06 April 2010

Mr Schumacher & Racing Cars












Cecil Schumacher, a brilliant engineer, worked for Hobbs, Borg Warner, and Keith Duckworth at Cosworth, designing transmission systems for both road and racing cars. He now develops and repairs transmissions in the fantastic workshops at his home. Cecil founded Schumacher Racing Products Ltd in 1980, designers and manufacturers of radio controlled cars. Amongst other things, he invented the 'ball differential,' the world's first, and a genuine constant velocity joint.












His workshops and garages are filled to the gunwales with lathes and presses, memorabilia, and serious machines. Amongst these are a stunning 1933 Talbot, rebodied as a boattail in 1937; a 1925 Sunbeam; and a Rolls Royce Merlin engine (below) from a 1940s Kittyhawk, "Swapped for two-and-a-half motorbikes." Cecil has raced in Angoulême and in the Le Mans Classic, and the Talbot has been taken all over Europe. Cecil is friends with the legendary Derek Gardner, who built Tyrrell's first F1 chassis in his own garage, sworn to secrecy.

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