Schumacher Trash Test by Shane Hunt

So there I was, in my all-wheel-drive, hopped-up monster of a car, zooming along at incredible speeds across a grassy plain. The independent lay-down suspension is really getting a workout, as I crash through the heavy brush at a blinding pace. I can barely see in the heavy tall grass, the blades crashing against the car, pummeling the lexan shell with a deafening roar. I punch the accelerator to clear a large tree root, and I feel the grab of all four wheels digging in. I turn hard right, and with the front wheels powered, the car sticks like a slot car to the ground. The grass is taller here, and I am driving blind. I crash through an opening when, aaaagh! I smash head-on into a giant mound of dog doo! It must be six feet tall! Ugh! Oh, jeez! It's everywhere! On the windshield, stuck in the tire tread, the shock springs, the front linkages, everywhere. Yech! Gad, I have to stop! Oooh, I feel woozy.... Well, that's what it would have been like had I been five inches tall, and riding inside the Schumacher Cat 2000 ECS that I was Trash Testing! I was trying out the all- wheel-drive action in the tall grass of my front yard when I hit the grand-daddy of all RC Car booby traps - dog doo! What a nightmare. After I clean this up, I'm going to kill the neighbors poodle... Land-mines aside, I was really impressed with this car. The Schumacher Cat has won many European races, including the 1994 and 95 championships. Here in So Cal I hadn't seen many 4x4's at the race track, but then again my racing experience has been limited to stock electric trucks. This kit blows 2 wheel drive cars out of the water! It is amazing, with dual differentials, belt-driven front wheels, independent oil-dampened suspension, and high-tech low-gravity engineering. I got the ECS, which is the "budget" version of the hot-rod EC, which is minus a few pricey options. Basically, the ECS ships with everything you need except ball bearings, slipper clutch, hard-alloy shocks and motor-cooling accessories. For recreation, you probably will never notice the difference, but in competition, you will want to upgrade to these items eventually. This is no problem, as like any other RC Car, you can add hop-up items as you go. I like this strategy, as it keeps the novelty factor up, as you continue to tweak your car as you go. Getting the trickest car available right out of the box sort of defeats the "hobby" part of the deal, with no where to go. This way, you can always look forward to performance mods as your driving skill increases, when you can better appreciate them anyway. So, on to building the car. Well, despite my little blurb about enjoying the "hobby" part of this past time, I would much rather drive these cars than build them! I was so excited about driving this beast that when I unpacked the box and saw all of the gazillion pieces, I just gasped. It was a bit overwhelming to be confronted with all of those parts, but the instructions were very concise, and each bag contained all of the parts needed to complete a step. It was easy enough to follow along and build the beast, but it did take a while, as this is a very trick car! I knew I was off to a bad start when I opened the first parts bag and a tiny, black plastic servo mount bounced out of my hands and in to my tool bag. My tool bag is black, and the piece was nowhere to be found. I turned the bag upside down and shook, and still no part. I had to pull out every stinking little thing from the bag on to a pile on the floor, and still no part. I completely emptied the bag, turned it over and over, and 20 minutes later, finally, the stupid part fell out. Ugh, what a way to start! Modeling ineptitude aside, the kit is very complete, and the parts seemed of high quality. I did find that one swingarm was not completely drilled through, so I had to do it myself, which was annoying. Also, be very careful to read the directions for each step thoroughly first, then attempt to build the parts. It is a good idea to concentrate on what you are doing, i.e., not talk on the phone with your girlfriend when you build this kit! Trust me, I had to re-build several parts because I wasn't paying full attention! Tell sweetie that you are busy, and get to work! It seemed when I was building the car that pieces were not straight, or aligned correctly. This was not the case, however, and if anything is off to an angle, it is supposed to be that way. The only really annoying part for me was building the Co-axial driveshafts, which require you to pinch the housing and force in the universal joint. I didn't have a vice like the instructions suggest, so vice-grips had to do. I slipped a couple of times and poked my leg, which made for