Cougar in the Dirt??

[Chris119]

Do any of you guys have any success with the car on dirt? I originally thought the car was too much of a beauty to lay down in the dirt but started thinking with the alloy gearbox, new shock mount, and longer chassis this thing could do well outdoors.

[Bagman]

I couldn't get my head round it last year, I had loads of problems and changed half way through the summer. I think the changes should make the world of difference. I should also say that I'm not the best in the world and that could be the reason why I never got it right.

[hansie]

Hello all,

I have driven the Cougar on a clay track ever since it came out.
It took me a while to get the car working the way I like it.
The car was good pretty soon but it took longer to get it great.
Reliability problems really bothered me in the beginning.
Thanks to the new parts (gear box with extra hole, new idler gear, different bearings) reliability isn't a issue anymore.
I run the Cougar with the standard chassis and I have 60 grams of weight added near the motor. I can post my set-up here if anyone is interested.
I recently tried something new to see if I could get the car to work better in low grip conditions, I switched the rear A-arms left to right and vice versa. This adds length to the wheelbase, you have to bring the balstud on the hub carrier to the front in order for this to fit. It makes the car easier to drive (for me). For me the car is still a little harder to drive on dirt then a Losi or a Associated but it is just as fast once you get the hang of it.

Here is a "early days" film of my Cougar on my home track

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kteZfjTUl2E

Greetings

Hans

[moth898]

If your asking how it will do at St-polycarpe, I can help. I ran it there in Dec without alloy box, had one of the faster laps at 24.844 without any practice.

You have to drive it differently than a rear motor. you can't point and shoot, drive it like a on road sedan. I had lots of drag brake, so I didn't need to touch the brakes, It has a tendancy of loosing the rear with too much brakes. I had modified the front to get met +6mm longer, but it screwed the ackerman. Now with the new chassis it should be even better. I tried it at my track and it made a huge difference, much more stable.

I'll give you my setup

front
4.5 springs
45 losi oil
60 mm link
1mm under ball stud
outer hole on caster block
proline scrubs
-1 camber

rear
2.0 springs
27.5 oil
39 mm link
1 mm under ball stud
4.5 antisquate block - 1mm under toe block
outer hole on rear hub
proline step pins
-2mm camber

*very important, install 35 grams of weight near the pinion, it improves balance alot.

look at my thread "My almost perfect cougar", you'l understand

Hope it helps, I might be at the race also.
Bill

[lochness42]

I had troublesome start of season on dirt - not durability wise but setup wise.
Once it was sorted out, I managed to fight for Slovak national title and take 2 wins at last 2 rounds, securing season with 4 wins out of 6. Considering that Cougars were big unknown on loose dirt I belive it was fairly good progress.

I belive that new longer chassis should help handling even more and I'm really looking forward to run it already

[Chris119]

Thanks for the input!
So from what I am hearing, the main issue with set-up was in regards to rear traction?
I am considering St Poly maybe in the near future. We also have a big dirt race coming here in Ottawa in July and wanted to get a buggy with a solid set up for that.

[lochness42]

Originally Posted by Chris119

Thanks for the input!
So from what I am hearing, the main issue with set-up was in regards to rear traction?
I am considering St Poly maybe in the near future. We also have a big dirt race coming here in Ottawa in July and wanted to get a buggy with a solid set up for that.

Yeah that was my issue and also Bagman's (we race together).
Problem was that track was super hard packed so you would need small pin/bar tires, but there was layer of dust that prevented you to use them. OFC longer pins didn't want penetrate through surface. Was something that I wasn't used to (years before surface wasn't that extremely hard - dust was common and step pins cope with that just fine at those times) so it took some time to adjust car for those conditions.