LandSpeed Buggy

[slalombuggy]

I gave the body a coat of shakey can primer to see how it looks. Well, I couldn't have picked a better body to chop up man has it got some ugly cracks and not just a couple. This thing has more more cracks than a plumbers convention. I could spend a month grinding and filling. I dont have the time or patience to turn this into a show car so I'll be digging deep into my stash of stickers

brad

[57BLITZ]

[slalombuggy]

[57BLITZ]

[slalombuggy]

A few more things off the list. Found the side panelsa little tight on the body when I put it on so I put a relief cut at the front bend where if first flares out from the frame and pulled the top 6 inches in an inch. Installed the longer wheel studs in the rear disks so that there is more than 1/2" of thread holding the wheel on. And I got the bottom panel put on with all 78 screws holding it in place.

brad

[slalombuggy]

It's good to have friends who hire good people. One of the welders at ACE Mfg. welding up the sides of the car. .

Also yesterday, got the panels made for the valve cover windows, the bottom braces for the side panels at the back of the car and the last of the threaded inserts put in the car.

Goin shakey can shoppin after work.

brad

[slalombuggy]

Today I bought and installed the battery. Just a small 300CCA tractor battery. I fired up the car and ran it through the gears and ran it in each gear for a few minutes no load at first and then loading it up with the rear brakes. Tomorrow I'm taking it out to my Dad's acreage and an abandon stretch of highway and do some low speed testing.

Oh, and I painted the body last night.

brad

[slalombuggy]

Tested the car yesterday. Ran straight with no drama. Feels very stable at speed. Up through the gears very nicely. This thing does NOT want to turn. I had to do a 3 point turn on the highway. But I guess a ridiculous amount of caster and a spool will do that. My buddy shot some pretty cool video of me going by at 5000rpm in 4th LOL

brad

[57BLITZ]

[GS guy]

Sweet!
Going to run any kind of front spoiler? Tough to do on a Manx-style front end, but I'm guessing all that front end hardware (shocks/T-arms/framework) would provide some drag, and possibly some lift at speed? Seems like anything you could do to streamline that area - and help keep air from under the car - would help on that Top Speed run!

Looking good though. Good luck on your speed runs!
Jeff
_________________
70's vintage Deserter GS buggy - undergoing transformation to Super GS!

[wythac]

Brad,

Stuff like what you build is the only reason why I come back and check in here from time to time. Brilliant, well thought out, unique builds like yours are setting the standard, and, not coincidentally, very fun to watch in process/progress!

I haven't followed your thread, so you may have mentioned your itinerary elsewhere, but if you are going to the Flats this fall I might make a point of altering my usual trajectory thru that area to watch this one run.

Thanks again for the internet entertainment. Well done...but you know that of course!

[slalombuggy]

GS Guy,

I'm not going to run anything on the front of the buggy. One of my fellow competitors tried an airdam that covered the beam and part of the suspension and found that it actually slowed him down. I think it probably creates a vacuum behind it. The car will be very low to the ground and there is some things done to the bottom of the car to help air management under it

Wythac,

Thank you very much, I know there are a lot better car builders out there with much better skills and equipment who can turn out more refined looking machines but I have fun and if people find it fun to watch or gives them a bit of inspiration that's cool too.

I have to rely on some friends with cool tools and skills to help me out for the big projects such as the cage, aluminum panel fabrication and CNC cutting some of the parts. And for them I am eternally grateful. I get to repay one of them this year by making him drive the car in the 130 Club so I'm excited for him to get that experience and that was one of the stipulations of him coming onboard on this project. He basically built the chassis on my orange buggy 20 years ago and my trailer 4 years ago so he has more than earned the ride.

World of Speed this year is from Sept 14 to the 17th. We will be there on the 13th to set up pits and get through tech/registration and go over the car after the trip down. IF you can make it please be sure to come by and say hey, and that goes for anyone on here. I've met a few members from the samba the last couple trips down and it's always fun to meet face to face.

brad

[MrGoodtunes]

[mi xj]

Video??? I bet it sounded good

[slalombuggy]

A short clip of my road tests last Sunday, Hope to do more next weekend with some jetting and ignition settings.

brad
Link

[mi xj]

to cool. best of luck.

[slalombuggy]

John finished the cross braces for the back so I installed those Saturday night and I have the hatch pins in place. Some small plates there the bolts go thru on the front fenders and mounting tabs for head and tail lights and license plate to keep the car "legal" at tech will get finished and installed tonite.

Took it for another test yesterday. Was more aggressive on the throttle and higher shift points saw way higher top speeds. Found out a few things

1 - What I thought was the clutch slipping at the 3 and 4 gear changes was actually the tires spinning.

2 - Had a wicked cross wind yesterday, but car still handled great and didn't move around that much although much more than I wanted on an abandon highway so I stopped the testing. Going into the ditch at speed didn't appeal to me and even though I was far from that, caution is the better part of valour.

3 -A couple of jet changes made decent improvements and showed me the direction I should be headed in.

4 - This think will plant me in the seat and keep me there till I lift. It accelerates HARD and once it gets up on the cam it's a monster.

5 - The Empi rear brakes showed no signs of fade even as the rotors were turning blue from hauling this thing down from speed. Found the braking threshold where the tires lock up but it is very controllable and I have to be pretty aggressive on the brakes to find it. At Bonneville I have LOTS of track to slow down.

6 - I think I will be needing some deflectors around the carbs to keep the air from blowing directly across the velocity stacks I think it might be leaning out a bit above a certain speed.

More video,

https://youtu.be/ss-3KxGdfng

50 days and counting

brad

[60ragtop]

[slalombuggy]

The braces for the sides are in. The large one is a "D" shaped extrustion that will give me a flat surface at the back to mount lights and a plate on.

My friend Dave has a wheel shop so I gave him these Centerlines to go over, straighten out a couple of small bends and polish. One wheel was a satin finish and the other was quite dull and scratched, both had seen better days. His polisher Nick did a hell of a job.

The 27x4.5 tires are off of The Inch Pincher replica of Russell Ritchie. I bought them from Darrell Vittone a few years ago after he ran them at Bonneville, and they have been sitting wrapped in my basement till last week.

brad

[slalombuggy]

Went to a car show and unveiled the buggy this weekend.

Car wouldn't run worth a crap when I got there bogging and loading up with fuel. Ignition was causing it to misfire and pop back through the carbs. I changed the plug wires on Friday and wrapped them together in wire protector to prevent chaffing, so I pulled of the wrap and it quit backfiring but it still loaded up with fuel.

So when I went to put it on the trailer at the end of the show I pulled off the stack covers and set them on the rear deck fired it up and it seemed to clear up a bit with some rpm and I'd though I'd give the people a little show so I drove past the trailer and gave it a good shot of gas and off I went, turned around to do a bit of a run past the crowd then it started running really bad and there was a bad scraping noise so I pulled up to the trailer and found one of the carb covers in the fan......my bent blown up fan....inside my bent fan shroud, the fan shroud that cut the power wire from the starter to the alternator that was resting on the steel fuel line.....

Needless to say I have another CIP order coming today.....

Oh and the carbs loading up with fuel.....one of these seats has had 25 gallons of fuel run through it, one has 2 1/2, one is Empi one is Weber.

brad