Hey guy's, I (David Richardson) will be taking on a meyers manx drag car project with limited fund's so any helpfull hint's would be most kind, ie: floorpan type to use? how much 'tube frame' can i get away with, turbo/non? i will keep posted about the whole project.

hi, is it street strip or strip only

Strip only, so bare essentials , I already own an off road buggy (manx copy) which is registered. This one is damaged (hit in the side) and cant track down any previous history so decided the strip was the best place for it

ive seen single seat in center of manx , pure drag car

Henry Spicak used to race one back in the 90's from memory. turbo set up and was pretty quick too.

I never saw Henry's with a turbo...

Hi David,

Get the ANDRA class rules and sift through them carefully. Your choice of class will determine issues like tube/floorpan chassis, turbo/na, capacity, type of fuel etc. and, in the longer term, how much you'll spend.

hth

matt and modulus are on the money.

I thought about something like this a few years back. I wanted to try fitting the swb body to a full length pan or using a lwb body for better straight line stability and less wheelstanding.

re tube frames. a stockish pan (thicker floor and square tubes down the sides and under the seat) is easy enough, strong and cheap if you can weld. spend your cash on a decent roll cage coz if something goes wrong, that's what you'll wish for.

cheers for the advice guy's, such speedy replies too, another question is swing axle or irs??? i have both available! Also braking, i was thinking 4 wheel disc's, the BIG BRAKES add in VWMA looks quite good, anyone tried them yet???

just writing 2 more post's so i can pm.

ok that should do, by the way my avatar is only half that pic, i really suck at the pic thing on here ay

I run swingaxle still and drums all round still slows me enough although adjusting all the time sucks and am thinking disks might be the go

But is IRS a better option or not? my other buggy is IRS and seems to do pretty well off the line but it's only got about 68hp at the wheels, i hope to add like another 100hp into the picture for this one and i've heard swing axle is the go?

IRS gets you a better geometry (i.e. less camber change) through the range of suspension travel. However, IRS introduces CVs (one more thing to break), is somewhat heavier than swingaxle, and robs a tiny amount of horsepower due to the multiple drive re-alignments. My understanding is that, for those last three reasons, the drag dudes prefer swing axle. Different story, of course, if you want to go around corners.

hth

I was really hoping to use a 2L Kombi box, so i think IRS will have to do but i've also heard i can just fab Kombi cv's to beetle shafts. Would that set up hold together with say 160hp? (planning a 1916,or there abouts, turbo, carburettor and Big heads.)

Dave Dave Dave , between you and Mick you need a lesson in patients , that manx was always going to be abled to register , you just need to talk to the right people.

Kombi box with Kombi CV's would handle 160HP if set up correctly.

The Geko has a 2L kombi bow with Kombi CV's inner and outer. It has 101 RWHP and at Warrick a few years back in snapped two axles and shattered 2 CV cages.

The axles and CV's where old crappy things and it was no suprise. No liking to break stuff I just put 930's in it and have been flogging it stupid ever since without any issues at all.

I had the Box rebuilt by Dangerous and it is all sweet..

Hi Dave,
you can use the bus CV's no problem.
I used them for many years before upgrading to a Commadore CV.

If you counterbore the CV so i fits on the axle properly, you can use axles from the LHS of an auto type three.

If you modify the axle its self it will become weak and fail at that point.
When an axle fails it will usually take a CV or two with it.

Another tip is to keep the axle and CV angle shallow.
This should keep the CV cage intact even with high power.

it depends on how much power u have and how fast u think u will go. the manx is much lighter and easier on trannys than beetles etc. i ran a 2180 wit 48ida high comp for years on a swingaxle trans wit close ratio gears beefa/diff, steel shifter forks , standard vw axles shotpeened and polished. i broke one axle in 5 yrs thats all. ran high 12s consistently

Thanks for all the replies so far, it's nice to see such keen interest in this sort of thing.

I don't know if it's 'forbbiden' or not but i should probably mention that i'm selling my 99' YZ 250 MX bike ($3200) to help get this car off the ground if anyone knows anyone who might be interested, Contact me anytime on 0409875618.

p.s. I've enlisted some help from Rod Penrose to help steer me in the right direction.

Cheers Dave.....

Swing Axle is the go.
long axles
Dave Butler
alloy spool
welded gears

One of the main reasons I use swing axle is so I can tune in the amount of wheel spin, depending on the track.

I'm running swing atm, and after the IRS in my old drag car I think it's much more reliable for a budget build, also easier to tune the launch.

if the car hooks up too well at a good track, you can let the car down at the spring plates and make it wheel spin because of the negative camber only uses some of the tyre and not all of it.
Likewise if the track sucks you can dial the car up so the tyre is flat using all of it.

This method can also save boxes, because you can allow it to wheel spin a little instead of going home early with a broken tranny.

so what would be the best transmission 'set up' for my buggy? (1300/1500 beetle?) for a 1915 turbo aplication.

I really need to sell this bike too if anyone is interseted?

cheers dave!

What bike