Transaxle - Car Engine Based Buggies

[Isotel]

isotel
physically even with the long wb 105-110, driver drop, driver would be
sitting on the output, passenger legs WOULD be the motor, would have
to be tall to allow driveshaft to be under the pedals. SOME of this
would be able to do easier in a single offset seater, major limit of axle
travel, very wide compartment or midget passenger.

my idea for the front Engine was, a wider cockpit than typical,driver feet would be up above the transaxle, Seats Sitting right on the floorline 24" or so, Engine sitting a bit below floor line and have the floor be a v shape when looking at it from the rear, Tuck some of the heavy stuff low in betwen the seats and the rear driveshaft.. possibly put the gas tank down there too..

Here was a drawing that i did for myself, Rear Vs front engine, all the Measurements where ruff guesses, but its all to scale.. WB was only 100" on these, and the Person Figure accounts for Seat Size..

 

[HI^C]

with pushing the drive below the floor your raising the compartment up some.

with a centerline outputs you would have to be way too wide of a chassis,
figure about 2ft from outputs to far side of the motor ON a inline, plus exhaust
v6 IMO way too much space for this way of mounting.

front driveshaft length and angle through travel i think still will be an issue.
back of motor would have to be about where the dash is.

IMO like most of this, F the passenger ! make it driver comfortable first.
i would switch to a pass drop, centerline mount the motor,
if you need to push the motor past center to the driver side a touch as
long as you can get 2 pedals in and some room your good. IF you have
to stagger seating, up down, to and fro from driver the passenger so
what just plan it in the cage build. Stay narrow chassis width as possible.

HEAT with being so close will be a issue, exhaust, cooling, having
motor infront and being able to reach out and touch it

run numbers, mock, PLAN, etc... build it right once, costs to much time
and money to redo.

 

[MRROCKAPE]

my idea for the front Engine was, a wider cockpit than typical,driver feet would be up above the transaxle, Seats Sitting right on the floorline 24" or so, Engine sitting a bit below floor line and have the floor be a v shape when looking at it from the rear, Tuck some of the heavy stuff low in betwen the seats and the rear driveshaft.. possibly put the gas tank down there too..

Here was a drawing that i did for myself, Rear Vs front engine, all the Measurements where ruff guesses, but its all to scale.. WB was only 100" on these, and the Person Figure accounts for Seat Size..

Since I have drawn a front engined honda pro-mod buggy using the prelude dohc VTEC(I know...but they make 200 hp and are cheap,unlike the civic vtec's!!!) Ill let you in on a idea I have....

Make it right hand drive,only add a passengers seat because it has to be there....also angle the engine to the left side and make your diffs both drop on the left side....bellhousing bolts will be at the firewall,that is right in front of the passengers seat.

I plan on making mine in the 101-102 WB...I would post a bend-tech pic...but then I would have to kill ya!!!!

 

[Mo Rocks]

Check this one out on ebay. Looks pretty cool. Northstar motor, 700R4/Atlas 5........ I do not know if I would want both ends spooled, but then each to their own.
LINK.Single seater Rock Crawler,Moon buggy with rear steer!:eBay Motors (item 300324085078 end time Jun-26-09 19:45:52 PDT)

 

[Hypoid]

Not a transaxle.

?

 

[Mo Rocks]

Not a transaxle.

?

Good point there Hypoid. It used to be a transaxle. !!!

When I posted it, I was thinking that it was an interesting use of what had been a transaxle mounted motor........but technically it is no longer a transaxle with the 700r4 and the ATLAS 5 !!!!
I guess he could have left the caddy transaxle in it and then it would qualify.... just wonder if the rotation and outputs would all be right.......guess it also depends on axle selection and setup.
I just thought it was an interesting use of a Northstar motor.
Wonder if there are any more running around out there in buggies or crawler rigs.

Thanks for the correction.

 

[slvrbck]

Well, we competed with the lo budget this whole past week at Reno Rocks and it did awesome. We took 2nd for the Wed/Thurs event....few errors, but no biggy. The Friday, Saturday and Sunday event was awesome, we couldn't be touched. It was my first time spotting for a little rear steer buggy, and on a man made course for that matter......It took the first few days for us to get used to working with eachother, but in the end, we were flat getting it. It is pretty amazing what that little thing can do, a few times completely on it's side, but still stable and pulled out of it. The red label Krawlers stuck to the man made course like CRAZY, so we had to play with air pressures to get it to give a little bit. A disconnect on the rear pinion is going to be a must have upgrade. It's limited to the steering, and as much traction that the man made course gave, a disconnect would have been a hot ticket. The 2nd lo budget buggy a friend of ours built(one of ROCKAPE's chassis), competed on Wednesday. Unfortunately he had to work the rest of the time and couldn't make it for the other events. It did great....until a little miscalculation leaving it bellied up. This buggy has a little more bling than ROCKAPE's original, additions are ARB's front and rear and a set of cutting brakes and it rides on 37 Kreepy's instead of Red Label 39's. The ARB made it possible to do a 3 wheel dig using the cutting brakes, and took some of the stress off the steering.

All in all, it was a fun 5 days of competing, we are still wore the hell out, and we are leaving tomorrow to Donner for the 3rd event of the CalRocs season in ROCKAPE's Pro Mod buggy.

On a side note, there was an RTI ramp competition at the event last week......it ramped 108" on a 30 degree ramp!!!!!

 

[Fast Eddy]

I just thought it was an interesting use of a Northstar motor.
Wonder if there are any more running around out there in buggies or crawler rigs.

From '99 to '02 Olds made a V6 NorthStar called the "Short North" or the ShortStar. Great motor and you can pick up an fwd 3.5 v6 Olds Intrigue or Olds Aurora for cheap money. 215hp, 235footies I'll bet a turbo and megasquirt would work great on it.

 

[Isotel]

Thanks for the update on the rigs, Thats Amazing that that little 10k Buggy is Spanking all the big boys!
Good job guys!

 

[Radd Cruisers]

Truely outstanding, something us poor folk can afford.

Rob

 

[Radd Cruisers]

Well, we competed with the lo budget this whole past week at Reno Rocks and it did awesome. We took 2nd for the Wed/Thurs event....few errors, but no biggy. The Friday, Saturday and Sunday event was awesome, we couldn't be touched. It was my first time spotting for a little rear steer buggy, and on a man made course for that matter......It took the first few days for us to get used to working with eachother, but in the end, we were flat getting it. It is pretty amazing what that little thing can do, a few times completely on it's side, but still stable and pulled out of it. The red label Krawlers stuck to the man made course like CRAZY, so we had to play with air pressures to get it to give a little bit. A disconnect on the rear pinion is going to be a must have upgrade. It's limited to the steering, and as much traction that the man made course gave, a disconnect would have been a hot ticket. The 2nd lo budget buggy a friend of ours built(one of ROCKAPE's chassis), competed on Wednesday. Unfortunately he had to work the rest of the time and couldn't make it for the other events. It did great....until a little miscalculation leaving it bellied up. This buggy has a little more bling than ROCKAPE's original, additions are ARB's front and rear and a set of cutting brakes and it rides on 37 Kreepy's instead of Red Label 39's. The ARB made it possible to do a 3 wheel dig using the cutting brakes, and took some of the stress off the steering.

All in all, it was a fun 5 days of competing, we are still wore the hell out, and we are leaving tomorrow to Donner for the 3rd event of the CalRocs season in ROCKAPE's Pro Mod buggy.

On a side note, there was an RTI ramp competition at the event last week......it ramped 108" on a 30 degree ramp!!!!!

Any pics from the weekend?