Who drives in dirt events?

What's your suspension setup?
Shocks, sway bars (y/n, what sort), wheels, tyres etc?

I've got IRS/Kingpin in my buggy and want to get it to work a lot better.

the biggest problem you will have with the buggy is getting it to turn. my advise to you is to run RALLY tyres up front in the event that you are allowed to use them.
dont use a swaybar on the rear
as for shocks use konis or better like bilsteins

wont taking off the rear bar induce more understeer?

tyres are a big thing, but as vw rally car said turning is going to be an issue with a buggy. Maybe try some mud and snow, and do lots of research into tires and patterns. I run a stiff street setup, but then it really bangs and jolts on rougher stuff.........

I found some tires they are toyo fm9r, they were a speedway tire but road legal, race compund and nicce open grid tread pattern.... but they don't make them any more....

i dont know how bigger torsion bars will go, i assume u already use type 3 wagon rears?
you really need to turn up to an event and try the buggy out and see what problems you will have.
i used to race against a guy with a buggy and his would never turn well, but he was only using street tyres.
best thing i ever did was purchase rally tyres.
i run Kumho 195/65/15 all round with the fronts being an R700 and an R800 on the back. A tyre with a good square edge will help it to turn.
if you are looking at purchasing some rally tyres try HORNIBROOK MOTORSPORTS in brisbane or if you want some pics of the tyres let me know and i can send you some

also if you are using a swaybar on the rear which i doubt you are, removing it results in much better traction while cornering.
i only use a swaybar up front because my beetle handles like a pig without it

I've got some old rally tyres that fit 14"rims but for reasons of brake bias, I don't really want to put them on the front. Maybe I'll bite the bullet and give them a go anyway. Can't understeer much worse than it already does.

I was going to try and regroove some old retreads on skinny 15"rims instead. What do you reckon?

And yes, I already have type 3 rear torsion bars.

Just be careful, and check your sup regs, as alot of places don't let you run rally or 4wd tires, and mud and snow/hand cut at the scrutineer's dicression.....

Hornibrook is great, talk to craig, tell him you know drew, he does all the tires for both my cars, and my dads, (i have 3 sets for the golf and about 8 pairs for the beetle.

nah, it's a khanacross, everyone else will have rally tyres. and I've used 4wd tyres there before.

Thats cool, most of the places i run ban them

why?

Most of the places are not khanacross specific, and may the be the infeild of a autocrss circuit or a dirt carpark area, and they don't want the dirt roads etc being run acorss. its really bad when we are there and you may have up to 60 cars and if you inlcude a few wrx with rally tires, the ground can be ripped up alot.

there are a few other important factors to take into consideration ...what is your wheel base...a short wheel base dirt car will always have issues in cornering...a std wheel base beetle is hard enogh....are you relying on engine hp to help you steer ?.....are you running a std diff?.....the thinner your front tyres the better your steer will be on dirt...i currently run 175/15 dunlops which are hard to get hold of but work fine on the front with 195 or 205 dunlop at the rear all are rally tyres....keeping your front end working is also a secret..too stiff ....wont steer...konis or bilstiens are the only shocks i recommend on any dirt beetle...caster and chamber adjustments are another source to improve steer..k/p trailing arms bend in hard cornering..use 36hp arms they are thicker and have less torsional twist...std sway bar is good ..i use a 22mm front bar by whiteline and also use a rear sway bar with type 3 wagen torsion bars. ..if you are able to provide a bit more info I will try and recommend a set up which will best suit your application...by the way I have successfully rallied bugs for well over 20 yrs and am happy to pass on a wealth of exoperience cheers steve

at last, someone who has actually done it! Hooray!

MY car is a LWB J&S with a 165hp EJ25 subaru. It's based on a 1960 beetle pan with adjusters in the original front beam...is that 36hp? The rear is type 3 wagon IRS/1800 kombi box with kombi CVs and standard gearing. No sway bars on either end. Brakes are early wide 5 type 3 drums on the rear and sherman discs on the front. My problem is initial understeer. Once I get the rear end loose I can swing it round and it's all fine.

here's the tech sheet for the car...
http://www.geocities.com/peterwood732/Buggyspecs.html 

pete i think its worth a call some time to have a chat..your very close to me cheers steve 0400356057..too much to say at the moment better in person

Off I go bright and early tomorrow. Thanx Kombi rescue for the tips, I'll be driving with the throttle! Wish me luck.

BTW, CAMS are legends and came through with an interim license at the last minute.:kiss