1985 Rare Schumacher Chassis Old Timer

[dinglem]

I picked this car up for a really great price in a parts bundle not so long back, and didn't really know what it was at that time. Having looked into it i have come to realise that is actually has a rare Schumacher GRP lightweight chassis on it, which was initially released in 1985, so dates the car pretty well. The car was filthy with a total covering of fine silty orange dust, but after a fairly swift initial wipe-down it has come up really nice and i absolutely love it! I don't really plan on over-cleaning it as the look works just as it is.

I am surprised at how rigid the chassis is, but then it is fairly thick. The front-end is also pretty stiff considering there are no support bars from the nose plate. The gold wear is all very pale too, not as orange as the later cars, and i think the whole thing just absolutely screams 'vintage racer.'

I am aware that the front wishbones are wide Andy's and date from '88 onwards so are a little late for this car, so i have earmarked those for another build. Fortunately the original short arms from this car also came in the sale so they can be switched back on. In a bid to retain the wide front-end the original owner wanted I will also be fitting a wide Hot Trick front nose plate.

The car also came with an unpainted but aged bodyshell, complete with integrated bodyclips!! This is the first time i have ever seen fishing line used to prevent bodyclip loss. Kind of a cool feature. I haven't even started looking at cleaning up that bodyshell yet, but i will hopefully get it into period paint at some point in the future. For now i have gone with another period bodyshell which i think really pops on this car. This is an original Team Brimod shell in their racing colours (Brimod were based in Wolverhampton and the colours of the local football team - Wolverhampton Wanderers - are yellow/orange and black). Every Team Brimod car i have seen in photographs has been in this colourscheme and this bodyshell actually came with my recent purchase of the Brimod prototype 4wd car.

Following a wipe down....

[dinglem]

125366181_3898864146808810_1090838392257764672_n.jpg (38.75 KiB) Viewed 1829 times

125366181_3898864146808810_1090838392257764672_n.jpg (38.75 KiB) Viewed 1829 times

[dinglem]

[Synergy]

That is very cool!

[THEYTOOKMYTHUMB]

I hadn't seen one of those bodies in a while. I remember they had a popular run here in town BITD. Very cool chassis also.

[dinglem]

Yeah it is kind of cool. I have not had such an early car before. I am trying to date it (beyond the fact that i know that Schumacher chassis came out in 1985). The shocks are obviously very light gold, as is the cut down motor guard. The lower spring retainers are slotless all-round. The gear cover is totally see-thru but is very very thick and hard - i have read the early ones were very fragile. This one almost feels like glass it is so hard. The steering spindles have thinner arms as per those i have read were on the earlier cars, and there is a second spare pair of these thinner steering spindles included in a box of bits with the car. There is a light gold chassis that also came with the car, which is an A stamp and was obviously swapped out very early on as it only has mild wear at the very rear end. No major scratches or gouges.

Is there anything else i should be looking out for or am missing in order to help date it??

[dinglem]

I have just whipped the cut-down Hirobo Zerda bumper off the car to have a better look at the nose piece. I would go as far as to say that the bumper has been on there since the car was built as there isn't really a scratch on the nose piece. The only marks are from what looks like water ingress beneath the bumper and the odd bit of dirt which has found a route between the bumper and the nose. Cleaning off the silt under there reveals zero scratches or gouges. The Zerda was released in 1984 so around the correct time-frame.

[Chewbacca]

Cool score for sure! Did you mount the long (truck) wheel base on purpose, or is this chassis shorter?

If you plan on running it I would add GT nose tube links. But that would require drilling, your chassis looks too nice to do that.

[dinglem]

Cool score for sure! Did you mount the long (truck) wheel base on purpose, or is this chassis shorter?

If you plan on running it I would add GT nose tube links. But that would require drilling, your chassis looks too nice to do that.

Not sure on the wheelbase - this is just as it arrived. You can clearly see that it has also been run in SWB format too though from the stripe mark at the front end of the GRP chassis. I think the fact that the Eagle bodyshell fits right on and the holes line up perfectly tells me that this is the standard wheelbase length and that the shorter setting is SWB mode. This was a1985 chassis option afterall, when shortening the RC10 wheelbase was all the rage and LWB formats had never even been considered.

I am really pleased with it. I have asked the original owner for some more info and an approximate date of purchase/history etc....

[bluewormx]

The Schumacher chassis is approx ~1/2" shorter than standard chassis. by running the car with the nose plate forward as it is in the pictures you are at standard length.