It's been fine for me and my son's car up to this point. Full disclosure I did upgrade to aluminum on mine, but not due to durability concerns.

And finished at last, ready for reseeding as its maiden run during raceday tomorrow... wish me luck,.

Orion Torsion speedo (trying it as a few friends told me the brake feeling was incredible), G3 7.5T, PowerHD S15 and IP ULCG batts.

(had to rush the paint job a bit plus I was painting in the wind, but, hey, that'll do)

(and, yes, I got myself an alloy servo arm for it in the end haha)

Lonestar, I see your Schwartz is as big as mine…

Willspeed just announced their 5 gear transmission for the LD3.

Looks like comes with a printed spur gear cover and uses the LD3's gearbox top from the kit for diff access

It's a shame Schumacher doesn't use 48p trans gears, could use smaller idlers spaced out like AE and XRAY vs 3 full sized 32p idlers packed into the case.

With all the 5 gear transmissions pushing the motor forward nowadays, I wonder how the old Cougar KF would fare. I think a single belt on two pulleys could produce less friction than 5 gears.
Although the original KF had a small gear box at the motor.

There is still a side gears so have to keep that in mind if you're talking friction, and those gears are metal.

Yes that is kind of what I eluded to in my post. The side gears could be removed since the motor would be spun around to match current 3 and 5 gear motor position.

Rc Belgium has a direct spur to pulley and changed the ratio to 1.875:1

Klinik had a cougar max stock that changed it to 2.57:1. Seems like it was an easy fix. I’d just the rc Belgium one may be purchased, it seems. Money and time is too tight to take a gamble but damn I would love to. Any one wanna sponsor me?

Raceday report. Indoor low-grip carpet, technical track with a sweeper at the end of the straight to bring some adrenalin in.

Overall, a lovely car, once I could shift the balance more to the front end as the car didn't want to turn-in as I would have liked. A sponsored driver was kind enough to lend me some 0 rear hexes to help the car loose a bit of rear grip. Over the course of the day, I went from reseed 7 to Q6 to finish P5, with a car that was running better and better every run, read - more front end in slow turns.

In order to do this, on top of the narrower hex, some of the changes done through the day: shorty moved to the front, change of front camber link position, back to green linear rear springs, less rear camber, lower-cut rear wing, more drag brake starting at 12% going +2% pretty much every run, however the change from 18% to 20% was one too much and the car became squirelly in the faster turns so I messed up my A3.

No breakage throughout the day. But no hard crashes either... the rear end developed a bit of slop especially around the rear hubs, some of the parts probably settled in. So I filed the wheelbased clips for nothing and I have to put new ones now

What I really like is how the car reacts to setup changes - the B7 wasn't so reactive.

Next purchases: heavier battery plate + 0 rear hexes + can anyone recommend a front wing that is a drop fit?

Cheers
Paul

Quick tip - Check your steering link screws. One of mine got loose and locked out steering one side. I use orange lock-tite since its supposed to be stronger than blue but can be removed with hand tools. It still somehow worked its way loose. It is long enough that it wont fall out but acts like a steering block.

New WS 5 Gear cnc transmission just launched!

https://www.willspeed.co.uk/products...54825760817526

looks very nice. obviously, they have the skills and technology to make stuff. how about some 48 pitch lite weight internal gears to go with it.