parts to me also.

Do you know what the chassis is by any chance?

[dinglem]

...and here is how she was when i first had her. Red and black paint job and what looks to be Option House shocks. Just found this photo in the loft - well chuffed to see it as i had completely forgotten about that colour scheme after all of these years. Next to it is my newly purchased Mid complete with a swb carbon fibre chassis and home turned alloys.

[dinglem]

Well i finally collected this car a couple of days ago.... it has been modified a little but thankfully came with some vintage electronics still installed. Looks ok, but i will be taking back to my original spec if at all possible.

[dinglem]

Just discovered that my old car, literally in this current guise (even down to electronics and motor) was used to qualify second behind Rory Cull in the Stafford Winter Nats in 1990 (by my friend Jon Cooke). Quite nice to read. I was going to revert the car back to a standard set up but now I might leave it as is.

[Dadio]

That's a nice snap shot of history. I see you had a TMS motor , I had a lot of TMS parts on my hotshot but I never see them on eBay ever or even hear about them , were they a re-brand or just a UK thing of the period ?

[dinglem]

I currently have that TMS Tornado out of the CAT mounted up in my Mardave Meteor ready for action. I actually have a pair of these 13 Double motors, and this one is very very quick indeed. I do have some info on the company somewhere - will try to dig it out.

[dinglem]

Close up of my other Tornado.

image.jpg (47.14 KiB) Viewed 3687 times

image.jpg (47.14 KiB) Viewed 3687 times

[dinglem]

[Dadio]

Another cool snapshot of my youth ,I keep seeing "Radio Race Car" and "Model Car Monthly " magazines on eBay , I must purchase one some time . Thanks for sharing .

[dinglem]

Still got all of my old editions, some even in a ring binder(!)

[XLR8]

So, were you able to reunite with your old car? If so then great! Seeing these vintage CATs brings back so many memories. I had two; the original SWB that I purchased circa '87 and an XLS from about '88 and I raced them locally until about '94. I remember the SWB was a real hand full - like going to RC boot camp - haha. I had previously been racing RC10's with a fair bit of success but I had to learn to drive 4WD. Rule number one: keep the power on and don't lift completely when setting up for a turn. Anyway, with the longer wheel base, the XLS was so much easier to drive; lap times that I could never hope to achieve with any 2wd. I fabricated CF parts to replace the G10, used the G10 bits and chrome wheels to re-build the SWB into a quasi-XLS and sold it. I still have the real XLS with CF parts. It also has the Trinity rear dif and lay shaft and orange belts and one-way bearings up front. I pulled it from storage a couple years ago, geared it up with an old Fantom 14 double and a 7-cell nimh and ran it on my backyard track. Wow, what wonderful memories! I love this thing! Now that it has been re-released and there are parts available again, I'm not so afraid to drive it. Have you looked into the rere? I recall that when Associated tooled-up to re-release the RC10, they made an effort to distinguish the rere parts from original in order to protect the collector market. I'm curious to know if Schumacher did the same. Anyway, it doesn't really matter to me, I'm not selling my CAT. It's just too much fun to drive.

[dinglem]

Yes mate, the orange car is my original one from BITD, now safely back in my hands

Now just not sure whether to return it to my old spec or leave it as last raced by my old friend...

I have several other build projects to complete before looking at the CAT though!!

Lucky you still having your old car too

[XLR8]

Awesome! Really glad that you have the car back and that someone didn't just tossed it into the landfill. I reckon I am a pack rat and tend to keep stuff others would just throw out.
I also have other builds underway but reading all the news about the new car, I think the CAT has suddenly become a priority. I'm thinking about scraping together the money to buy the re-release (while they're still available), swap-out the go-fast parts from my old car, use the swapped rere parts to restore my old car to box-art Masami and park it on the shelf next to my restored RC10's. That will leave me the rere to fearlessly run the crap out of in the back yard. Do you think you will ever run your CAT again? It looks like it's seen carpet. Are there any carpet off-road tracks in the UK? You asked about the chassis plate. Well, it looks just like mine (cut for individual cells). Do you think yours could have come from trinity or their UK affiliate?