Racing Rig?

Have you even sat down and made a list of MUST HAVES vs. WOULD LIKES? Your original post you are interested in Ebay piece of shit and now you are turning full on comp buggies down because they are to narrow. Its a comp buggy not a mini van. What kind of a budget are you dealing with. Hell, the car is the cheap part. When you wad, what then? How serious are you about this? Hit a few local races or really want to chase trophies? I don't know you so I do not want to make any sort of assumptions as to your abilities but damn. What I get out of this thread is you have wheeled a little bit in a stock jeep, went to the go fast race, got the bug and now have some money burning a whole in your pocket.. How fast have you gone in the dirt? Speed is a hell of a multiplier. Have you thought about entering the RCrocs class one or two with your current rig for a season before you go play in the go fast series?

I'm not trying to discourage you. By all means we need more participants to pad the purse.

I really think the two seat thing shouldn't be a real issue because if you want to do this for real you won't be a rookie for ever who needs a copilot. Sides the 2nd person is just extra weight to slow you down.

Hunt, you came in on the second half of this whole process. she has talked at great length with several members of the club and with a local fabricator. the issue she is facing is there is not the perfect rig out there, if it were then they wouldn't be selling it. So she is trying to find something that would meet her needs that can be modified by the local fabricator, and club member, to suit her needs. the ebay crap that has been reviewed is part of the education process, finding out what is out there and what to look for and how much $ will be needed to to convert it to her specific needs. her knowledge level of the technical aspects of the rigs is low and that is why she is tapping into our knowledge base. Seeing how you are at a somewhat experienced level you would be a valuable resource for her. Perhaps you could enlighten her on what she should be looking to help her out from your unique perspective? A list has been made although she does not completely understand it. she definitely would like a 2 seater because she wants an experienced wheeler with her behind the wheel for safety sake and to help coach her along the way.

"Its a comp buggy not a mini van."
sorry but but this ain't Pirate4x4 and there is really no room here for that kind of sexist comment to another club member.

"What kind of a budget are you dealing with?"
basically looking at about 10k for a vehicle plus 10k in upgrades or outright purchase for 20k.

"When you wad, what then?"
- a question everyone will have to answer at some point and we will all feel the pain of the financial loss.

"How serious are you about this? Hit a few local races or really want to chase trophies?
-she wants to hit the Rausch races and line mountain at the very least. Not interested in trophies at this stage, it would be silly to think you could just buy a built rig and win races and she understands it.
-if you ever wheeled with her you would know she was born with the go fast bug and seeing the local races just provided her an avenue to experience it. there really isn't anywhere to go fast in the dirt legally and even rausch has a speed limit prohibiting such activities.

"Have you thought about entering the RCrocs class one or two with your current rig for a season before you go play in the go fast series?"
-The opportunity to race in a stock rig has not been available at Rausch but will be available next season. definitely something to consider but if you put 10 into a stock rig to make it last and already have 10 worth of rig and decide to sell you will likely get about half of your investment back. if you purchase a 22k experienced buggy that is built well like the "narrow" one just reviewed and decide that you want to sell it after a year or two you will likely get most of your money back.

I'm not trying to discourage you. By all means we need more participants to pad the purse.[/quote]
-add me to the list of purse padders, I don't want a trophy, I just want to race for the experience of it and I'm not getting any younger.
-sorry if i sound like an ass but there really is no way to respond to your comment without getting defensive. she is extremely busy with real estate and doesn't post much and this topic hit home with me and thats why I responded to this the way i did. Thanks in advance for your help and hope you see your way through this to help make this a safe experience for her and for me.

Sorry for the ramble.

So it’s cool for me to bash The Rookie but the minute I go after the girl I step on someone’s toes? The fact that she is a she has nothing to do with it. We all have busy day jobs so don’t use that as an excuse to defend her. If you guys have busy lives now just wait until you start trying to juggle a race team. I’m not on here much either; I usually just come on to comment on the threads that are completely idiotic.

As far as hitting some of the local events:
I’m talking about the slow crawl WEroc style events that Raush has been doing the last couple of years. This is a great starting point to feel out a rig before trying to go fast. If you think you are going to 100mph in the woods you are out of your mind. The 700 horse full out race buggy only hit about 70 during the last race. And that was spooky fast.

