Leopard Motors

[astecme]

Any body heard of Leopard motors? 40 mm dia number of lengths, 4 pole - huge power?

[nick30]

i've heard of the leopard motors, one guy i know of has one but theres been no feed back about it yet

[astecme]

They are becoming available.

They claim lower temperatures and higher torque. 90% + efficiency.

BUT there are limited winds in each size and not so easy to choose.

[nick30]

i read that aswell, i've seen the photo's of them and all i can see is a tenshok look-a-like

[astecme]

well not really - tenshocks are a different diameter.

[waxitt]

Leopard motors as they are now called... have been around for a while now ....
My personal opinion is that many of them are too low on torque for a competition FE boat... performance compared to many other brands (even the cheap ones) frankly justs seems a bit lame . (N.B. I have only tested some.. not all)

They do however work quite well in Rc cars but as we all know that's a completely different ballgame.

Seems to me like the marketing mob are at it once again after making a quick buck as usual....But each to their own.

Joe

[nativepaul]

They do both 2 pole and 4 pole motors, the 4 pole ones are copies of the Steve Neu designed Chinese made Castle Creations motors ,
I have a number of Neu Motors and they are very good motors indeed, the Chinese Castle Neu motors are made for cars and as such are not ideal for us compared to real Neus having no cooling holes in the endbells to stop dirt getting in, thicker cans, thicker endbells for off road sturdiness, external cooling fins making them heavier than real Neu motors and having kevlar wrapped rotors instead of carbon limiting them to 50,000rpm not 60,000 but the efficiencies are supposed to be similar with both having 0.2mm stator laminations and on the plus side they have multicore silicone wire exiting the can as opposed to the winding wire which means you'll never break one and the price which is considerably cheaper than real Nues.

The Leopard Castle Nue copies are rather an unknown quantity as yet in terms of magnet material, bearing quality and lamination thickness, being 40mm they seem to have the thin can of the real Nue as opposed to the thicker 42mm Castle cans there is a pretty long thread on OSE about them, a few folks have tried them with success but I don't think anyone has had one apart yet or done any back to back testing yet, and as of yet I believe HotR are the only retail distributors and the price is barely lower than Castle Neu motors and as the Castles are available everywhere and are a known quantity I don't see the ones HotR has being very popular, on the other hand on their own website Leopard has a range of winds and sizes that castle don't do or intend to do in the future as Castle have said they don't have any intention of bringing out D winds, and while I believe Castle are going to release big motors for 5th scale cars soon Leopard already have 56mm motors and while I've not seen them retail anywhere word on the grapevine is that wholesale the price isn't massively more than their 42mm motors if they hold up to the claims the 5692 1000kv should be a beast of a mid budget motor for 10s boats, a hell of a lot more motor than a kb45 or feigao580 for a hell of a lot less money than a Lehner30 series or Neu 22 series.

I would be interested in whether Joe tested the 2 pole motors or the 4 pole ones, if they were 4 pole jobies and low on torque I guess unlike Nue and Castle they are using crapite for magnets and it would be prudent to stick to/wait for the originals.

[waxitt]

Hi Paul ,
These motors are nothing new and have been around for quite a few years now... i actually ran one 3 years ago in M1(28/45/4300) on NIMHS . . as did SM a 36/50 4 pole M1 . PH 36/4pole M3 . DH 36/4pole M2 among others.
I have also sold quite a few of them in the past for different apps ...3 or 4 of the lads at Bury even ran them in their 1/8 buggies over this last winter .
Dont get me wrong..there are much worse motors out there at 3-4 times the price!!!
But to cut it at the highest level in FE boats with one or two exceptions they don't really hold up any better than any other cheapy chinese motor .
I have run and tested 28/45 2pole 28/45 4pole and 36mm 4 pole (various diff winds) .
In the range that is offered by "Leopard" prob 2 or 3 motors will do the job for us...
Some individuals are already running these motors in their own FE boats right now and don't even know it.

N.B. There are quite a few "well known suppliers" selling these motors as their own or under a different brand name at a massive mark up , 3-4 times what they should be due to their own greed and marketing power...but thats all it is.... marketing power.... not where we need it on the lake.

Note If you attend any one of the trade fairs in China/Hong Kong or even walk into the factory off the street there as "Joe Bloggs" you can choose your Can colour , Endbell design , Shaft diameter , No of poles and so on and so on... They will even put your own label on the motor for you and drop ship it.... Price??? Peanuts... makes no difference whether you buy 1 - 10 - or 10,000 .

There will be a "now pretty well known supplier" releasing a "so called Brand New high end motor" any time soon with a nice sticker on it costing silly money to us the masses.... Though i personally have 2 of them here right now costing buttons without a label on them... and will be used by 2 people at this years Nats . . what does that tell you???
So back to the Leopard.. basically in my very very humble opinion Club racing Yes High level Comp No ... best stick with what you already have.
When the lids come off some of the very very quick boats at this years Nats i think you will be more than pleasantly suprised.

See you at Brid.. Joe
P.S. Sorry for the long winded reply...

[astecme]

yes - but they still do not answer emails!!