I've wanted one for the street for so long. I would clad it in lexan and paint it to look like this:
I've wanted one for the street for so long. I would clad it in lexan and paint it to look like this:
In reply to Appleseed :
I miss seeing those old RC10 ads.
There is a "dune buggy" that ice races with AMEC quite successfully in the "fast" class. It has a turbocharg type 1 engine with probably the most displacement possible.
He doesn't seem to have any under steer problem.
HOLY E36 M3!
That mullet!
Buggy sounded wicked, too.
Racingsnake said:Pick up a copy of May '71 Dune Buggies & Hot VWs. There is an article on setting up a buggy for auto cross featuring Alex Dearborn's Deserter buggy which was apparently pretty competitive. I'd imagine it should be pretty applicable to a sand rail.
The Deserter GS was essentially made for A\utoX and I believe it did very well for a number of years. It of course was mid-engined and Corvair powered. As noted here, it is essentially a Formula V chassis with a different body - http://www.bimelliott.com/GSpage.html
Here is a vid of a Manx style buggy AutoXing. Apparently has a twin turbo Subi motor in it, so it's a bit up-powered.
Knurled. said:In reply to iceracer :
Audi S8 engine, FWIW.
GOOD GOD 
Years ago there was a guy (Stu Phipps?) here in the Cincinnati region that autocrossed one, was pretty successful before moving to FMod. Early 2000s?
Did I see that guy in Braveheart?
A friend of mine has a buggy chassis in a garage. Every couple of months I ask him when we're going to build it into a street rail. Apparently I need to convince him to buy an S8 motor now because that thing was insane.
In reply to Knurled. :
He would end up stuck in the snow bank on the first turn
I have bad thoughts about a sandrail street car too..... Looks like way too uch fun.
That guy was sawing at the wheel more than a 70’s detective TV show bad guy during a car chase.
Not Braveheart more like Vikings.
Looked like an in cockpit camera inside a dirt sprint car.
My dad and I have been tinkering with this buggy for a few years. We originally built it is an off road buggy but once we got into autocross we started setting it up for road handling instead. It has been a fun and reliable racer for 5+ years now in autocross and rallycross
What chassis is that? There seems to be numerous choices.
This particular chassis is the berrien warrior. Most are pretty similar. Once we decided to go Autox we cut the back end off of the tube frame as you can see from picture 1 to picture 2. If I remember correctly it was 20+ lbs off of the top rear of the buggy
In reply to _ :
The add is down, did you buy it? When it is done, where do you plan to auto-cross at?
I've very seriously considered making a street buggy like the one above but one of the things I just cant quite seem to get myself to get past is the issue of low power. I know the engines can be upsized and built or boosted but with all the vette karts and similar stuff people are making these days it's hard, at least for me, to not take advantage of a modern engine, suspension, and brakes at the cost of a some extra weight vs. a dune buggy/sand rail. I got to drive my brother's exocet for the first time last week and I loved it, but i wouldn't want any less power then the stock 1.8 in something like that.
In reply to edizzle89 :
Point well taken. You can build a C4 death Kart with old school small block power realistically for as little as maybe $3,500. A salvage title C5 cart can be built for a net of probably $7,000 assuming you sell off some of the body and interior parts. C4 has come in at around 2,300 lb realistically. C5 maybe twenty-five hundred pounds realistically.
OTOH a cheap sand rail chassis couple to something like a salvage turbo Subaru engine will probably only weigh 15 or 1600 lb. And probably could be done at the cheap end even considering somewhat pricey adapter blades for motor and transmission. Guess it depends on what you want to do
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