hmmm... I've no experience with the hydra drive although I know in theory how it works.

In terms of on track performance and "feel" how does the hydra drive do?

i honestly carnt remember it was a long time ago

How is this baby doing? :wub

And when is the A-C conversion kit for the B4.1 coming??? :D

viscos drive was it also called ? i have one of those in a draw lol

ViscoDrive was Schumacher's version of Losi's HydraDrive. I think they came out around the same time.

viscodrive was basically a wet slipper, hydradrive was basically a vaned disk in a finned enclosure running in diff oil and seemed to work better, it was lighter too. it takes a lot of the kick away, just like a normal slipper but a lot more effectively. I had one on an old ultima with a stealth box in it for a while, you could just give it more stick without upsetting the car. might help a bit with your wheelspin as it would take away the initial punch which helps break traction

So basically they are a type of fluid coupling then, like in an Automatic transmission?

Yep. think torque converter that goes between the engine and trannsmission in a full size car.That's exactly what the fluid units were.

BloodClod,
The project looks very nice.Very good job.
Two questions:

-Why short front shocks?Is it due to space limitations?
-Do you find the bent front camber links holding up ok?

Again,thumbs up for taking up this project

Manolis

Thanks guys for the kind comments.

Apologies for the lack of updates - been involved in organizing a series of local buggy races and also a first vintage event coming in December - didn't have a lot of time to continue to develop ideas in this car.

I have run it a number of times and at a local race it once finished 2nd in the A Main too.

So far in it's current form it excels in tracks that are smooth but where traction is lacking - in these conditions a typical rear motor buggy struggles to keep from spinning out but a FF buggy pulls out of every corner without incident.

However, the greatest challenge for a FF buggy in my limited experience is wheelspin. The way the weight is distributed it's just a characteristic of a FF buggy that it fights for forward traction. That's why it excels on smooth tracks when the front tires get maximum contact to keep the car moving - a FF thrives on smooth lines that allow it to keep moving at maximum speed. Slow down, and it'll cost precious seconds to accelerate back to speed.

I've recently been working on a M05 mini rally car too and I've found a diff that's set as tight as possible (almost spool-like) to help the car in rough spots as it reduces the occurence of the diff unloading on rutted surfaces which rob the car of precious forward traction.

When time allows the next thing to do is to find a way to tighten up the diff as much as possible and to also raise the rear pivot point on the suspension so as to reduce weight transfer to the rear on acceleration.


Thank you Manolis. :)

Front short shocks are used because of space constraints - you are right. Any FF buggy design has to contend with a lot of stuff up front... steering, gearbox, slipper, suspension, etc... The short shocks were used along with long rodends to ensure the steering tie-rods do not hit anything throughout their full stroke.

Bent camber links are holding up fine. :)

hello,

first, congratulations! nice work!:thumbsup:

i've an idea to increase the traction, i think...
may be a 4-gears transmission can help, to reverse the motor's rotation.
like in "top" mid-motor 2wd car.

bye!

Actually I believe that a 4-gears transmission will decrease the traction of a FWD car.

The 4-gears transmission will cause more weight transfer to the rear (compared to a 3-gears transmission). Since the driving wheels are the front ones, rearward weight transfer will decrease traction rather than increase it (like in the case of rear driving wheels).

Avner.

True if the motor was behind the front wheels but it's not...

Remember that in this case, the motor is fixed rigidly to the rest of the car, so you've got to look at the whole car as a system when you're looking into moments, etc. Consider how a car pivots around its centre of gravity when adjusting a jump w/ the throttle - no matter where the motor or drive wheels are...

A 4-gear system basically lets the turning moment from an accelerating motor add up with the moment from the accelerating drive wheels, as opposed to partially counteracting it.

In either case, the wheels are the big players here - since they're massive and have a pretty big diameter with most of the mass around the edge.

And, the accelerating wheels are definitely working against you if you're front wheel drive, since the weight will transfer to the back since the moment will act on the centre of gravity of the whole car - which invariably is between the axles...

This brings to mind an idea.... since we've now got more power from our brushless motors than we can possibly use, how about building in some sort of counter-rotating flywheel that accelerates in an opposite rotation to the wheels? Hmmm...:eh?:

Cheers,
Ty

crazy!:thumbsup:
or a kind of gyroscope, like in boats for exemple :
http://www.nauticexpo.fr/prod/seakee...12-242078.html
that's able to create the needed's forces i think!? :confused::D

bye, merry christmas!

has the car been tryed on high grip astro ?:thumbsup:

Why did they stop making them?

Nope - unfortunately no astro tracks where I'm at. :)

I'm also curious about this! :)

IFMAR (and ROAR) regulations specify that FWDs must be run in the 4WD class. This rule was put into effect in... the early 90s? when the FWDs had shown to be quite successful and became (more) popular. I'm not sure why the rule was created, I guess someone didn't like these buggies and was influencial enough to change something about their increase in popularity.

the only thing that buggy needs is a couple of small lexan mud guards along the trailing arm to stop so much dirt in the shocks...apart from that 100% awesome work, well done!

Can't believe it's been more than a decade since I built this buggy.

Taking it for a spin after a long hiatus... and for the first time on slippery wet astroturf too. :)

Hope you enjoy the video.

Blast from the past! Awesome!

Great car, and great little video!

Your FWD build and video and all those years ago was a big part of what inspired me to try building my own FWD buggy too. It got me so hooked that I continued development and have since made two conversion kits for the public (ORB FF210 and ORB ForWarD) so that more people may enjoy FWD buggies :) So thanks for sharing your project, all those years ago and again in 2021! :thumbsup:

Thank you for your kind words. The ORB FF you've developed is truly brilliant!