Foundation
The founder, Cecil Schumacher, was a Cosworth transmission engineer who was recruited from Borg Warner to lead the design team to adapt the Hobbs transmission (which he had worked on) to handle the Cosworth DFV's power. Cecil spotted his workmates driving radio-controlled cars on the company's helipad and decided it needed a ball differential after noticing the cars skittered. He soon started noticing different ways these early primitive cars could be improved. Having noticed high tyre wear he introduced the ball differential to radio-controlled cars.[1][2]
in 1981 Schumacher Racing Products was formed in Northampton, England after a local model shop requested the ball differentials that were being used successfully by Cecil's son, Robin and his friends. Schumacher soon started selling internationally.
The company has always operated out of Northampton[3] but sources some components from China like most other RC companies; however, the majority of manufacturing remains in England. Cecil Schumacher's son Robin Schumacher took over the business in 2001.
1980s
The first car to be produced by Schumacher was the XL Lexan chassis pan car in 1981 which had a highly flexible chassis suitable for indoor racing. This was followed in 1983 by the "C" car which was made out of fiberglass reinforced epoxy resin sheet and designed specifically for racing on carpet. It included many features that are still around on every modern 1/12-scale car. Racing wins include the euros in 1985 and 1988.
In the latter half of the 1980s, off-road RC cars increased in popularity. In 1986 the first 4WD 1/10-scale off-road buggy was launched, called the SWB CAT. This was the beginning of the CAT (Competition All Terrain) brand for Schumacher. This first variant SWB (Standard Wheel Base) 4WD car was a success with RC fans, becoming popular when Masami Hirosaka won the 1987 IFMAR off-road RC World Championships.[4]
1990s
Following the success of the first generation of off-road CATs, Schumacher continued to produce many off and on-road electric cars. The popularity of the touring car class seriously affected the off-road world during the 1990s. Schumacher stepped down the development of this class throughout the 1990s. Schumacher then started producing niche vehicles in the "fun" car sector, with high-power/speed nitro-powered models capable of speeds exceeding 80 mph.
2000s
In the 2000s, the Schumacher product line-up continued to include "fun" cars, with increasing numbers of nitro products. However, it remained in the 1/10 competition touring cars market.
2010s
The increasing number of cheap, high-volume, low-margin, ready to run cars produced in Asia meant the company could no longer produce nitro cars or fun cars. Schumacher now concentrated on the high-level 1/10-scale electrical competitive market. Alongside their Mi touring car range, the company re-entered the off-road scene with the CAT SX (4WD) and Cougar SV (2WD). Vintage racing of older designed cars became popular with Schumacher re-releasing the CAT XLS in 2017 and then the Top Cat. In the mid 2010s, a number of lower priced competition cars were introduced in order to help the sport grow. The Mi1 touring car was introduced alongside the top spec version. In order to re-establish 1/12th electric carpet racing, the Superstock and Eclipse range was launched. Schumacher also increased its distribution of other none-competing RC products.
2020s
In January 2020 Schumacher won the IFMAR 1/12 World Championships held in Milton Keynes.
