VTR-SP1 (RC51) Barracuda

[Hambam]

I crashed. Not sure exactly what happened but the accelerator got jammed on and I took a corner wayyyyy too wide. Hit a berm of dirt side on at about 80+ kph. I got told I rolled 2-3 times, then flipped end over end and landed on the roof. I counted at least 2 rolls from the drivers seat but couldn't tell you much about it.

I'm OK which is the main thing.

Buggy basically needs everything behind the engine bay replaced, new arms, arm mounts, centre drive mounts. The steel has actually torn around where the cartridge joins the steel box section.
Needs new exhaust as both the headers and mufflers got trashed
Roof and bonnet are caved in.
New light bar (I just bought the old one too... damn!)
new roof panel
New engine bash plate
New rear suspension arms.
New seat, the mounts got torn out.


Basically, total rebuild.

I am tempted to go the semi-trailing arm (Think its also called a trailing LINK design) for the rebuild. Anyone have thoughts on this? I'll probably install an LSD at the same time just to see how it goes.



Here are some photos, it doesn't look that bad here, so I put a rule next to it so you could see how bent it was.





Thats how the back end is bent... you can see one rear upright is vertical and the other is on quite an angle. They are meant to be equal. (theres also meant to be another exhaust on the other side)



See how the bonnet caved in:



Also couldn't help posting this one of the heat before the roll. One of my mates got a photo of it upside down so i'll post that when he sends through a copy.

[Michael67]

Oh man that´s a shame with your buggy,you got some work in front of ya. Best thing is man you walked away to tell about it!

[TALON]

Total bummer , hope its not too bad when you do the measure up.

Damn the jammed throttles ,,, the root of much evil .

[Xbird]

read this late last night, that sucks! Glad your ok. figure out what hung up first! From teh way things are tore up, i'd look long and hard to see how much twist is in the frame/cage work. A magnaflux kit wouldn't be a bad idea to check all your main tube junctures.

[Hambam]

Thanks for the comments guys. I am not even going to look at it for another week. I am flat out at work and I know if I do 10 minutes on the buggy, it will be more like 10 hours the way I want to get stuck into it, although I might do a measure up just to see how bad it is. Magnaflux or dye is not a bad idea for the welds.

I think I figured out the problem. There is a steel tube next to the accelerator, If you push the pedal in hard, your foot is well clear of the tube. I think my foot got jammed between the pedal and the tube, so when I released it, my shoe jammed the accelerator pedal down. I was wearing sturdy leather boots so didn't feel the tube on the back of my foot as I would have done in racing boots or lesser shoes. Sounds stupid (and it probably was) but I think that must have been what happened.

Very tempted to do a semi trailing arm for the rear end, what are peoples thoughts? I'm a bit concerned with the toe change it gets through travel.

[Xbird]

sounds like one of my very first setups (pitman arm setup) where the tie rod would pass over my right toes and trap my foot floored in a full left hand turn, not so good.

as far as the semi-setup goes, iirc, the toe change would be inclined to toe in to the inside of the turn when loading up in the corners, might help make it a bit tighter in the cornering (a bit oversteery). ?

[Hambam]

Rebuild has begun. Sorry for the crappy quality photos, its just easier to use my phone as its always around.

[Hambam]

So here is the crash. I already posted it in the open discussion forum, but thought I'd do it again here so its all in the one place.

Here they are on minibuggy.net:

[Hambam]

Annnnd, here is my new rear end design. Its currently being cut at the lasercutters by a friend and he keeps messaging me photos of bits getting done. The progress is awesome but its driving me insane with only small snapshots of whats hapening. Hopefully its done by the weekend, as I am desperate to get this thing rolling again!

[Iggsy]

Looks good, but I recommend you get rid of all those holes. The cartridges have been known to crack through that area and every hole is a stress raiser.