Mini Project 1

[Doom Buggy]

I was lucky enough to purchase my mini baja senior project. The college could not actually sell it for legal reasons, but instead I made a donation towards the current teams fund and the mini baja disappeared (in the back of my pickup). I was surprised to see that the buggy was still all intact and running. Usually the previous years mini baja get stripped for parts or damaged as a result of testing. I figure we either build a strong car or no one could drive it being that it was the first mini baja in our school's history to use a manual trans; previous years used a CVT.

I plan to make many improvements. The shocks will be redesigned. The spring rates were to stiff which made for some pretty harsh landings. The motor will definitely be upgraded. The 10hp briggs is just not enough. I'm not sure what I want to put in it. It all depends on funds and what I can shoe horn into the chassis. The chassis will also be reinforced better for safety and to handle whatever type of powerhouse I decide to put in it.

[Magna]

Nice looking buggy Doom I dig the beadlocks. I just purchased my first mini baja and have a 12.5hp to put in it. When you say 10hp was not enough what do you think might be for the same size buggy?

[Doom Buggy]

I was thinking of something in the 20-30hp range. The 10 hp motor really bogged down when going through sand or climbing a hill.

[boostinjdm]

what you thinking for shocks?

[minibajaman]

That looks like a well built Baja car. I put a Briggs 16hp V-twin in an old baja car before and it makes a significant difference over the 10hp due to the greatly increased torque. Or you can't go wrong with a small snowmobile engine either. I figured I'm not going to mess around and went for the 60+ hp engine in mine, but made substantial changes to accommodate that.
Rebuilding Baja SAE car into Stadium Lite

You should look into getting the engine lower in the chassis if you are going to swap it, as I imagine the current location would make for squirrelly handling at any speed greater than the 10hp can provide.

[daaboots]

What kind of shocks are those?

[Doom Buggy]

The shocks are Bilstein racing shocks, which are pretty good. The company that we bought them from set them up for us. But the coils are hyperco 2.5id. The lightest they have is 85#. Which just a tad to heavy for the front, but is extremely to heavy for the rear (mainly because of the motion ratio). I could probably run a mono shock in the rear.

I would like to run maybe atv shocks but they are $$$$. I was looking at the long travel coil over shocks for VWs from dan's performance parts PN 14-513001LT. They have the right length and travel but not sure about the spring weight.

[Doom Buggy]

This weekend I went up north to my cousins house to do some work on one of his vehicles. He has a few acres of land so I brought the mini to play; I mean test. I wanted to test how it would jump and land with one rear shock (half the spring rate). It actually did quite well but the swing axle was torquing hard so I put the other shock back on.


BTW. A lifted ranger on 32s with a stock diff towing a 2500lb trailer at 75mph is horrible on gas. I could actually watch the gas gage drop.

Before I get harassed, I know I'm not wearing a helmet. Will post vids later.

[greasemnky]

Lawrence tech! Some pretty cool stuff has come out of there. What part of northern mich were you in? We do a few baldwin rides a year, and of course, the dunes. If your ever interested. I think we're hitting the mounds in flint next thursday to play with one of the new buggies. Seems like we've got a lot more michigan people this year!

[Doom Buggy]

I was up in lexington. Sounds like fun. I have to work thurs, but i'm trying to plan a trip to take my buggy up to the dunes.