Repairs:
You had better start thinking about that NOW. Not at some point. If you wait to figure out how to pay for the repairs after you have wadded it up you are going to have a nice POS 20K yard ordainment. If you can’t afford to play that don’t step into the big game.

I guess what I am getting at is you should be looking to start at a lower level. You are diving into this head and I don’t think you guys full understand what you are getting into. The problem I see is that she has no idea what she really wants or needs. She only knows what people have told her (that’s boils down to opinion in most cases) and not why she needs it.

No mater how much money you spend on a rig there is no way to compensate for seat and trail time. You have to spend the time and money breaking you junk to find out where the yield points are and how far you can push it. Until you know you will never be competitive. You will only get frustrated and discouraged when it’s always broke.

I wish you the best of luck and goodness sake be safe. I see it time and again that people will spend $1000 to go 5mph faster but will not spend $100 on a fire suppression system.

Here is your car.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=836789

Buy it. Beat it.

The thing is the line mtn and rc races are starting small. For example you guys used this race for pit practice. I don't know what to expect out of the lower class races but to me its going to be a lot like line mtn, still a lot of speed. The same banging around beating the snot of your body and your car. So the risks are the same just little lower budget friendly. Still are going to need all the safety stuff and build it to handle the abuse. she has a pretty good plan on a dead line to get the car, have time for mods, and to get a lot of seat time and tuning. she has planned this out far more than I would of and I have read all the horror stories from KOH and V2R about race prep

Yikes, no drama.

YOU MADE THE DRAMA

how did she? I don't really see the big deal.

Ok I will elaborate she picks every rig that Bill post apart, but yet she post a fukn oversized gocart on 44in tires.I have kept my mouth shut because of the high respect that I have for Bill,Nick and Matt. But Damn this is fukn nutz It makes me wish I had $20,000 to through away I would have Chris build me a Rig and let my 14yr old Daughter run it. Because she has a Heavy Foot and a heart to race.

jealos-z wrote:

All this talk bout Racing, what racing background do you have and how long have you been wheeling. You are gona spend this all this money. Just remember YOU CANT BUY EXPERIENCE

Hate to say it Rob but this quote you made is the first of the drama. Just trying to help the girl out and I have no hard feelings towards anyone here, just wondering why the abuse when someone comes in asking for help.

IT SUX you are the reason I waited so long to post I didnt even get on the forum for a week becuz of it and I still havent posted my true thoughts, maybe I did bring the drama but shear DUMBNESS didnt help my assholeness..

Sometimes I just dint understand why this happens if she wants to race and has some money for it go for it and I will be there to support it.

First off she asked for help and never said she knew it all or was going for the win. From what Ive seen of this type of off road racing just a couple laps would be a blast and to finish the race would be something no one here has done yet.

As for the 700 hp race buggy ( 700 sounds a little high ) it didn't even finish the race last time nice rig but broke is broke.

I would love to build a rig just to do this for fun but it not in the cards right now.

She came for help and is going to us for info and a club member for the buildup of the rig win win for the club and the club members shop. She is willing to support a club member witch is more than some we know!!

How can anyone on here say they are any better than anyone else in a comp when very few have ran in more than one or two rock crawls and no one in a race yet. Yes there are a few that have done well in the comps as driver and spotter and congrats to them but not many.

I say if it has a MARR sticker and a R & S AUTO sticker on it cant go wrong and I will be there to help build , pit ,and support both of our members that want to get into this form off road

Just remember we are here to have fun bust balls and wheel with NO WHINING

I would hope everyone would understand what I am saying and no hard feelings . But some of these posts are the "pot calling the kettle black"

Well that was fun just my .02 thank you very much oh good luck with rig search

well put. time to move on and get back on course with this post. no hard feelings towards anyone.

Sometimes words just don't do the trick

You the man nick

funny video, back to the search or build. here is another buggy
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-Seat-4-Wheel-Steer-Rock-Buggy-PRICED-TO-SELL_W0QQitemZ260508191026QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPowersport_Everything_Else?hash=item3ca77f8932

Hunt wrote:

Here is your car.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=836789

Buy it. Beat it.

