Who among us hasn’t at some point thought of building a little vehicle, and better still, a little off-road vehicle for a few high-octane rough-terrain adventures. [Made in Poland] has, and there he is in a new video with a little off-road buggy.
The video which we’ve paced below the break is quite long, and it’s one of those restful metalworking films in which we see the finished project take shape bit by bit. In this case the buggy has a tubular spaceframe, with front suspension taken from a scrap quad and a home-made solid rear axle. For power there’s a 500cc Suzuki two-cylinder motorcycle engine, with a very short chain drive from its gearbox to that axle. The controls are conventional up to a point, though we’d have probably gone for motorcycle style handlebars with a foot shift rather than the hand-grip shift.
The final machine is a pocket drift monster, and one we’d certainly like to have a play with. We’d prefer some roll-over protection and we wonder whether the handling might be improved were the engine sprung rather than being part of a huge swing-arm, but it doesn’t appear to interfere with the fun. If you fancy a go yourself it’s surprisingly affordable to make a small vehicle, just build a Hacky Racer.
Needs mouse, but not as much as the last one.
What?
The last go cart was electric.
Really needed a mouse (small block Chevy V8).
This one is much better, but still needs V8.
Goodbye yard! (At the end of the video).
Mount a grass seed spreader at the back?
“needs proper roll cage” ~voice of experience
My thoughts exactly. The guy clearly has the engineering skills and the resources to make this nice build but the safety considerations apparently seemed unimportant. The high centre of gravity plus the height of the side cage bars plus the lack of some ROPS plus he’s not wearing a helmet augurs toward the swiss cheese model for injury.
^ this, this, 1000 times this.
Even when these things are powered by ~10hp generator engines they are more than enough to get you into trouble, sticking a bike engine in there puts you firmly into Colin Furze levels of silliness and risk of injury.
Also, hand straps on the wheel – it is often mandated that these things have them in a commercial hire setting because people’s #1 instinct when it starts to roll is to put their arm out to “catch” it, which doesn’t work and just does bad things to your arm.
Cage? No.
Roll Bar, maybe.
IIRC you don’t need a cage until your into 13 second 1/4 mile passes…NHRA rules.
Competitive carts (kids training for open wheel races) don’t have roll bars. Much faster then this thing.
A good helmet, on the other hand, would be smart.
Also lower the seat as far as possible.
Longer wheelbase.