In another thread (Race course electronic speed traps) I asked if anyone knew of any electronic speed traps in Thailand. This came about from a challenge that was laid down at the beginning of the year.
I was sitting around with some acquaintances having a beer (or six) and the discussion somehow got onto the fabrication of vehicles. One of the group mentioned that it would be difficult to build a vehicle from scratch that could go over 100 mph. I was a bit taken aback by this statement and I told them that to build a vehicle that could go over 200 mph would be a bit of a challenge but to go over 100 wasn’t a big deal. As the night got on and more liquid modesty was consumed I somehow made the mistake of saying that I bet you I could easily build a vehicle that could go over 100 mph.
I didn’t think much of it until three days later when I got a call from one of the group saying they would like to meetup and clarify the terms of our bet. Turns out that there had been a discussion amongst themselves that I could just buy an old go kart and slap a big engine on it, which they felt wasn’t in the spirit of the agreement. So we had another meetup and the following guidelines were drawn up:I am still negotiating the last requirement. I found that it is cut and pasted from another website and I am having some difficulty trying to figure out how to do this in Thailand. I am trying to get them to accept a GPS driven instrument that show the highest speed reached. They are not accepting this as the old farts think that I can save the highest speed recorded from another vehicle and show them a deceiving result.
- Most of the car including the frame has to be built by me in Thailand (can have assistance to help)
- Must have four wheels
- The driven axle must have a differential
- Must have independent brakes to all four wheels, as in each wheel must have its own braking mechanism, the braking system can be run off one master cylinder
- All four wheels must have suspension (not necessarily independent)
- Front or rear drive is acceptable
- Front or rear engine is acceptable
- Any engine size is acceptable but must be internal combustion running either petrol or diesel purchased from a local fuel station
- All functions must be operated from the driver’s seat
- Must move in forward and reverse under its own power
- I have one year from the agreement to complete the challenge (29 January 2017)
- At this time there are no rules or guidelines from any international racing body being used but the vehicle may have to pass a safety inspection from anyone of their choosing
- Speed must be measured using a ‘speed trap’ consisting of electronic timing lights placed at the start and finish of the course. Where possible, the record speed will be taken as the average of the fastest consecutive runs in opposite directions, and the runs must take place within an hour of each other.
One further verbal requirements was that they wanted a way to check that I was building the buggy in Thailand and it was being built by me. Hence this thread, they can look at it at any time to see the (irregular) updates. You can see from my signup date and my post count that I am not big on posting on internet forums and I am also not sure that TeakDoor is the correct forum for this but I figure there are a few people here that may be interested also.
I still feel that this is a fairly easy challenge, it just comes down to what do I want to build and how much am I willing to spend. I considered a few options but finally settled on an off road buggy frame that I will power with a Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle engine. The frame plans were downloaded from an Australian website, materials have been ordered and the engine is sitting in the workshop. I still need a few more parts but I am ready to get started on the frame now.
There are a few other details that I have left out but I’ll get to them as the build progresses.
So here we go.