Written on December 3, 2007
What’s this all about eh? There is only 1 possible place where a Spondon offroad buggy could be found queing with a Yamaha R1 grasstrack car, a Dodge Viper and a massive collection of Ford Escorts , VW beetles, bikes, in fact just about every conceivable kind of motorised transport known to man,
This was our day at Santa Pod Raceway. Although the the whole idea of running an offroad only 4×4 up the drag strip was completely mad I felt it just had to be done so the buggy had been cleaned, painted and ‘serviced’ to give the best possible chance of reaching the other end of the strip without putting me in Northampton General!.
We arrived at about 9:15AM and it felt really weird to be unloading the buggy on new tarmac.
There was a Dodge Challenger nearby running with it’s rear wheels spinning in the air (yes of course it was on axle stands) but sounded brilliant with it’s open pipes and Gaz said get yours off, I said I didn’t want to but out came the spanners,” jeez it’s loud can’t hear nuffin yer what”.
Nigel and Jack arrived closely followed by Little Andy, Mick, and big Trev. Rich turned up with his massive camera as well but there was trouble in the Andy camp.
Andy had trailered his Westfield down but left his keys on the kitchen table so after a few frantic phone calls he managed to persuade Marcus to drop the Westy keys off at the pod gates which he dully did. We offered to pay for him to come in but he was off shopping somewhere.
I had signed on ages ago and don’t mind saying I was as nervous as a nun at a penguin shoot but the lads told me it was time to get in the hour long que. We pushed the buggy most of the way down the 3 wide que until we got to the staging area and I’d got some pretty serious adrenalin going round .
All the lads cleared off to the banking to watch but the start marshal stopped me and said I need arm restraints, so I had to park up in full view of everyone in the barn which actually showed off the new club livery quite well and quite a few guys spoke to me and did know of the club which was good.
Anyway after a lot of mucking about I persuaded a lorry driver to sell me a 1″ wide ratchet strap which soon turned into some arm restraints. cool.
The start marshal could see I was now properly dressed! so called me over ooooooooooeeeeeee bear in mind I DON’T know how the buggy reacts at anything over say 50mph, I carefully moved into stage and the lghts dropped 4 ambers then a green so I gunned it and it felt , sounded and drove beautifully, still got beaten by a beetle but Ireally didn’t care, what a massive buzz and I felt fantastic.
Out of the 2 runs I did (on 35″ Simex tyres) The best speed achieved was 84mph in 15.6 seconds which is in Golf gti territory which aint bad.
Think Andy hit about 93mph
Will post pic’s in gallery asap and some video. And yes I am going back to try again, still like mud so need 2 buggies really!!??
December 3rd, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Really good read Mate,
How did it sound with the Exhausts off going down the track?
Where is the Nitrous coming from for next time?
Whats going to be different in the design for the 2nd buggy?
Mark
December 4th, 2007 at 12:19 am
To be honest I could not even contemplate 2 buggies but could consider a
full on dragster, something with a big block v8 (8 litres) maybe but at the
moment the buggy as it is, is a laugh.
The buggy is good offroad and won’t really ever get changed much and
neither will it get more capable, maybe a locked front diff. and a proper
winch but that’s about it.
The nitrous is actually quite easy as the basic kit is just a sandwich plate
under the carb and a switch which is only activated when on wide open
throttle at the linkage, and about £250 of course.
Don’t know how much to fill the bottles? The interesting question is what NOS
would be like offroad but don’t tell anyone!!
December 6th, 2007 at 7:52 am
Hi Chris,
Stitched in the video for you.
Just listened to it for the first time this morning!
What a fantastic noise… I’m going to go into work this morning going
“nrrraaaaghhhm, nnnnnnnnrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaggghhhhmmmmmmm,
nnnnnnnnrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhmmmmm”
“What’s that?, it’s a chevy thundering into the sunset!”
Fabulous! you made me smile on a cold wet and ‘orrible winters morning
Mark
December 6th, 2007 at 11:19 am
Thanks for that Mark, I’ve watched that video about 20 times and it still
makes me laugh a lot. You may feel that you have to support these
extra-marital club activities just to experiance the atmosphere and of
course to hear the sound through your own ears.
There’s an awful lot of hi-po machinery that turns up, probably 90% of
which is faster than the buggy, that’s why it’s such a laugh.
That old Chevy does sound good tho’
That particular engine was built by a mate over in Allestree, it was ran
in a Granada Scorpio for a while, Keith obviously made a good job of it.
December 6th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Sounds good Chris if I can get the Hayabusa ready might join you in Jan.
December 6th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Blimey looks like I’ve started something here? Do you think Trev would be
up for a run if we took all the club gear and stuff out his Shogun?
There’s Gaz as well so 2 bikes possibly although could be a bit damp?
The Busa should be good for about 120-130? I don’t know, we’re all mad!
December 7th, 2007 at 10:22 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f5NOTZlbzI
What do you think and thats bog standard mine aint bog standard.
December 7th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Looking at Sportrider.com then assuming you can actually ride the thing
and keep it upright you could hit 140mph in a little over 10 seconds.
The nearest decent hospital is about 14 miles away but the Pod always
has an ambulance crew at the event.
I did notice they’ve removed all the bent ‘armco’ and lined the entire
strip with 15″ thick concrete motorway spec. blocks!
If your bike is more powerful than standard then you could be into the 9 sec.
bracket, trouble is you may find yourself visiting the opticians as your
eyeballs will become further back than standard?
A guy dropped his bike at the top end when we were there and it slid along
way, mind you so did he! took ages to clean the mess up.
December 7th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Not that I want to put you off of course.
December 7th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Did you say 20th ? I think Im washing my hair that day.
December 7th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
I know what you mean mate, takes ages to dry this weather.
December 7th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Cos I prefer 4 wheels to 2 I want a go in this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPQIizRp9ck
Smart car with hayabusa engine….
Chris, when can we make one?
December 8th, 2007 at 2:07 am
Don’t doubt we could do it but need loadsa money, seems like a pretty
anti-social/points gatherer? The M3 V Smart is good to watch.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Im looking for one of these buggys with R1 motor or blade motor to do grass track racing on, where is best place to buy or look for one please
Regards
Bobby boy
January 19th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Hi ‘Bobbyboy’ I really wouldn’t know where to buy one of those things
but I would start with large amounts of ‘Google’ and search for single
seater grass track etc, I’m sure you’ll find some info somewhere.
That R1 thing I went up against at the Pod was mental in every respect.
Good luck with your searchin. Cheers Chris.
January 19th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Have just fitted some ‘little’ tyres on rims ready for the next Pod visit,
Have gone from 35″ down to 28″ diameter so will defo rev. loads quicker.
Should knock a second or 2 off?
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