I'm confused. Everybody is talking about cars with offroad tires, which is like a scrambler not a Sumo. The whole point of sumo is a small, light, good handling, on-road vehicle. So it's pretty much a tube frame autocross car like a Seven, Exocet or similar.
Nick Comstock said:In reply to Jaynen :
I'd drive the wheels off of that. I don't think it'll be legal in Texas though since they just outlawed dune buggies
I wonder how far you would have to go to be able to claim it was a home built kit car and register one that way
Nick Comstock said:In reply to Jaynen :
I'd drive the wheels off of that. I don't think it'll be legal in Texas though since they just outlawed dune buggies
Watch the Baja 1000 Beetle video I linked, that's how they made a street legal "RZR" in Oregon.
bluej said:You'd like my rallyx e30 coupe. Later gen Dohc 2.8L straight six swapped (m52b28 in bmw-ese). Strong suspension at around stock height, but not overly stiff. Increased rear travel. Homemade 3/16" plate steel front skid plate.
Our site used to be a place called "gravel mountain". It was appropriate for there.
Uh yeah, I for sure would. Got a build thread somewhere?
buzzboy said:I'm confused. Everybody is talking about cars with offroad tires, which is like a scrambler not a Sumo. The whole point of sumo is a small, light, good handling, on-road vehicle. So it's pretty much a tube frame autocross car like a Seven, Exocet or similar.
Don’t sumos have some suspension travel? No a strong point of the Locost persuasion.
I see a 4wheel sumo as more akin to a VW Street Rail. Something born to go offroad, but tuned for the street. And in that raw, no-doors kinda way.
So the rzr seems spiritually closer, but a modern, torquey, sand rail, built for the street seems to be the ticket in my opinion.
Keith Tanner said:buzzboy said:I'm confused. Everybody is talking about cars with offroad tires, which is like a scrambler not a Sumo. The whole point of sumo is a small, light, good handling, on-road vehicle. So it's pretty much a tube frame autocross car like a Seven, Exocet or similar.
Don’t sumos have some suspension travel? No a strong point of the Locost persuasion.
Yes they have probably at least 10 inches if not more
Not saying your all wrong. But your all wrong.
bigdaddylee82 said:One part VW Beetle, one part Polaris RZR, stir vigorously, bake at 350° for 45 min.
All kinds of gnarly ideas watching that, awesome
The problem with big wheel travel like in a pre runner type setup is the styling is going to look super goofy with the short tire sizes that good sticky rubber compounds come in.
I'm thinking since we're talking about a street car, we're talking about the typical crumbling broken asphalt and concrete. Dirt and gravel roads. Hopping the occasional curb and crossing medians or cutting through empty lot type stuff. Not actually pre running the Baja 1000 or running the Rubicon.
I'm not seeing the need for massive amounts of travel. I'm still leaning towards the rally car on tarmac tires as being the better tool for this job.
wearymicrobe said:Not saying your all wrong. But your all wrong.
Lol nomad tactical starts at 92k
Flyin' Miata now sells an off road kit for the Miata-do we need to discuss any other cars?
In reply to wearymicrobe :
Dang, beat me to it
loosecannon said:Flyin' Miata now sells an off road kit for the Miata-do we need to discuss any other cars?
I'd rather have the Targa setup.
Does anyone know off hand which cars have a good amount of wheel travel? Wasn't the second generation neon known for having a really small amount of travel?
In reply to Nick Comstock :
That's been my struggle trying to bench build stuff. That and trying to figure out how well aftermarket shocks will handle broken pavement and such. Seems like this is the only forum with good technical information.
This seems like something I'm at least a little qualified to weigh in on! A rally car is a good choice, although smaller and lighter (like the Escort Nick posted) is more "supermoto adjacent" than big and powerful- my rally RX7, for example, might have been the spiritual equivalent of a 125cc 2 stroke supermoto. The XR4Ti, on the other hand, is a little big and heavy, and less tossable, so it's more on the adventure bike end of the spectrum, like an F800GS or something.
I was actually looking at turning my 2wd '84 Toyota pickup into something like what this thread is discussing, and the plan was to use drop spindles and a notch kit in combination with stiffer torsion bars and long shocks/bumpstops to get a stock height truck with enough travel to hit a yump, and cram some big and relatively sticky street tires under it. The most sidewall I could find in a reasonably sticky street tire was the 255/50r16 BFG Sport Comp 2, so I was planning to use those.
If you have questions about the suspension travel potential of a given vehicle let me know, I have poked around under a lot of rwd stuff in junkyards trying to figure out the same thing.
Nick Comstock said:Does anyone know off hand which cars have a good amount of wheel travel? Wasn't the second generation neon known for having a really small amount of travel?
Volvo 240, RA64 series of Celicas and equivalent Supra, BMW e24 e28 e30 e36 compact (not sure on regular e36), FC RX7, and surprisingly many 60s-70s american things... think Maverick, Mustang II, Pinto, and even big things like Cadillacs.
Cars at the other end of the spectrum (suprisingly SHORT travel) include most Nissans and a lot of trucks.
buzzboy said:I'm confused. Everybody is talking about cars with offroad tires, which is like a scrambler not a Sumo. The whole point of sumo is a small, light, good handling, on-road vehicle.
buzzboy is right. We are looking at it all wrong.
But then I realise that a supermoto car (off-road capable, but with road tires) is kind of scary and a bad idea:
In reply to fanfoy :
Nah, he's just about to highside, how very moto of him!
Exocet + Paco suspension + 200TW tires?
It sounds like a lot of people are saying tarmac rally car. As a 318ti fanboy I'm going to say that is my final answer.
Does a short cab short bed 2wd Silverado count? or similar in a F150 variant?
Good shocks and LSD out back as well as some new wheels/tires and your set right?
The only issues is that is on the big end of the spectrum.... its a full size truck afterall.
I may be way off base on this but a Supermoto bike is always an offroad model that is running more street oriented tires, so wouldn't the automotive equivalent be something like a dune buggy or pre-runner truck running street oriented tires? If it is a street oriented car running off road tires, isn't that a scrambler, not a Supermoto? I submit a pic of a scrambler to illustrate
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