a nice modeling injury! Prevent this tragedy, and get a vice! All in all, despite the seemingly complicated design, the car went together without any great problems. The end result is a very trick car with some neat features. For example, the shocks have adjustable dampening with a "dial- in" system. You can pick one thru four holes for each piston, effectively changing the dampening characteristics. Also the low, lay-down design and even weight distribution promised to make this car a handling machine. The supplied tires have a very aggressive tread, and the body shell is very slick. The body shell velcros itself closed, which is unique, but effective. I set the car up with the stock tires at first, and the supplied Buggywald off-road modified motor and I think a 17 tooth pinion (It was in my "misc" parts box!). I also had Pro-Line Square Fuzzies to try, but I figured I'd hack the stock tires bald first! I didn't have the "saddle-pack" batteries that you need for this kit, but I was able to dissect a stick pack and make my own. I stole a few extra items off of my buggy to finish the model. These "borrowed" items were a Shredder micro receiver by Hitec, a Futaba FP-S148 servo, and a Novak Duster ESC. When finished, the car looks mean, and performs even meaner! The Lawn This car is wild, with a new range of driving opportunities not afforded in two-wheel drive cars available right out of the box. Basically, you can drive just about anywhere! I drove the thing through deep grass (and dog doo!), loose gravel, sand, piles of leaves, you name it. The four wheels always find something to grab, so it is almost impossible to stop this little dynamo! The design is such that the front wheels reach way forward, as far as the front bumper. This means that the wheels will grab and go over rough terrain and protruding obstacles. Where a two-wheel drive will just get stuck and stop, this dude blazes on! It is wild to watch this buggy tear across the deep grass, like a crazed Tasmanian devil, blasting dirt and leaves in it's path. It is awesome! The cool thing about this car is it's versatility. You can tear across the grass, over the flower bed, into the dirt, then on to the asphalt. You don't need to have a perfect track laid out like you would with a two wheel drive car. You can just concentrate on pure driving fun! It is the perfect suburban toy, and should appeal to a broad range of drivers of any skill level. You could stay stock, or hop up to race standards. This car is a great place to start, with tons of potential. You can drive on a track, or just make things up as you go along! I have a little track in my backyard that I set up for off road buggies and trucks, but I since I started racing at big tracks, I haven't used it much. I was thinking about clearing off the leaves and overgrown grass to try the Schumacher, but there was no need! The little comet just blazed across and through everything, blasting a path of leaves in it's wake. It was amazing to watch, with almost nothing able to stop it. At one point, I couldn't even see the car in some deep overgrowth, only the path it was leaving behind of flattened grass. It was truly a blast. Then it was time for the killer test, the test that has led to many a broken, mangled car: the swimming pool. The pool in my backyard is drained just for wild RC car action! The Schumacher took on the pool like a champ, with all wheels pulling the car to new-found heights. It was almost too easy, as all you had to do was accelerate and steer and the car would pull off stunts that had sent my two-wheel drive buggies crashing in defeat. The Schumacher would just pull up the sides, gain speed, and then you could steer up and over even the most ridiculous obstacles. It was awesome. A few bad calculations sent the car tumbling, but like the Cat it is, it always seemed to land on it's feet! It was spooky how well it stuck to the walls, and how fast it would go. I would buy this car just to play in the pool, but the fun doesn't stop there! On to the Track The Ranch Pit Stop where I race has a hard packed, fine dirt track. The tires that shipped on the Schumacher really are not appropriate for this fine dirt, although I raced around with no problems on the stock tires. Any major traction problems were nullified with the power on all four wheels! Driving on the track is tricky, as I am used to two- wheel drive cars. The Schumacher wants you to power through the turns, pulling with the front wheels as well as the back. It took me some time to develop a driving style that took advantage of the traction, and not over/under steer into the corners. It is a completely different driving style, and I found myself braking more than I did with the 2 