road legal buggy

[Baloo]

hello boys

here a few pics and details on my current project

its a car based buggy,  several years ago you could buy a "kit" over here that would accept all the mechanicals from an Austin Mini, it was called a blitz 2





http://www.ncfblitz.co.uk/page9.html

as this was a "kit" car you could a few years back just take one down to local licensing authority and get it regestered for road use, things have moved on now and its harder much harder to this and very expensive, so this sort of thing on the public road is quite rare over here, l came by this one already biult of good old ebay, was a bit tatty but since it was biult and regestered back in 1996 thats not suprising,

heres one thats on eaby at the moment, not road regestered though, about $700  ??
mine was nearer $1500 with that all important ticket to use on the road
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130587740594?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

the austin mini was a funny little car that was made for 50 years over here and probally found its way over there too ?
engine was a 4 cylinder cast iron block around 1000cc and a whopping  50 horsepower  give or take,
very heavy and not much power, thats not going to work is it  we need the engine out of one of these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280754208983?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

all aliminium construction 16v and variable valve timing that gives a near flat torque curve,  takes th ewieght out and puts the power in 

so heres the first pics from when it came back from being shot blasted after l stripped it

[Baloo]

[fabr]

You NEVER cease to amaze me with what pops into your head! If you ever relocate to the center of the USA I've got a couple thousand square feet of climate controlled footage for you to play in.

[Baloo]

 a few more pics to bring it a bit more upto date

heres the engine and box l am using, its a K series rover its fitted into many rover and mg cars as well as some lotus's
or is that lotie ?
it comes in many sizes 1100 cc, 1400, 1600 and 1800cc  all the same block with a bigger bore, there is also a turbo version available which has now become old enough to be cheaper enough to play with and thats posssibly where we are heading although there is an option of using the audi/vw 20v turbo engine as there is an adapter plate available to bolt it to the rover gearbox, apart from the 300 horses possible from this audi engine which is always nice  one the things l like about it is the exhaust/turbo is on the other side of the head so the turbo hangs  out the back of the buggy  instead of being wedged up against the back of the seat creating a hot spot, but l will get it up and running on this 150 hp engine first and look at an upgrade later





my version of the engine/box dosent come with an LSD as standard but the turbo versioin does so l have stripped the gearbox and fitted a torsen LSD diff into it from a 220 turbo,

[Baloo]

suspension is standard car suspension so not much travel, my hands are tied here a bit if l want to keep it road legal if l chop the frame around and alter it they will pull my ticket to use on a public road  :'(

spax coil over shocks along with mini arms although l have switched to adjustable ones



l have had all the suspension componets shot blasted  before l primed and painted them
 








l have taken the brake discs for a spin in the lathe and riddled them full of holes





engine and box back in the frame to sort out the location of a few other things




radiator first

[Baloo]

the suspenision the mgf doner car has is hydro with pressurerised spheres,  nitrogen over fluid, the front and rear are normally interconnected but since l have spax coil overs on the front l cant do this and since the charge valve was in this line l need to do some modification here too

bit of chopping and welding and we are sorted














a bit on hydro gas suspension in case its not common over there
http://www.mgf.ultimatemg.com/group2/suspension/hydragas__depressurisation.htm

[Baloo]

You NEVER cease to amaze me with what pops into your head! If you ever relocate to the center of the USA I've got a couple thousand square feet of climate controlled footage for you to play in.

what town are you in ?  lets see if l can find you on google earth or a map at least

Andy

[Baloo]

big fat silencer, l want this as quiet as a production car, one thing that upsets  neighbours is noise, no point winding them up as l will end up with no where to play






the tube work is stainless but the silencer is mild steel, might make a stainless heat shield to  cover the silencer and pretty it up a bit 

[Baloo]

l have modified the inlet and moved the throttle body from the end to the top, this is purely to free up space above the gearbox where l want the fuel tank to sit, before the greedy air cleaner sat right in the way hogging all the space,
the standard throttle body is 48mm there are also 52mm and 56mm throttle bodys available for that extra urge, natrually l have machined the new opening in the inlet at 56mm for future upgrades,
l can fabricate a nice big air cleaner to sit on top of the engine where l have unlimited space






fuel tank is the next think to make, the hieght of which is dicated by the submersable pump assembley which has a spring loaded base to ensure it fits the in  tank tightly, once this is made l can make an air cleaner that matches it in hieght to give a balance "look" to the rear of the buggy

[fabr]

Cool,double cool.

[fastcorvairs]

Baloo

How do you sleep at night?  If I went to sleep I would never remember where all the stuff go's.  Your mind must be going one hundred mph all the time.   excellent work. 

[Baloo]

Baloo

How do you sleep at night?  If I went to sleep I would never remember where all the stuff go's.  Your mind must be going one hundred mph all the time.   excellent work.

Sleep ?   what is this strange thing you speak of ??
and yes my mind is going at such a speed it wore all my hair out 

[fabr]

Sleep ?   what is this strange thing you speak of ??
and yes my mind is going at such a speed it wore all my hair out 

OMG,I'm having the same troubles!!!!!

[Baloo]

OMG,I'm having the same troubles!!!!!

proves to much thinking is not good for you

[fabr]

proves to much thinking is not good for you

Sucks up all your free time also!!!!