I guess this is the place to start.
I've been out of short course racing since 2000 and, well, I miss it.
Running the Stadium Lites class, I managed to take second place overall in the US Off Road Championship Series in '98 & '99 and I won the World Championship round at Crandon in '99 (I think it was '99, may have been 2000). *It was some of the most fun racing I've ever done. *Running around the country and racing in stadiums was a blast. *(nobody could believe that I was doing it solo either - I was the Pit Crew, Transport Crew and Race Car Driver all wrapped up in one short, determined package.)
There's nothing like clearing a 40' table top in front of a stadium full of people.
With the demise of the stadium series and, in general, the demise of Stadium Lite racing, except on the grass roots level, I moved on and started enjoying the desert instead. *I took a year off and then made my desert racing debut in Sept. of '01. *I had never even seen a desert race, yet here I sat at the starting line in a new, very untested car. *I went 10 miles that day and was totally hooked.
Even though I'm in the process of having ATV Racing make a new SCORE legal Tazcar for the desert, the urge to build a new car by myself and go do some short course stuff's becoming overwhelming.
I can't just sit still. *I have to be doing something and I need to have some sort of project happening to keep me sane.
I really miss short course racing. *There's something about sitting on the line with a bunch of other people hell bent on making it to the corner first that's just plain kick arse. *I hated it on the motocross bike - starts scared the snot out of me, but stick me in a chromoly cage with a six point harness and I'm ready to beat you into submission.
A couple years ago I had planned on building an Arctic Cat 600 EFI powered single seater - stadium lite size. *I wasn't sure if it was going to be a race car - it was going to be build as one, but it would have been a killer dune car too.
Circumstances changed, I shelved the majority of the project and sold the engine and a lot of the stuff that would have gone into it. - anyone want a set of 12" rims?
A couple years ago I started working on a design. *The basics were done in ACAD, as a 600 sized vehicle. *I'm going to take these starting ideas, throw them into Mechanical Desktop 5 and mold them into a larger sized buggy that I can go run in the CORR Super Buggy class.
The cool thing about this particular class is the lack of rules - it's an open chassis & suspension, limited engine and a minimun weight of 1580 lbs w/driver. *Obviously there are certain rules that I have to meet - tubing type/size, safety things and such, but the general design is free to do as I please.
From what I've seen, the majority of the Super Buggies are a-arm front, link rear with rear engine and a transaxle setup.
Not mine. *It's going to be a-arms all the way around and use a mid-engine CVT setup. *I have some ideas that I think have merrit.
The current desert car that I run uses a live axle CVT setup, driven by, originally, an Arctic Cat 1000 triple sled engine. *I recently dropped the two-smoke and switched to a Yamaha RX1 sled engine, still retaining the CVT. *The new car will be powered by a Honda VTEC B16B engine, still driving a CVT setup.
I've raced a couple short courses with my desert car against cars very similar to the Super Buggy class cars. *They don't seem to have any advantage on me. - once I got around them, it was "See ya later". *Mind you, I had to work my arse off to get around the other guys, but hey, isn't that what racing's all about?
My current car is shorter and a bit more maneuverable than the larger cars and I think it may just be the advantage I'm looking for - especially since I'll be racing against some really fast people.
Since the new desert car is going to be powered by Honda, it only makes sense that the Super Buggy should be the same - the Honda fits the rules. *By having the same drive train in both cars, but in different settings, I should be able to learn the best of both worlds and apply what I learn from each setting to the other. *- only difference is that in SCORE, I get to run fuel injection while CORR says two bbl carb.
Here's the basic layout and what I'll be using:
15" or 16" rims - more than likely cast or forged w/bead locks
BFG sneakers
VW Wide 5 bolt pattern
RPM Tranny - probably 9:1, but may also play with 10:1 and 8:1
Honda B16B VTEC powerplant w/2bbl carb
Comet drive clutch
Team driven clutch
Beard Superseat (probaby the RX series)
Team-Tech 6 point Jet Pilot harness
Fox internal bypass shocks
Howe steering rack - probably power steering setup
Fuel Safe bladder style fuel tank
CNC pedal assembly
CNC, Willwood or possibly Brembo brakes.
C&R radiator
Carbon Fiber bodywork
Up front:
Double un-equal a-arms
Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 20" - 22" of travel
Hollow, short stub 1.75 diameter spindles
disc brakes (possibly vented)
Out back:
Double Un-equal a-arms
Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 20" - 22" of travel
Mid-board rear hubs
930 CVs
300M axles
Dual rear disc brakes
Possibly have sway bars?
I'll make 95% of the car myself and purchase the rest (seat, shocks etc). *Hubs, carriers, spindles and such are already on the drawing board or exist in some shape/form.
Looks like I'll be spending a lot of time in front of the lathe and the vertical machining center this winter.
I intend on logging the project both here and, as I've done with my past builds, on
my web pages
This project will get off the ground slowly - summer's here, the motocross tracks and our 50 track are up and running, I need to learn Mechanical Desktop and I have a couple other projects I have to finish, but I have a goal and my focus is starting to get more precise.
I'll update sometime here in the future.