Cougar 2000 series, differences.

[wildoliver]

I've just picked up a nice cougar 2000, I think it's the first edition as it has the red tubular drive shafts which it seems most people changed early on, I know there was a small redesign in '94 which changed the shafts for the coax shafts, but what were the changes on the other cars it spawned? And what was interchangeable/an upgrade from those vehicles, namely the '95, fireblade etc. Were they total redesigns or evolutions from the original 2000 design?

[mporter2000]

The fireblade series cars were completely new cars, I believe the only parts you can share are the wheels and the shocks!

[wildoliver]

Sounds a great excuse to buy another car!

What period mods worked well? I think there was a lay down shock conversion wasn't there? What about the sacs?

[adey]

The cougar 2000 95 team(I think it was called), had the sacs front end which was the schumacher active castor system, the battery tray could be moved forward and backward, the body was slightly different and the esc and receiver were put in lexan trays either side of the chassis. The red driveshafts were not used. Instead it was a twin uj roller arrangement. There were also some rear hinge pin changes too.
The fire blade was a leydown Shock arrangement with a long gearbox and a motor way out the back, the fire blade USA went back to upright shocks and the servo was mounted upside down with the servo horn poking through the chassis. The fire blade evo was more conventional with a normal shape gearbox.

[chris24jt]

for standard cougar 2000 i would recommend swapping to the silver drive shafts as they were slightly longer so didnt pop out, or move to the plastic sliding ones but this would need diff output changing.
also get the sacs front end - helps with steering.

wouldnt use laydown front end it didnt work well enough from memory, car was better with standard shock tower.

the 95 team had a different chassis as explained above but also was just a thin stip down the middle - ie no 'wings' on the side for speedo/receiver and it had a different undertray/body shell (air vents in body)

[AdrianH78]

Originally Posted by chris24jt

for standard cougar 2000 i would recommend swapping to the silver drive shafts as they were slightly longer so didnt pop out, or move to the plastic sliding ones but this would need diff output changing.
also get the sacs front end - helps with steering.

wouldnt use laydown front end it didnt work well enough from memory, car was better with standard shock tower.

the 95 team had a different chassis as explained above but also was just a thin stip down the middle - ie no 'wings' on the side for speedo/receiver and it had a different undertray/body shell (air vents in body)

I think the laydown stuff was all Fireblade which shared little with Cougar 2000 other than front bulk head and steering assembly I believe.

Personally, I always liked the Fireblade with laydown shocks, and with the USA chassis with up side down servo, the weight was right in the correct place I thought ..one of the cars I regret selling

[chris24jt]

im not 100% sure about laydown bits as i remember having it on the front of one of the cars but it didnt work as well, i cant remember if the fireblade was out at the time. one thing i have thought is that both the cars were running fab2000 / mid motor so it might be the laydown works with standard cougar 2000? i always thought it was too laid down to work properly.

[cjmurph]

I use fireblade diff outputs and fireblade drive shafts in my first edition cougar 2000 (93). The fireblade gearbox is a different pitch, so you can't use the diff gear itself. The original aluminium tube shafts are terrible and will break very easily.

the blades are nice, and easy to change as they wear. replacement blades are still available from schumacher. its like running pucks!