Cougar MK1 restored for racing!

[DerbyDan]

So a fellow club member turned up one race night with this rather sorry looking Cougar1 - knowing that I like restoring/rebuilding old racers, he said that if I could find a use for it then I could have it FOC.... how could I refuse!



On getting it home I took stock of what was required to get it up & running & hatched a plan to build my new vintage runner - the aim to getting all together in time for this years Vintage Revival meeting - which for 2015 was held over the weekend of the 1st & 2nd August - Saturday being for the 2wd classes & Sunday for 4wd. Last year I won the event using a Losi JRX2, but with the Cougar1 being released in 1990 meant that it fell into the newer class meaning that if I managed to qualify for the 'Race of Champions' my start line 'handicapped' advantage would be less - & a repeat of last year would be harder.

So the strip down & rebuild began, the car looked like it had not had a lot of use (& been build quite nicely - sprue flashing removed, non-chewed up ball cups etc) But had obviously had some kinda major shunt - with a broken shock tower, bent shock shafts & top caps & well twisted chassis, I actually wonder if it had been run over!!

I started with another chassis - which again was donated by another fellow racer & vintage collector (Thanks Jiffy!) Which I gave a quick polish up - along with the hingepins, turnbuckles, gearbox side plates.... & you may notice some Cougar2 'Pro-diff' halves



I then re-built the shocks - luckily I have accrued a fair few vintage Schumacher spares - including shock parts - not only had the 'ears' on both shock caps been bent over - one of the bodies was deformed also! Shocks were re-built with new 'O' rings & diaphrams from Schumacher;



These shocks actually build up & operate quite nicely when built with care (my eye for detail was not so keen when I was a teenager first built up a set of these shocks!)



Onto the gearbox... I brought a gearbox off ebay which included a slipper clutch & as luck would have it a pro-diff. The gearbox was a mix of new & very well used (chewed & hacked up parts) I re-built the Pro-Diff using new diff side pieces & a 2nd hand but better condition pulley (Thank You Steve & Dan respectively)



Diff assembled;



Quick mock-up - gearbox now assembled - the gear cover stolen from a Cougar2 I have (another project to do!)

[DerbyDan]

Some new - or used replacement parts used;



Assembly progress;



Rolling chassis complete; As you can see I'm using Shorty LiPos - simply because these are the batteries I use in my modern buggy - a full size stick option is tricky to fit, the rear bulkhead would require cutting & adjustment to allow the battery to fit at the back. Trusty Associated RC10 battery cups (trimmed in length) are being used here.





Getting closer to race day & it was about time I gave my Cougar something to wear, Steve Haskins of Penguin Custom Bodyshells was able to supply my with a nice reproduction shell which I duly painted to a design inspired by Phil Davies' magazine featured ProCat but with different colours used. (I painted a matching shell for my ProCat which was I was racing on the Sunday);

[DerbyDan]

Raceday!

This was the fine Astroturf track that greeted us at 'A1 Racing' Nr Grantham in Lincolnshire UK;



The Cougar had just been finished off the week prior to the event & apart from a quick run in the street had never been driven in anger until I placed it on the track for practice. Saturday proved eventful, first the ESC (an LRP Spin Pro) decided to switch itself off during the first qualifying run - not being able to trust it again - I swapped over the ESC from my Procat for round 2.

Prior to the event I was not happy with how the diff felt - the diff action was very tight even though you could still turn it over unless the slipper was set quite loose (so that slipped first). Luckily I had brought a second diff (donated from my Cougar2) It was in bits as I had intended to rebuild it for the Cougar1 before the meeting but had run out of time... so with some help from my mate, we cleaned/honed/re-greased & re-built the second diff.... which felt much better.... all re-built & installed ready for round 3!

I continued to race & the car, & completed each qualifying race - so was getting a good feel for how the car drives - which I must say it handled impeccably, the suspension set-up remained just how I had built it throughout the day. One thing that did plague the car & affect how it drove was there seemed to be a drag breaking effect - at first I thought it was the swapped across speedo... it didn't feel very fast either I checked the ESC settings & all seemed as they should (it worked ok in the ProCat when I last ran it!) So for the last run in qualifying I threw caution to the wind & stuck the 6.5BL in (again stolen from the ProCat) - performance was pepped up a bit (but not outstanding) but the 'drag break' effect still remained.

