off topic - Mini Baja Cars

[Guest Jeff Rimmer]

I am currently involved in a mini Baja competition slated for next summer (2003). We are currently in the design stage and are open to many suggestions regarding driveline.

 

I'm wondering if anyone has come across any sites pertaining to this if so could you e-mail me at jeffrimmer20@hotmail.com or reply to this posting

 

Thanks

 

Jeff R

[jeromio]

There's a company that sells mini "monster trucks". It's a tube framed chassis that uses 2 D30 axles and has hydraulic steering of both. The driver sits forward and the engine is in back. They used what looks like a regular Honda Civic engine and transmission (they say it's a Honda, the rest is a guess). They use a 4spd auto. They then put on a fiberglass truck looking body in about 1/3 scale. Pretty cool, I thought. Oh to be wealthy and be able to buy such toys....

 

It <i>looks</i> like they just have things situated such that the motor is mounted longitudanally and instead of the regular half shafts (or their equivalent) connecting to wheels, they connect to the D30 axles.

 

That would make a killer baja contender.

[ZROSSA]

I came across this the other day. It may help.

 

http://www.git.com.au/~theedge/index.htm

 

Douglas

[Guest Anonymous]

I always wanted to build a mini-buggy. I'd find a IRS rear end, build a center chain sprocket carrier and hook the halfshafts to this chain/sprocket. Motivation could be a 4cyl motorcycle motor, reverse would probably have to be an electric motor of some sort.

 

There is a few sights if you look under like homebuilt buggies or homemade go-carts (try www.google.com as a seach engine I use it alot now). Anyway, good luck with it, should be a real kick in the head to drive.

 

Regards,

 

Lone

[Guest Jeff Rimmer]

Well I have found many sites. Thanks for all your input. I forgot to mention that this is for the SAE Competition. Our team will be competing in the 2003 East competition.

 

We have sourced many supppliers and local manufacturers to TIG weld our frame. I was going to post a JPG of our Unigraphics drawn prototype frame design, but am unsure of how to post it. We are all rather excited. Unfortunately we are limited to a 10Hp Briggs & Straton engine, which has been supplied to us. No significant modifications can be made to this engine.

 

Anywho, thanks for your input

 

Jeff

[Guest Thurem]

You gotta put at least turbo and nitrous on it, as that really is not modifications more like addons, or something like that.

You will propably end up using a lot of parts from quads, as you want to keep everything as light as possible.

Thure

[Guest Anonymous]

Use a thinner head gasket to raise your compression ratio. It's a fairly common 'cheat' in that competition, and pretty much impossible to detect.

 

Henry

(former ME student)

[Guest zthang43]

hey I was in Mini-Baja too. I did all the welding for our car. For the drivetrain, we used a chain and sprocket between the motor and an intermediate shaft for gear reduction, then that was connected to a CVT, like the snowmobiles use. It worked pretty well.

Make sure to calculate your gearing correctly though, using road loads, wind resistance, etc. You can figure on getting up to about 35mph max with 10hp and a 450 lb car. Dont try to gear it to go faster than that, it just won't work.

I have some spreadsheets for calculating this stuff, I'll see if I can find them.

[randy 77zt]

i have a set of blue print /plans for a mini off road car that uses a street bike motor like a hyabusa.the sand dune guys run a lot of single seat sand cars with bike motors.get as much suspension travel as possable.if you want a set of plans i could have them copies at kinkos but i dont know what cost will be.