Could a swb beach buggy ever handle really well?

[Ol'fogasaurus]

What PhillipM said about the diagonal is a good idea. I don't have the horizontal tube much less the diagonal per se as my body doesn't have the room for it; I sit against the body as is. The structure of the three inch body lift is what the guy who built my cage was relying on, that and I sit low in the body. I am still looking at finding/adding some ripple plate of some kind. Strong but doesn't take up as much room.

There are pluses and minuses to light weight wheels vw. steel wheels and yes, I have light weight wheels. On impact light weight wheels can fracture where steel wheels might bend; that is the big negative. Otherwise, the light weight wheels should give you more performance.

Lee

[maxyray]

Thanks for all your input guys. Personally I think Dale hit the nail on the head. I don't want an all out race car, I just want something that handles well and that I can race round a track ever so often.
With this in mind I'll ditch the idea of the wishbone front suspension for a setup for a http://www.red9design.com/type1.htm EZ rider Spax coilovers and the overpowered vented Wilwood 4 pot brakes for standard rear discs.

Seems like a IRS conversion is worth doing. Anyone know if it's possible to covert a swing axel trans internals to Irs?

I still like the idea of moving the battery upfront behind the beam but like Lee says I don't want to get a fuel leak and start a fire. I'm going to look into maybe fitting it in a sealed battery box if there is space. Doing this will give me room under the back seat area to mount an air to water intercooler radiator with fan.

http://www.frozenboost.com/liquid-air-i ... -1006.html

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I have attached the picture as for some reason Photobucket doesn't like it.

The discussion touched on beefing up the pan to torsion tube assembly. The pan halves join the torsion tube at the tunnel and the perimeter of the pan connects to the torsion tube at the two end points shown in the picture. Those three joins all there is to hold things together. It was advised to me years ago to add at least one bracket from the rear cross-piece to the torsion tub per side or, more preferable two on each side to keep things connected as the two hooks (arrows again) have been known to break or rust through. I think that is what Phillip is alluding to and he is right. I think I saw an air compactor on your engine and stiffening things up for that piece of craziness alone make the additional supports a good idea.





This is how I beefed up the body mount area of the pan. The holes have "crush sleeves" in them; e.g., tubes welded in place. This give additional support while keeping the inside of the tube dry.

On this glass buggy as well as the other one I have a body lift also done but it is something you wouldn't be interested in. Both do stiffen up the pan though.

Lee

[petew]

Thanks for all your input guys. Personally I think Dale hit the nail on the head. I don't want an all out race car, I just want something that handles well and that I can race round a track ever so often.
With this in mind I'll ditch the idea of the wishbone front suspension for a setup for a http://www.red9design.com/type1.htm EZ rider Spax coilovers and the overpowered vented Wilwood 4 pot brakes for standard rear discs.

Seems like a IRS conversion is worth doing. Anyone know if it's possible to covert a swing axel trans internals to Irs?

I still like the idea of moving the battery upfront behind the beam but like Lee says I don't want to get a fuel leak and start a fire. I'm going to look into maybe fitting it in a sealed battery box if there is space. Doing this will give me room under the back seat area to mount an air to water intercooler radiator with fan.

http://www.frozenboost.com/liquid-air-i ... -1006.html

Max, I spent a number of years building... then changing a LWB buggy as I raced in Autotest (we call it motorkhana). There's a sizable Autotest scene in the UK and your buggy could be very competitive.

As I see it, it needs just one thing to make it very fun and good at such events. Turning Brakes

I'd nix the 18" rims and rubber band profile tyres too, but aside of that, you could have a lot of fun straight away for not much money. Until you get your turning brakes, just make sure your handbrake works well. Find a local autotest club and have some fun. You can race on dirt or wet concrete.

http://www.msa-autotest.org.uk/

You could race straight away without spending any extra cash.

This is me racing a dead stock Oval beetle...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAD675yTDlQ

[petew]

You might enjoy these vids and try to contact Chris Atkinson too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ywwYSmc7bA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KMvEuTArMs

[maxyray]

Thanks for your reply Pete. Wow that guy can really drive. Looks like fun. I'll check out that link too.
Cheers

[PhillipM]

Quite a lot of autotests have seperate classes for cars with fiddle brakes and LSD's now, or time penalties for cars running them, so it might be worth checking that you'll save more time than you loose/be competitive in your local class before fitting them.

The good news is that with the rear engine/weight bias, a buggy will generally benefit more than most cars from them, so you may still benefit.