Turbo Optima Mid SE vs Schumacher CAT XLS

[alcyon]

OK, i know this might entail fierce debates, but i really wanna hear from those guys who owned these cars back in 88 - 89. I know the CAT won the world championships, and i dont really care about that, what i want to know is the opinion of normal everyday unsponsored club racers what they thought of these cars back then.
I always hear things bandied about by both CAT and Turbo Mid owners.
The CAT owners would always say something like " I wiped out the smiles from Turbo Mid owners"...and the Turbo Mid owners would dub their cars "CAT killer" .I also knew THE CAT XLS won the 1988 4WD buggy shootout with the Turbo Mid close behind.

Was all the hype about the CAT XLS back then justified? Was the suspension really better than the Mids?
Keep in mind i have never seen a CAT XLS back then becuase there was no support for them in my country at the time, but there were plenty of Optima Mids around. Do tell about each car's pros and cons.

[bender]

Having raced both cars back in the day (1988,89) i'll give you a rather lengthy account of what I remember.

The original Cat (the short wheelbase version_ released back in 86 was without a doubt the most technologically advanced 4wd of the time, it really was leagues ahead of anything else. However, in a way it was too advanced, and the average user actually struggled with them somewhat.

Once 1987/88 came around they had refined the car by lengthening the wheelbase (the XL version) then making other updates released on the XLS version. During that period the car was literally unbeatable in most parts of the world, yet still remained a relatively complicated beast.

By 1989, although still a great car, where i raced (Australia, dusty dirt tracks), the Cat now had serious competition from both the Optima Mid series and the Yokomo 870c.

The problem the Optima mid had was that it too was a swb car initially, and it wasn't until midway thru 89 that the longer wheelbase versions arrived. These cars were fantastic. The gold shocks were still much better than what the Cat had, and the drive train of the mid optima was more efficient, and overall the car was generally just easier to drive and maintain.

Overall I'd say the Cat being so advanced helped it to a long competitive life (86-93 in it's various forms) but personally by 1990 the Lwb Optima Mids performed better out here. No doubt in England it would've been very different though.

Of course Kyosho went and shot themselves in the foot by releasing the Lazer, which out here never worked as well as the Optima mid.

[bender]

Sorry, just to add to that as u asked about the pro's and cons of both cars.

The Cat was just so advanced... close fitting body and undertray, ball diffs with a torque integrator that let you adjust how much drive you wanted at the front wheels, UJ driveshafts which allowed much more suspension movement, crashback front end to stop breakage. It was full of new ideas, but like I said, it took a while for people to get used to it.

The Optima mid on the other hand was much simpler, with suspension taken from the proven Optima series, shocks more upright and including the Option House shocks as standard, which at the time were the smoothest shocks around. The drive train was much simpler than the Cat's, but with many diff options. You could run any combination of ball, gear, or one way diff, front or rear.

[Mattias]

I drove a Cat XLS with kyosho gold shocks. Best of both worlds!

[alcyon]

hey bender, thanks for the Input ! i really appreciate your thoughts, i now have a clearer picture. So the Mids were competitive after all. I am a bit biased towards the Mid cause i actually owned one BITD and still have a running one today.

[bender]

hell yeah the Mids were competitive

Of course it all comes down to what part of the world u are talking about. The U.K, and most of Europe, was pretty much dominated by the Cat from about 87-92, then the Cat 2000 series took over, with the E.C version being really strong for several more years until Predator and Losi brought that to an end.

Yokomo as a brand have always struggled over in the UK from what i've read, but here in Australia they were the dominant from about 91-97, until the XX4 came on the scene.

But the Optima Mids were great race winning cars, simple, reliable, easy to drive, and even back then they were very good quality.