Interested in Cougar 1/2 graphite chassis?

[McMike]

I have been doing all the research I can on these and got in touch with Fibre-Lyte as they used to make them. I found out they lost the mould and someone, a few years back, sent them a chassis to make a new mould from and got a few orders together in order to make it financially acceptable.
However, the chasis was bent so they couldn't make the mould and had to cancel the order. I have a non-bent spare one (just pretty damn scuffed!) tham I am willing to 'sacrifice' if it gets a mould made for a new graphite chassis.
Fibre-Lyte have expressed an interest in doing this. Details are a little sketchy right now with a possible minimum order being for 5 at about £100ish each. If, however, there is sufficient demand then they may begin to mass-produce them again for their website. So, I am here asking who is interested? If I can get enough people in on this, then I can try and move the process along with either a minimum order or sufficent people that they mass produce them again.
I'm not asking for money up-front right now, just some interest. If I can get the minimum then it would be up-front payment. Spread the word whereever you can.

[john73]

Is your chassis an early cougar chassis with the Topcat laydown shock mounting points ? if so i would definitley be interested

If there are no mounting points could these be measured then added ?

Cheers

John

[CAT3K]

I'd be interested in them, however the £100 price tag would make me think twice i think.

[McMike]

My chassis is a Cougar 1 that I will send to them (if enough people want one) so, if you want the Topcat front shock holes, I think the best option would be to just drill them yourself if you wanted a Cougar chassis. I just think Cougar ones would be more popular than the Topcat as they cover more models. Not hard to drill and countersink yourself anyway.
As for the price, well, I think they were about £80 20 years ago as these were the days of GRP and FRP. Graphite chassies were a thing of luxury so a lot of the more affordable upgrades were alloy ones. If it ends up being a £100 then you are paying to be exclusive and very cool. I also think the major problem with the Cougar chassis is that it is a tub and not a standard flat piece. If it was flat, I could make one myself with saw and a drill! It all depends really on wether I can gain enough interest and momentum in this as the more I can get pre-ordered, the cheaper it will be.
As an update, I have sent Fibre-Lyte some pics of the chassis I have to see if they can make the mold from it. If they say it looks OK, I can send it to them. I have also asked Schmacher themselves if they still have any molds hanging about. If they do, everything becomes cheaper and quicker.

[CAT3K]

I remember fibre-lyte tubs being very expensive back in the day. I remeber seeing the CAT2000 tub and Lazer tubs, awesome bits of kit.

I honestly think it could end up being more expensive than even £100 though. Look at the RC10 tub they currently do, £126 plus a further £30 for the nose.

Don't get me wrong i'd love one, always have, but it's a comlicated tub to make with the turned sides and kickup at the front.

One other thing, back in the early 90's i seem to remember Fibre-Lyte made all the carbon parts for Schumacher, until Schumacher started making their own carbon parts in later years?

[McMike]

A quick update:
Fibre-Lyte are currently trying to work with a Cougar chassis they have to see if they can make a mould from it. However, are there any clever design people out there that make convert the tub chassis design into a flat one? The entire front and side tub section can be omitted in my opinon. It can be recreated by making the front secion of the chassis a little wider so a replacement GRP 'wall' could be screwed into the chassis to mount the velcro on for the body.
The rear end is where the problem lies due to the wishbones being mounted the the lip of the chassis and then on the top of the tub. Not being smart when it comes to this, the only possible solution I can see is making the rear end a seperate section that bolts onto the front part of the chassis somewhere. We all did something similar 20 years ago when racing Mardave stock cars whereby we sliced the back end of the chassis off and made a rocking T-Bone section to mount the motor on.