I don't understand why this is so cheap. one hell of a deal

I know dude...made me want to sell my truck.

Locked_N_Loaded wrote:

I know dude...made me want to sell my truck.

Made you want to sell the truck. I thought for a minute maybe I could sell the house Then I thought that I might get shot with my own gun by my wife so I can just dream. One day I might be able transform the toyota in to something like this.

When I say start small I mean start slow. You are talking about playing in high speed, aggressive, OPEN WHEEL racing.

At the last Raush go fast race; in the first 100 yards on the restart, the driver of the little line green, single seat, turbo-ed ecotec powered moon buggy reached up to flip his helmet visor down, just touched the wheel of the car next to him and it damn near shot him into the crowd. It could have been really bad and it happened in an instant. We’ve all seen the “Worlds deadliest crashes” where one of the sprit or midget cars touch wheels and go somersaulting through the air. Don’t think it can’t happen to you.

It scares me a little to think that a person with little to no racing experience wants to go FAST. Do a couple of the WEroc style events then try your hand at the go fast series. If she wants to dance with the devil that’s one thing but she has a co-pilot, other racers and spectators to watch out for too.

The Joint Force buggy is every bit of 700 hp. It’s a professionally built machine and IT BROKE. When something goes wrong, like the entire front wheel coming off and shooting you into the woods at 50 mph, that’s where the experience is needed. A lot of heart and a heavy foot is going to get you in trouble. The problem with a lot of heart is that it usually means it clouds up the mind and bad decisions are made. A heavy foot is just a multiplier.

I just started asking the questions that I had not seen answers to. It sounds to me that she wants a heavily built trail rig that she can take racing occasionally. Not a dedicated race rig. In the four pages before I posted up she has not defined what she wants.

I’m just trying to express my concern for everyone’s safety.

To keep the thread on focus:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=827493&highlight=buggy

Point well taken. thanks for responding.

My first 2 cents on all of this and I'll keep it simple:
- It's not WHAT you say but HOW you say it.
- Speak your mind but be respectful. Everything that has been said is valuable...it's the delivery that caused the drama from what I can tell. Make your point, add some reasons and use common courtesy.
-Nuff said

Hunt wrote:

It scares me a little to think that a person with little to no racing experience wants to go FAST. Do a couple of the WEroc style events then try your hand at the go fast series. If she wants to dance with the devil that’s one thing but she has a co-pilot, other racers and spectators to watch out for too.

The Joint Force buggy is every bit of 700 hp. It’s a professionally built machine and IT BROKE. When something goes wrong, like the entire front wheel coming off and shooting you into the woods at 50 mph, that’s where the experience is needed. A lot of heart and a heavy foot is going to get you in trouble. The problem with a lot of heart is that it usually means it clouds up the mind and bad decisions are made. A heavy foot is just a multiplier.

This was worded very well and the explanation along with the statement made the BEST argument for starting slower.
My opinion:
As far as what to get...not my department so I have nothing to say there. Trust the guys and buy something that can do the job but make sure you understand WHY you want to have certain things on it. You can trust them blindly, they won't steer you wrong but ask the questions anyway..it will go a long way in understanding your rig. They will answer even if you ask 100 questions (right Bill?). I have to agree that "knowing your rig" would be vital in a race if something goes wrong...especially when you consider that you could hurt (or kill) someone else. Most of us don't worry about breaking & hurting ourselves. Take plenty of time to wheel the rig and to learn what it can & can't do...for your safety as well as everyone around you.

Still thinking the best way is have one built to what you want. You like to stage your houses for sale for a reason. If you have one built you can have your choice of seats, have the controls placed where you want them, steering set up for where you like it, cage built to the way you need it and you will have the builder close by for when something breaks. If he built it he will know how to fix it quickly without having to investigate whats in it to begin with. lots of these buggies are crawlers and not racers. suspension would need tuned, transfer case would likely need changed for proper "crawl ratio" etc. The feel and control of a rig that was built around you is priceless.