Buggy Building 101?

[Horns]

Hey guys, I'm new to this whole buggy thing and all. I would like to build a sweet 2 seat GSXR1000 powered street buggy. But I have no clue where to start. So I came here.

[K-fab]

Welcome to the site.

For a start, have you tried looking at the Ariel Atom? Wicked little car that you might get some good ideas from.

Wander around the projects in progress a bit. There are a lot of different ideas to be found in there.

Also check the suspension section of the site. Lots to learn.

You're going to have to take a lot of what you learn here and apply it to a different application idea than the majority of the machines on this site - most are off road oriented.

There have been some good on road design books mentioned recently. Search that.

I believe that there are a couple of other rides that are street oriented here. Once again, search. (yea, I hate that answer too, but in this case, it will be your friend)

Okay, so you've decided on a power plant - do you have it already or are you just a Suzi guy and want to use it?

If you already have it, what do you have? (as in what parts are with it) You'll need what's known as a "power package" (or something along that line - works when you do a flea-bay search).

You'll need pretty much everything out of a bike other than the frame, bodywork and suspension stuff. Since you want it to be street legal, the wire harness in the bike will contain everything that you'd need for running - can control the engine, lights, signals, etc.

Might be able to incorporate the stock shock, but you'll need a second one and then you'll also need another pair for up front. (I'd assume that you'd use the stocker for the rear end as per it's higher rate spring and such)

You'll need the exhaust system - or at least want it to use as patterns, maybe use the headers and such. And while I'm on the exhaust idea - make it quiet! Loud machines do nothing but piss of the people around you and bring unwanted attention. Louder is NOT faster. (unless you have Mustang with a 5" tach and side pipes, then it has to be faster... - never mind....)

You'll need the entire intake system - Throttle bodies, ECU, get the airbox too. It will have sensors and such in it - and since you're road going, it may be a good thing to just incorporate into your build. May as well try to keep the fuel tank off the bike too - it will have the fuel pump and plumbing in it.

What sort of budget are you playing with? That may decide a lot of what you do for running gear. Do you want reverse? That can cost a bit - RPM, Jeffco and Quaife would be the transmissions to look into. Do you want a diff? Once again $$$ You can do a closed diff that's driven by chain, but that gets rid of reverse (or at least a reverse box). Reverse can also be accomplished by flex plate and starter motor. See Yoshi's posts for this stuff.

What about the chassis? Tube frame I'm guessing?

Running gear - brakes, steering, shifting ability.

Lots of stuff is required, but look through the site and you'll see that lots of people are doing it.

Once you get an idea of where you want to go and what you want to do, start a "Projects In Progress" thread and document the build from the very beginnings up through the completion of the car. It's fun to head back and look at where you started once you've finished the thing. You'll be amazed at how much you've learned.

One other thing - go find all you can about suspension definitions. King pin angle, camber, caster, toe, ackerman, scrub radius and more are just a few things to learn about.

[ttginc]

but K-fab, jets are louder and they're faster so there has got to be logic in there somewhere right?

on a serious note, have you seen Jay Leno's Ecojet project. It has a turbine engine in it and is freaking loud. Really annoying actually. It is fast though.

Horns, check this link out: Motorcycle Powered Cars
It has several iterations of motorcycle powered track/race cars.

TTGInc

[Horns]

Originally Posted by ttginc

but K-fab, jets are louder and they're faster so there has got to be logic in there somewhere right?

on a serious note, have you seen Jay Leno's Ecojet project. It has a turbine engine in it and is freaking loud. Really annoying actually. It is fast though.

Horns, check this link out: Motorcycle Powered Cars
It has several iterations of motorcycle powered track/race cars.

TTGInc

Lol actually I was just reading an article on it in a magazine while in school yesterday. That thing is SWEET!

Thanks for the helpful information ttginc and K-Fab.

E: And no, I don't have my powerplant yet. I originally wanted a Suzuki 1300 engine because I heard they worked greats for karts/buggies but then I kind of decided on a GSXR1000 to try and save a little bit of money. But I'm willing to change and work with things.

Also I would like to keep it around the $5000 mark, but If it takes $6500 - the low $7000's I'm fine with that, but I'd like to save as much as I can.

I've got alot of time to do this too. Nothing to hurry about. I'm hoping to have it done sometime My senior year of HS. Which is 2 years away. :P

[Horns]

Ok guys, so where should I start looking to find out how to design my frame?

[Gene]

I would visit this site and learn all I could learn: racing aspirations » Suspension Geometry Calculator

Play with the suspension calculator.

[Shmeefer]

A street-legal buggy or a small, light bike-engined car? If car, check out www.locust-usa.com. Mostly lotus 7 clones but a lot of bike-engined cars (BEC) too. There's a book written specifically for this, How to Build Motorcycle-engined Racing Cars. I've not read it yet, but there's a review thread on locust-usa.com. Hope that helps.