Thinking of making a cheap Off-road car for fun.

[SketchMaster]

The area I live in has lots of open areas that would be great for some off-roading. So I looked into buying a nice go-kart just to mess around with but all the dune buggy-ish ones cost over two grand, a bit more than I wanted to spend for just a go-kart.

That night I was watching the Mythbusters have fun gutting a car for a test and it hit me, why not buy a old cheap beater that still runs good and just turn that into a poor mans Baja car, maybe even use it in some small local races just for fun. Looking around on Craigslist there seems to be some good candidates. Besides a VW bug, anyone see a 5speed car that would be good for this kind of thing?

Right now I'm just looking for the fun of it but if I find myself with some money and a good deal I may decide to do it.

 

[Atheus]

Old land rover? Good for off road but not much of a dune buggy...

Why not make a body out of tubular steel, stick some squishy suspension on the outside, then get the engine and drivetrain out of an old Toyota? Something like a 4AGE variant, maybe the 20 valve or the ZE supercharged tuned up to 200 bhp, revs to like 8000, awesome. I always wanted to do this

 

[SketchMaster]

I thought about making one from the ground up but I don't have the resources to devote to something like that at this time.

The most I was planing on doing was gutting the interior, pulling anything I don't need like the AC off the engine to free up HP, buy some tires and raising the suspension for as little money as I can.

 

[Black88GTA]

Pontiac Fiero?

Small, lightweight, 2 seats, nimble, mid-engine, 5 speed available, can be had for pennies, parts are common and cheap...

 

[b0mbrman]

Originally posted by: SketchMaster
The area I live in has lots of open areas that would be great for some off-roading. So I looked into buying a nice go-kart just to mess around with but all the dune buggy-ish ones cost over two grand, a bit more than I wanted to spend for just a go-kart.

That night I was watching the Mythbusters have fun gutting a car for a test and it hit me, why not buy a old cheap beater that still runs good and just turn that into a poor mans Baja car, maybe even use it in some small local races just for fun. Looking around on Craigslist there seems to be some good candidates. Besides a VW bug, anyone see a 5speed car that would be good for this kind of thing?

Right now I'm just looking for the fun of it but if I find myself with some money and a good deal I may decide to do it.

I've had these same thoughts...but where would you legally take it?

 

[SketchMaster]

Originally posted by: Black88GTA
Pontiac Fiero?

Looks fun, and it can take a small block V8 aswell. Though it could be nasty to flip something like that without a roll cage.

 

[SketchMaster]

Originally posted by: b0mbrman
I've had these same thoughts...but where would you legally take it?

Around here there is so much space and people that don't really care, if I keep clear of private property I don't think I would have any real problems. And if I do there are lot's of trails that I could drive on.

 

[mercanucaribe]

What do you mean by open areas? You should never drive a motor vehicle off a trail, except on sand dunes, and as far as I know there are no sand dunes in Colorado.

 

[SketchMaster]

Dried up river beds was what I was thinking of.

 

[Triumph]

Man, you are going to be VERY hard pressed to find something that works and works well enough to stand up to the punishment of off-roading, for $2,000. You WILL break stuff. Buy a junker, and the stuff will just break that much sooner. I mean you can do it for cheap, but you're trading up front cost for costs down the road.

 

[d33pt]

You can buy a suzuki samurai for $2k. I bought mine for $1400 and it was perfectly offroadable in stock form. It'll take you places where you never thought a $2k car can go.

http://denver.craigslist.org/car/232338926.html

There you go. Talk him down to about $500, and spend another $500 to rebuild the motor. You'll have a great 4wheeler for a grand.

 

[Eli]

Get a good dune buggy frame.

Put practically any engine and transmission you want into it.

Enjoy.

 

[cheesehead]

I'd build a 4-wheel electric bicycle using four Crystalyte Phoenix "brute"-variant 36v motors and mountian bike tires.

http://www.electricrider.com/crystalyte/phoenix.htm

The big advantage to this is that it's quiet and clean - often, dune buggies will piss people off.

Plus, no transmission means that you can articulate the frame.