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Interesting, I still think the XL was a mis-mash of parts and they made more than 1 version. Ian, remender our converation about the bumper?? I ve got a review of an XL and a XLS, plus the XLS and the Procat ones on my site

Jimbo, when you suggested that Schumacher may have mixed n' matched XL parts I wasn't entirely convinced, however the more I read and see, the more I think you're right. I know 100% that Schumacher "mixed up" Topcat, Cougar 1 & Cougar 2 parts in 2WD kits, so I'm pretty confident they probably did the same with the XL (seeing as it was from an earlier stage of the company's life, and especially so if they moved premises twice during that time!). You got it spot on when you described them as the "British Leyland of the RC car world"

I ll post the XL review I have when I get time. The XLS wasn't perfect either, the first versions had XL manuals with a 2 page leaflet on the changes in it and this would confuse the smartest of us. Later versions had the colourful XLS manual.

Great reviews guys. The guy who did the review of the SWB cat didn't like it much. Strange how he spent most of the time bagging it out, and didn't include a track test of it.

I got a brand new XL cat just after the XLS came out. It had the later black bumper and thrust bearing in the integrator. It wasn't the easiest of builds compared to the Tamiya Fox and Newman Porsche I had previously built, but it wasn't that bad for a 15 year old at the time. On the track is where it really mattered, it was light years ahead of anything Tamiya or Kyosho performance-wise.

Here is a scan from the first issue of Dirt and Track.

Also an article on updates to the Cat. Dirt and Track No. 2.

Sorry, not the greatest scans. Did them ages ago.

Thanks Dangermouse, excellent work. All these old reviews are ace. Interesting about your XL bumper - my NIB XL also has the black XLS style bumper. This is what Jimbo & I were talking about a few weeks back & it helps back up the theory that the XL came out the factory with different parts....

Cheers Doug, very interesting.

XL Review

Deeeeeeeeeeep breath......XLS review

These articles of the vintage cats are great.Seeing what people from back in the day thought of them is interesting and in some cases quite surprising.I can't wait to get that CAT XL from you Jimbo.

Have to force myself away from this thread and get to work , read later, when I go home (early tonight)
Thanks guys!

Whoa, what have they done to the XLS wing in that review? That's the ugliest one I've ever seen

Nice work there James, much appreciated.

I have noticed that the Schumacher shocks changed colour a few times on the
early Cats.The first were a gold colour then they looked more plain silver and on the later Pro Cats they looked to be much more polished.I also have a set that look
brown.Has anybody else noticed these changes.

I haven't seen nearly as many Schumachers as the Euro guys here, but all that I have ever seen in person have been that light platinum color.

Until the Bosscat all the 4wds ran the same silver shocks, just plain original aluminium. Any gold coloured shocks found on them would be either RC10 or Kyosho Option House ones.