Anyway - I managed to qualify 5th O/A in what was a very competitive class - so with the top-two removed to go forward to the 'Race of Champions' race, that put me 3rd on the grid for the 'A' final - not too bad considering!

Some action shots from the day!











Unfortunately it rained just before the 2wd 88~93 class A final - & I didn't have enough time to glue up my wet weather tyres... it seemed everyone else had read the conditions better & had wet tyres ready! I ended up slip, slip sliding around in the final until eventually I span the car out of a tight hairpin & clipped the r/h front wheel on the end of the track marker, snapping the front bulkhead in the process & so ended my race!

[naushad]

just reading this now...almost a year later!

I've got a cougar i need to restore...will use this excellent write up as guidance and inspiration.

[DerbyDan]

Nice one Naushad!

I think you'll enjoy your Cougar... the beauty of them is that they were sold by Schumacher in so many different guises over quite a long period of time - picking up improvements & updates along the way that you can really 'cherry-pick' parts to build a Cougar to your personal preference.

As you can see I've tried to keep as many parts as possible all original Cougar1 except for the gearbox where I've upgraded to basically Cougar2 spec with pro-diff & slipper clutch - purely for piece of mind whilst running powerful brushless motors.

As you could probably tell from my 'ramblings' above that last years Revival didn't quite go to plan with this car & I should have put more/some track time on the Cougar leading up to the event to iron-out the various teething problems that reared their head during the race day. One of the things I describe is the feel of drag breaking, it seemed I could never get the belt tensioned right - it was either too loose & jumped - or one eccentric bearing housing hole tighter & the belt would be too tight causing this annoying drag break effect.... after the event I swapped out the belt for another one which must have been just a bit longer & was able to get the tension just perfect!

I returned back to the A1 track about a month after the 2015 Revival & raced the Cougar in the 'Vintage' support class at a Mid East Regional meeting - the Cougar was flying - comparing my times with the Cougar with those in the main class (modern 2wd) whilst I narrowly missed out on qualifying for the A final with my TM2 - the rear motored Cougar would have easily qualified for the C final!

[Coelacanth]

Nice car, Naushad. I have a sweet spot for those Shueys, but never owned one. One of these days, I'd love to add one of those alloy-pan cars to my small collection.

[Retro rc]

How many do you want I've got 6 in various states of repair all cougar 2 except for my original heavily modded cougar mk1

And dan I really do like your rebuild on that cougar right up there with some of marks(xfactors) builds. Tempted to do a mk1 myself if I can just finish of some of the others first lol

[DerbyDan]

Thanks Retro! I know Mark well & his Cougar builds are something else - more display pieces rather than something that you'd ever want to run! This Cougar was built to race, as such is a little more rough & ready - I could have gone that next step - like done something fancy with the chassis plate but I would have then been scared to scratch it

I have three Cougars - this Mk1, an ex-Bormac Cougar2 Works & I currently have a red pan Cougar2 'racing' on the workbench getting some 'love'. I really do love the Ali-pan Cougars but I think the Mk1 is my favourite as its what I raced back in the day (a converted TopCat). Unfortunately the Cougar that is the subject of this build thread has not quite gotten under my skin like some of my other runner/racer builds but I think that's because I just haven't had much track time with it. I've been concentrating on my Mardave Meteor this year so the Cougar has been a little neglected. I think I will have to give it a little more attention & get it out on track a bit more as it does handle really nicely even in its current basic kit set-up (suspension-wise).

[naushad]

Just managed to get my hand on a nice job lot of Cougar and Topcat parts including a Club 10 complete and some MMS bits.

Once received I will gather everything I have and see what I can build. I intend to build this for racing and not shelfing!

Maybe I will start a build thread too....but its so much easier just plonking pics on FB!