Extreme Baja Karts

[sicksand]

K-fab this guy builds these kids buggies and he said that his design is only about 1-2 inchs off the stadium lites that you are getting.What do you think...

[sicksand]

heres another,this guy is just sitting in it to show room,he is 6'2" and the sides are just carbon paper to get an idea.Like I said he said that these frames are very close to the stadium lites,what do you think K-fab?

[ultraman]

I'd say the cockpit is too small for an adult.With a helmet on he'd hit the rollbar.Legs are cramped too.Looks like a very cool kid's buggy though

[Rorty]

No race organisation in the world would allow that bloke to race in that buggy. He's obviously far too large for the confines of the cockpit and apart from his naked head virtually touching the cage, he couldn't possibly operate the controls properly either.

If he's of average build, then those buggies would need to be enlarged quite a bit to make them race-worthy.

[hero_saku39]

......this guy builds these KIDS buggies...

[Rorty]

Well why would they release promotional pics of the buggies with an adult in the buggy then? It's pretty clear they're aimed at adults - same as mini-motos.

[K-fab]

Interesting KID cars. * I have to agree with the general consensus from the pix posted. - and you've pointed out that they are kid's cars, so no argument on that line of thinking.

They're no where near a regular Lite sized vehicle - wheel base and body are, judging by the "driver" much shorter and the roll cage is not near tall enough. *Interestingly the sides - or should I say the distance between the lower frame rail and the upper frame rail appear to be taller than normal (what ever normal is... *It may be spot on for a full sized car, but tends to look high because of the shortness of the vehicle (once again, observation based on the guy sitting in the car)

Do you happen to know the footprint of the car? *wheel base, OAL, track width? *It looks to be 3/4 scale (once again, judging by the "driver").

Steering wheel's WAY too far forward for the adult - I can't imagine a child trying to use it. *You need to have your arms bent at least 90 degrees at the elbow to get any sort of control and power to the wheel. *It needs to come back at least a foot for the guy in the car - kid needs it back even more.

They don't look like any Lite frame that I've seen - I wonder what he's basing them on? - where's the bracing and triangulation? *I see some but it looks like a few of the bars end in space w/o anything else being attached.

The motion ratio of the trailing arms looks to be at least 3:1 - egad, that makes for a nasty strong spring and stiff valving - they need to mount about the same distance they are from pivot points on the other end of the arm. *Same for the front suspension - the shocks need to be placed much farther out on the arms.

Front shocks don't seem to have much support up under the front end - then again, the pix are hard to see much detail in.

Engine seems to be way out back - has good points and bad points:

Good - makes the car a bit less bucky through whoops - there's a lot of mass hanging out on the end of the pendulum (chassis in up/down motion) so it takes more input to get it bouncing up and down. *Mid engine cars or cars with a more centrally located C of G do tend to buck more.

Bad - all that weight hanging out back can sure make an over steering beast once the back end starts to swing. *Think old Porsche 930 Turbos - 35/65 front/rear weight bias. *There were few drivers that could actually hang the back end of those cars out under power and NOT spin them. *Once they decide they're swinging out, it's YEEE HAAAA usually followed by OH WOOTER! *

It can also tend to make a car become unstable as you start getting the speed up - once again, the pendulum effect - little correction to the left, back swings right, little more correction input to the right, back swings left more - it becomes a self feeding oscillation that just grows and gets worse as you get faster and faster.

Do you know what engine it is? *I wonder if it could be moved forward of the rear axle plane? - even just a bit.

Overall, it appears to be an interesting little ride and I'd like to know more about it, but it looks to have some interesting little flaws - that could probably be easily fixed or dealt with.
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Mine three cars will arrive next Monday morning (shipper verified this with me this morning) and I'll get pix of them as I unload them and then I'll start a log on the cars.
As stated previously, the one car has a dead engine and one car is in pieces and needs some TLC. *I've secured a pair of Phazer 500 engines that I'm hoping will show up in the next couple weeks for these two. *The other is turn key - add fuel and go play.

Hopefully I'll be able to get the friendly neighborhood police to leave me be when I do a bit of parking lot testing of the turn-key car.

I need to go get a new camera - my old one's tired and I've had more than one person say "GET A NEW ONE" because of the wonderful quality mine has... (Happy now Rorty??) *This sounds like a good reason to update my old equipment!

Once I start getting into these beasties, we'll all be able to see just what's hidden under the skin. *I've seen them partially naked, but it was long ago and Bob & Renee were quick to throw covers over them, so I don't really recall much about how they were made, what was braced so on and so forth. *- I'm just as curious as you guys are!

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Sicksand - I think my e-mail tried to d/l the pix you sent - but they must be over my server's limit size (which makes me wonder - didn't think I had one... *I need to call my ISP and ask about this). *Can you resend the pix individually?

[sicksand]

Send me your address again,I will send you a pm with my e-mail address,,,he is making these buggies to go against the trophy karts,and I asked him about the front shock placement and he said that he had to mount them like that to get the travel he wanted.I guess he had a kid that races the trophy karts run it and said it felt alot better around the track compared to the trophy kart????Look at the back how it uses two drive sprockets,I haven't seen that before but he said that it works well.

[hero_saku39]

Look at the back how it uses two drive sprockets,I haven't seen that before but he said that it works well.

I would say he does that to cut cost. *That has to be a lot cheaper than IRS with spool and axles.

[sicksand]

He said that it was the only way he could get that much travel.I wasn't sure about the two chain deal but I saw some video of it and it seem to do alright with that set up.It is 11 hp kolher engine I think?