Hey Guys, Im new here, great forum!

I'm one of the guys in perth, actually, only one at the momment who are running a CAMS buggy.
Edge have helped me our alot though the process so big thanks to them!
www.edge.au.com
Heres my current one, im in the process of designing a new one.
Buggy goes great very happy with it, cant wait to paint it and make it look the part and get out and have some fun! the hayabusa is alot of power, a handful to say the least. i wouldn't bother about going bigger or turbo, unless you are rolling in cash! i've upgraded the gearbox to handle it, Has been a big learning curve so far! poured maybe a little to much money into it

I've also attached a write up of my first race and a link to my build thread.











http://www.edge.au.com/forum1/viewtopic.php?t=3459&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

We were finishing up and Northam with the WASA boys, and I had snapped a dodgy chain i found so I could run for the night, having the buggy back on the trailer loaded up ready to go and Brian asked, so when are you going to get your arse into gear and get your log book? I looked for a reasonable excuse, but it had seemed I had used them all up!

So going along with the Joke for a little bit, I was up for it, then it dawned on me, what left have I got to do? Nothing really, what am I waiting for? after the boys convinced me to get bite the bullet and do it, I spent the good side of 5 hours the next day washing cleaning and de-rusting the buggy, attempting to make it look all shiny and new again, which turned out to come up well for an un-painted job.
That very next day we got it done and with very few changes, such as stickers (which I forgot to put on!) and a firewall, the buggy got its logbook!
Massive Thanks go to Harleigh and Damien for helping out with that.

After being drilled several times on the fact that everythings lose, I gave in and spent the next week between working and Tafe, going over everything, checking it was okay, making small changes, Then took it testing, mainly just high speed runs, we were able to calibrate the Speedo healer and work out a top speed of 167, or there about. More on that later.
after getting that back and adjusting the brake bia's and cleaning it yet again we were getting close to ready, and Ill be honest, fairly nervous as I didn't know what to expect! After taking the buggy down to Harleigh's for Harleigh and Damien to go over it, very little was found, apart from the fact I needed to spend a couple more hours cleaning it back up.

Got to the Event on Saturday morning, and taking the buggy of the trailer and drove it straight over to the scrutineer's. And went to sign in. Apart from a little hick-up with some lost paper work everything went smoothly and before I knew it I was belting up to head out for reconnaissance.

Doing the prologue lap first, I was right into the little lap, considering it was all I was use to in a racing aspect so far, it felt great. The buggy was responding great and it seemed the little tweak to the Speedo-healer had a positive effect on performance. All the dials and electrical system warnings were fine and the buggy was all warmed up. we then drove around the main track, and boy was that a blast, even though we were only going slow it gave you enough time to have a look around and enjoy it, considering I dont have a navigator pace notes werent going to stick in my head for 30km worth of track, so I tried to just make a mental note of the major dangers, including the ridiculously large kangaroo in the middle of one part of the track (more on that later!)

Got back to the pits and fueled up, checked everything over, havent had any problems, adjusted some pressures in the wheels (thanks Brian) and had a look around how everyone else operates.
Coming up to prologue and I was last as I had a test to do to get my CAMS License. Still not to sure how to handle the track with the buggy, considering its setup I took it easy, Ive now learnt Prologue isn't the place to take it easy! I started pushing it a little bit harder in the tight twisty section, over judging a corner I spin the buggy out, found the button for reverse pulled myself out, rammed myself into a tree, then jumped my way out of there and kept going. Got back to the pits, nothing wrong and happy with the way the buggy handled, it seemed the more you give it, the more it wants. Sounds familiar...

I had come in 13th overall, can't complain with that really. Well, didn't stop some, cough dad! so got pumped up and ready for the race, all good to go, move out to the start line, head off speeding up though the "drifting" section, and power cuts, I lose all signal's on the digital dash, and the dials reset and stop. I had the same problem the previous week, but I was sure I had fixed it. Obviously not. So I pulled over to get out of the way, replaced the fuse which had blown, which happens to be the main fuse for the system.

Then did the rest of the first 2 km's then just before the gate, Bang! Pops another one. Lucky I had packed 3 or 4 in the box! so again, took the neck braise off, lost the helmet, took the gloves off, undid the wrist restraints, undid the seat belt, got out, undid the lid on the box, got the fuses out, putt the lid back on the box, replace the fuse, get back in, put helmet on, do up set belt, put gloves on, put wrist restraints on, neck restraint, start the buggy up, wait for a buggy to go past, and were off again! Hopeful I wont have to do that for a while! I got though around 15km and I thought we were onto a winner, and then it goes again. Great. this time in frustration I do everything a little more aggressively and I lose both the spinney nuts that holt the box together, so I spent a couple minutes murmuring tangled words, then found them where I had put them, on the seat, called myself all kind of mumbled words then headed of and enjoyed the rest of the lap, the plan was to come in after the first lap and do something dodgy to stop it from happening, but just as I got into it, I flew past the pits and onto the second lap, sh#t!

The second lap was very interesting. Blew the fuse 3 more times, life goes on! Remember that kangaroo? I went to over take a buggy on the inside, not being able to see anything except for the buggies dust light, the buggy pulls away and the dust fades away and just before I release its right in front of me, I run straight over top of it, crusty demon style! then went back into the pits, it had started to rain, and I was all out on tear offs, so I grabbed some more, did the dodgy on the electrical system, fixed up a large blister on my hand then headed out for the 3rd lap, the 3rd lap was fast, the track was getting ruff but I was really into it! great fun, until 10km from the end of the race, where the top rear right A-arm said goodbye to its rod end and the rear right fell to the ground, I looked in my mirror to see the wheel being dragged by a brake line so pulled over quickly.

The engine knew before me something had gone wrong and was shut off before I even pulled up. Not the best thing for an engine that revs to 10,500rpm and had been hammered for 100 odd kms to have no coolant flowing around now is it! I quickly started the engine and sat there and let it run at 2500rpm for about 30mins, slowly watching the temp come down from "your an idiot red" to danger red. The problem with the electrical problem was the whole fuse/starter relay unit, which has been replaced now.

The problem with the rear end was that I had a farm quality rod end in an adjuster housing which wasn't a tight fit to start with. We think that there combined stress of shock loading and hitting ruts with a large side force and strength the heim shaft, enough for the lock nut to loosen up, letting the whole lot bang around, and eventually pulling out.

For the sake of a $30 rod end, I had just blown a shock, a CV, shitted the axle (the spines were damaged) a brake line and lower A arm. To fix this, im re-designing the lower A Arms, fitting moly rod ends everywhere and running a 3/4" rod end on the top rather than a 5/8th. So waiting for an hour or so, with another team which had crashed about 1km away the sweep car came past and gave us a lift back to the pits, where we where then able to o take the trailer out and get the buggy.

Got back and loaded the trailer up so we wouldn't have to do it the next day, and resorted to the second reason for the weekend, relaxing! Apart from the sleepless night caused my Mr. Trumpet in the other tent, it was a great time. Great bunch of people and cant wait for the next one!