wheel drive stuff. A few laps of practice, however, and I was up to speed! I put the Pro-Line Square fuzzies on the back tires first, as they don't make a size to fit the fronts yet on all-wheel drive cars. This made for a strange combo on the track, as the back tires stuck much better than the stock fronts on the fine dirt. This made for unpredictable handling, as times the front would be loose and not hook up as well as the back. I think the backs hooked up so well that the torque perhaps lifted the front wheels a bit, making steering loose. I decided a matched set of tires was in order. I also decided that you need to remember to glue on the tires, as I sent one zinging down the track as it flew off of the rim! In order to get a set of Square fuzzies on the front, you have to modify a set of back tires. This was not my cup of tea, so a friend of mine cut apart and re-glued a set to create front tires for the Schumacher. The end result was a set of matching Square fuzzies on the front and back tires, which stuck like glue on the hard-packed track! The right tire combination can make all the difference, and with the Fuzzies, the car performed much better on the track. By the end of the evening, with the right tires and some practice, I was able to come from behind and beat half of the pack on my first night out! Watch out, kids, with some practice and better batteries, me and the Schumacher are going to steal the show! Problems This is a real quality kit, and despite it being the "Sport" edition, is no cheasy unit! The car runs smooth, surprisingly easy for a dual-belt unit. It sounds mean, with the belts singing under power! The car got a lot of attention on the track, which was a little unnerving at first, as my driving skills didn't match the capabilities of the car! When all eyes are on you, and you just make the car tumble in the first turn, it is a bit embarrassing. In practice, I noticed that the differentials were loose and slipping. This created a kind of clutching action, which I knew wasn't right as the ECS doesn't have a clutch like it's EC big brother. The differentials came pre-assembled from the factory, but I loosened them when I assembled the car because they seemed very tight. I over-loosened them, so I had to tighten things back up to stop the clutching action and make things right. In my first race, I lost the o-ring that holds on the main spur gear. This allowed the non-slip pin to launch into oblivion, so I had fix this in the pits. I used a piece of small bolt for the pin, and simply e-clipped the gear in to place. This seemed to fix my situation without any reoccurance of the problem. The car shipped with really small springs, which set up the car up really low. This is probably ideal for carpet racing, but was way low for the jumpy dirt track. I had to use all of the spacers provided to get the ground clearance up, and still felt like I needed a higher ride-height. New springs (they make many) would solve this dilemma. After all of the abuse, the only problem I encountered was the o-ring on the spur gear. Even after many tumbles and crashes on the track, the car stayed together fine. Even the lexan wing managed to stay in place and wasn't that mangled after many a summer-sault! With the front wheels so far out in front, the bumper doesn't see much action. It did do it's job, however, when I drove the buggy into my parked car tire at full speed! Everything stayed together, even after this crash, but what impressed me the most was the way the Cat drove away after a very scary fall out of the sky onto the pool cement. This car is rouge, and built to take it! I was skeptical that I would enjoy this car at first, not buying into the four-wheel drive hype. After building and driving the Schumacher CAT 2000 ECS I am changing my tune! This car has now become my favorite, as it just won't stop! With all wheels hooking up, it accelerates and turns at heart-stopping speeds. It doesn't get stuck anywhere, and grips the ground like glue. You can drive it for fun on your lawn, or kick-butt out on the local race course. It is really an amazing car. I haven't found anything that it can't do yet! In fact, next week I think I will throw some street tires on it and try it at the road course against other street machines. I bet it stays hooked up and on track! I'll let you know how it goes, but until then, go get your own. Just remember, "Cat's" & "Dogs" don't mix! Dislikes Soft screws in undercarriage. Would like to have seen harder allen-head fasteners. Short springs - Had to use all spacers provided. Close quarters inside - hard to adjust steering servo. Saddle Packs Likes All-terrain, no-limits driving Sleek, attention-getting looks Insane accelleration