[rherbst]

A friend and I built them from scratch some years ago and got in the Three and Four Wheeler Mag. They were awsome in the Oregon Dunes. We used the old all aluminum block 1200 cc honda civic and transaxle. The trans is bullet proof. Strip the car of the rack and pinion steering including steering knuckle and steering wheel mount and tie roads, rear wheel hubs, the shifter, engine and trans, and axels. We did use, originally, the struts but they didn't have the travel we needed. So we went with double a-arm front and rear with hyme joints and used the original strut spring and another shock in the rear and coil over shock in the front. (don't use air shocks) With the engine in the rear, lock the steering arms to the frame. The shifter will be by the driver's seat. Fabricate a steel rod to connect it to the trans. Your shifting pattern will be the same. Use three speed trans. only. Use standard buggy steering brakes and a after market hydraulic clutch. The accelerator was linked by a sealed steel cable. The stock carburation worked originally until the thirst for power took over. We went to four mikuni motorcycle carbs and built a custom intake manifold. We used Dick Cepek spider track atv tires originally. You will need to fabricate wheel spacers from the Honda pattern to the atv rims. Eventually, with the help of a NASCAR engine builder in Burbank Calif. we built a super engine out of the stock 1200cc Honda. We used 1300cc rods, a 1400cc crank, VW valve springs to keep them from floating, and bored the engine. It was stroked and so hot it would blow away a 2135 VW. It ended up being a mid-engine mound and short. The battery was behind the driver's seat along with a aluminum gas tank down low. The radiator, VW rabbit fan cooled, was behind the passenger seat. The exhust ports faced forward and the pipes were bent up and over the engine to the rear like a ski boat. Don't chrome these, coat with black flat powdercoat and they stay cooler and don't rust. We used the original motor mounts, side and bottom. The bottom motor mount was sitting on a piece of dropped square 1/4 x 2 inch square tubing. The side mount was tied into the rear roll cage. This might give you some ideas and I could send some pics..............Dick