Schumacher Racing Products is a British manufacturer of radio-controlled cars and accessories.
The founder, Cecil Schumacher, was a Cosworth transmission engineer who was recruited from Borg Warner to lead the design team to adapt the Hobbs transmission (which he had worked on) to handle the Cosworth DFV's power. Cecil spotted his workmates driving radio-controlled cars on the company's helipad. He soon started noticing different ways these early primitive cars could be improved he introduced the ball differential to radio-controlled cars.
In 1981 Schumacher Racing Products was formed in Northampton, England, after a local model shop requested the ball differentials used by Cecil's son Robin and his friends. Schumacher soon started selling internationally. Cecil Schumacher's son Robin Schumacher took over the business in 2001.
The first car to be produced by Schumacher was the XL Lexan chassis pan car in 1981 which had highly flexible chassis suitable for indoor racing. This was followed in 1983 by the "C" car which was made out of fibreglass reinforced epoxy resin sheet and designed specifically for racing on carpet. It included many features that are still around on every modern 1/12-scale car; race wins include the euros in 1985 and 1988.
In the latter half of the 1980s, off-road RC cars increased in popularity. In 1986 the first 4WD was launched, called the SWB CAT. This launched the CAT (Competition All Terrain) brand for Schumacher. This first variant SWB (Standard Wheel Base) 4WD car was an instant success with its winning the 1987 IFMAR off-road RC World Championships with Masami Hirosaka who was lent a works car after Schumacher scouts noted his driving form during practice sessions.
Following the success of the first generation of off-road CATs, Schumacher continued to produce many successful off and on-road electric competition cars. The popularity of the touring car class seriously affected the off-road worlds during the 1990s leading to a shift in focus. Schumacher was then starting to dominate a niche in the "fun" car sector, with high-power/speed nitro-powered models capable of real speeds in excess of 80mph.
Over the turn of this century the Schumacher product line-up became quite familiar with the "fun" cars with increasing number of nitro products; however it remained in the 1/10 competition touring cars market.
The flood of cheap high-volume, low-margin ready to run cars produced in Asia meant the company no longer produce a nitro car or fun car. Schumacher now concentrate on the high level 1/10-scale electrical competitive market. Alongside their Mi touring car range the company re-entered the off-road scene with the CAT SX (4WD) and Cougar SV (2WD). Vintage racing of older designed cars became popular with Schumacher re-releasing the CAT XLS in 2017 and then the Top Cat. In the mid 2010s a move was made to help the sport grow with the introduction of a number of lower priced competition cars. The Mi1 touring car was introduced alongside the ever evolving top spec version. And then a move was made to re-establish 1/12th electric carpet racing with the launch of the Supastock and Eclipse range. It also increased its distrution business of other none competing RC products.
In January 2020 Schumacher won IFMAR 1/12 World Championships held in Milton Keynes. The CAT range changed from belt drive to a shaft drive system in 2026 with the PB named after Phil Booth a former key member of staff.