Project Funmobile: Beaters & Mini buggies & Dirt bikes
Posted by Skye
Skye Nott Professional Moderator Location: Vancouveh Join Date: 12/18/2005 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 476 Rally Car: Xratty |
The Honda Pilot/Odyssey looks good but I've been looking around and a good condition FL400R goes for around $6000+ not exactly cheap (I suppose the lower powered models are cheaper if you're going to do a swap anyway) and while there is a big community of enthusiasts they haven't made them since 1990 so parts aren't going to get any easier to find. Then if you're talking about swapping in a 600cc, you're doing lots of fabrication and expense on an already not-cheap platform and I want something to have fun with right away. Then there's also the issue of "transferable skills" to a real rally car and single gear with hand controls isn't ideal. On the plus side, they are small and easy to tow/store, and the right size to have fun at reasonable speeds.
It seems like I'd be further ahead to just get a buggy kit that takes a motorcycle engine to start with. I've been looking around today and the Edge Piranha is the smaller brother to the new Barracuda I mentioned in the first post. It can take most bike engines from 600cc and up. The designer is in Australia (they sell mostly plans but also parts) and the design seems to be very well tested, it's been built many times, dedicated build and support forums, which can't be said of a lot of other mini buggy plans I've been looking at... I'm getting the impression some people seem to enjoy the build/engineering part more than actually driving them (sound familiar?). Also like rally cars, it seems to be a lot cheaper to buy one already built. Here's the manufacturer's site: http://www.edge.au.com/Categories/Piranha Short review: "The Piranha Buggy is an offroad racing buggy designed by Edge specifically to be built by regular people, in their garages. The buggy comes in both kit and plan form, with the plans option giving you the chance to buy separate pieces from the kit, that you don’t have the time to build/weld yourself. We featured the Barracuda Buggy by Edge last month and it proved to be very popular, the Piranha is quite similar to the Barracuda but it’s been formulated to be much easier and quicker to build. The chassis and suspension elements are easier to build (and cheaper to buy), the rack and pinion steering comes right off a road car and the engine options all fall into the slightly more affordable price bracket." Even though the plans are from Australia I was able to find several for sale without much trouble (one in Ontario for $7500, one in Michigan for $5500) ready to go so for the same price as a nice Pilot FL400R you get a proven design 660-800cc buggy, with sequential gearbox, with clutch/brake/gas pedals so you get experience shifting in/out of corners and left foot braking if you want, etc etc seems like a big win in the "transferable skills" department. The other options I've looked at - Badlands buggy in Alberta: lots of plans but not a lot of builds, not well tested, known design flaws - Krasch AR51: looks nice, but over $10k to build, hardly any built so none for sale - Drakart: looks nice but website says "Start at $33,900 turn key" fuck that - DesertKarts: supposed to be good but doesn't take bike engines well. Obviously sand/dune focus So right now I gotta say the Edge Piranha is looking like the top choice given my list of requirements in the first post Tell me this doesn't look fun. Lots of oppo, shifting, power slides Piranha buggy vtr1000 Attaching some Piranha photos below www.rallyrace.net |
Pete Remner Mega Moderator Location: Cleveland, Ohio Join Date: 01/11/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 2,022 |
Skye Nott Professional Moderator Location: Vancouveh Join Date: 12/18/2005 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 476 Rally Car: Xratty |
A.J. Johnson Mega Moderator Location: Pendleton OR Join Date: 01/07/2011 Age: Settling Down Posts: 1,381 Rally Car: 88 Audi 80 |
Skye Nott Professional Moderator Location: Vancouveh Join Date: 12/18/2005 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 476 Rally Car: Xratty |
Carl Seidel Mega Moderator Location: Fe Mtn, MI Join Date: 02/10/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 765 Rally Car: 1993 honderp |
http://gokartsusa.com/Joyner-Python-Buggy-800-2-Seater.aspx
This one seems to tick a lot of your boxes. |
Eric Ewert Infallible Moderator Location: Calgary, Ab Join Date: 05/13/2013 Age: Settling Down Posts: 366 Rally Car: volvo 240 |
True, come to think of it so did Colin Mcrae. I think thats mostly due to the fact that dirt bikes are more accessible as is racing/ competing with dirt bikes vs the mini buggy. The mini buggy on paper requires skills that translate more directly to cars than a bike though. Also it probably doesn't beat the living fuck out of your body anywhere near to the same extent that dirt bikes do... you know all about that, right John? 
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John Vanlandingham Ultra Moderator Location: Ford Asylum, Sleezattle, WA Join Date: 12/20/2005 Age: Fossilized Posts: 14,152 Rally Car: Saab 96 V4 |
Look it isn't the 'exact body movements that we need to train up.....the real thing is that thing I was talking about once what I said the Xratty matt has down...it is what i call in my own dialect "the approach".....the attuning the eye and the mind to see and translate 'the world' (the crown of the road, the lay of the curve, the slope up/down, the surface marble--ish or grippy or just 2 line swept, shadow, light, the car--gear position on road, the tires fresh/beat---the whole world) and translating that into second by second decisions on what to do---untouched by human reasoning... The mechanics of a steering wheel or bars, foot brake only versus finger and foot, shift with hand vs foot....gas with foot vs hand---that's not important.... So it doesn't matter if you ride a bike or some fucking delicate expensive 4 wheel thing...it is the same crap in the head (FUCKIN" FULL THROTTLE YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!!!! OH SHIT! Brake! HA! SAVED IT FULL GAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH SHIT WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!! Whew! er FULL GAS (CLANG!) Yeeeeeeeeeeeee HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW" <------the internal dialog, notice its all crazed yelling and giggling? No reasoning... A bike is cheaper, fast enough, stronger, easier to fix, and for real growth and learning, HARDER... Learn in harder conditions, then some ol slow pokey car is comparatively easy... Thing is though there has to be a big compulsion, a big internal PUSH or external DRAW to FORCE the student to charge harder into the corner and BRAKE!!! And executing it well takes TIME... Maybe the hardest part is learning to critique oneself without any other baselone.. Thashing around is fun... PRACTICE isn't always fun...It's practice... John Vanlandingham Sleezattle, WA, USA Vive le Prole-le-ralliat www.rallyrace.net/jvab CALL +1 206 431-9696 Remember! Pacific Standard Time is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time. |
Grant Hughes Professional Moderator Location: Whitefish, MT Join Date: 01/11/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 6,818 Rally Car: BMW |
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