dune buggy/wannabe gocart?

[CoriolisSTORM]

Alright ladies and gents, I'm on an extremely tight budget, but I want to build a small dune buggy
or go kart. Power wise I'm thinking a VW air cooled motor and its transmission and rear end, probably a modified (stretched and widened) go-kart frame and something to steer with, of course maybe four wheeler sized tires. Any of you got any ideas or such? Even a 4 wheeler motor or something like that could also be used I suppose, I just want to do something where I can learn and do it on the cheap. Ideas? Suggestions? A VW air cooled would be a blast on something so small and light I bet.

 

[thermopylaetech]

the fastest way to build a kart is to find a cheap aircooled motorbike.

Somehting as mundane as an old Honda 750 can be had in marginly running order for cheap. All you need is the engine and tranny. If you can build a kart from a VW you can definatly do it even lighter with a cycle setup.

Or just go TDi.

 

[CoriolisSTORM]

the fastest way to build a kart is to find a cheap aircooled motorbike.

Somehting as mundane as an old Honda 750 can be had in marginly running order for cheap. All you need is the engine and tranny. If you can build a kart from a VW you can definatly do it even lighter with a cycle setup.

Or just go TDi.

As much as I would love a TDI, I wanna do it cheaply! An old aircooled motorbike or 4 wheeler engine/transmission could probably suit my bill just fine.

 

[thermopylaetech]

wrecked bikes are no hard to find and as lng as you final build is lighter than say 1000 you will go plenty fast and have usualy a 5 speed gearbox. Bikes also provide brakes and rear drive parts.

Take a look aorund on the internet for a thing called the GXR-Kart or somehting to that effect, GSXR powered kart frame, also some dine with hyabusa setups.

 

[VarmintSlayer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPQIizRp9ck

 

[thermopylaetech]

That's just so damn wrong... but looks like so much fun.

 

[RoundHouse]

Rail buggys using VW air cooled drivetrains are all over the place.

You can buy one cheaper than you can build one.

The "Tellico" buggys are awesome.
Take a front wheel drive car engine/transaxle, and mount it in front of the rear wheels. and use a chain drive from where the Honda wheel used to be to the buggy wheels with a motorcycle type swingarm.
tons of ground clearence.

I have a pic of one around here somewhere......

Use tires with bolts stuck thru from the inside, and you can climb anything.