Mobius's 330s

[Mobius 1]

whats that buggy thing then?

Ok cheers anyway.

The buggy thing is a kite buggy. Not quite as quick as a scooby but when your doing 40mph with your ass 1.5" off the deck it feels pretty quick, especially when it all starts going sideways

Basically you use a big kite (around 4-5 sq meters for a 12mph wind, smaller for more wind and bigger for less) for traction and use the same principals as sailing a yacht (tacking etc) to move around. Its awesome fun

You steer with your feet on the buggy and control the kite through your waist harness with your arms. Looks like this..........

Cheers

Ben

Edited May 18, 2009 by Mobius 1

[the_1]

now that is uber cool!!

how much do these things set you back?

[Mobius 1]

now that is uber cool!!

how much do these things set you back?

Well to get a cheap starter buggy you would be looking at £280. Then for a kite, to learn with you would want a 3-4 meter kite that you would use in 10-ish mph wind, this would get you moving without scaring the cr@p out of you. That would be around £150 - £350 depending on the quality. More expensive ones really do fly better!!. But the price of £150 would be for a very reasonable quality kite. You could get one for much less but they just tend to be cheap and crappy. They will hinder your ability to learn. A harness which you wear and takes the main brunt of power from the kite and transmits through you body to the buggy would be around £50. You don't need this to learn with tho, but you need it to buggy all day as we do. Your arms would feel six foot long..........

Thats about it really. You may want some pads and a lid too. I would at least go for a lid

This would allow for you to buggy in only a small window of opportunity as if there is more wind you would be over powered and vice versa in low wind. You just slowly add to your quiver of kites until you have one for every occasion. Just to give you an idea, my buggy is £850. I have a 1.4m, 2m, 2.4m, 3m, 4m, 4.9m, 5.5m and 6.5m kites.

There are loads of good clubs and forums around. The easiest way to learn would be to get a couple of lessons.

Check this forum out for any info you need. Kite people, like scooby owners are quite friendly and helpful and will help with any questions you have. Here is a link

Flexifoil forum

HTH

Ben

Edited May 18, 2009 by Mobius 1

[NormantheDog]

Where was the beach?

[Mobius 1]

Where was the beach?

It's Gwithian beach, in between Hale and St Ives. Awesome place to buggy. We time our visit with the tide times so the beach is fully usable. From one end to the other is just under 3miles, which you can do in one run if the wind direction is right

I had a look at fitting the splitter last night at work. It's not a great quality piece I must confess. I will have to remake the mounting brackets and respray it as it has a fair few chips. I got the day off work today and am just about to take her to the garage to get the fogs and radio sorted

Ben

[Mobius 1]

Hi all.

As requested I took a couple pics today of the fogs, now all fitted. I also have a radio that works now

I got the parts guy to give me a discount on the sports mesh grill as well, so.......... I may have put that on order too

That should be in tomorrow and it just so happens I will be passing the garage in the morning anyway. Gonna be a busy week next week

Have a good weekends driving all

Ben

Edited May 22, 2009 by Mobius 1

[stum450n]

Looking good Ben!

Tell you what, the more I look at your 330s, the more i think I'm getting a little soft for the new models!

[Mobius 1]

I will convert you all..............................one by one if I have to.................

Wait till you see it with the JDM sports grill. That gets rid of the top plastic bits by the badge that make it look just a little bit too Mazda 3 like.........

Edited May 22, 2009 by Mobius 1

[gc8-r]

I'm keeping an open mind

But wouldn't mind a blast on your board, looks wicked.... I only have a 3.7M kite, which is big enough to lift my 6 3" 16 stone frame but not exactly mind blowing if you know what i mean.....

6 3" and 19 stone more like it.....

and dont think they do a kite that big (more hot air ballon)

keep a open mind,but don't open your eyes(aaaaaggghhhhh bug eye )

seen the grill and it will look the nuts,,as the cars the nuts as it is...well i woud'nt say no!!!!!!

cheers chris.....

[stum450n]

LOL, quality fella! i'm still laughing.... but now need to go back to the docs as my wounds have opened up

you been on the red bull old man? or did it take you 2 days to come up with this

I spend all day detaling two motors and come back to this lol!!!!

I will reserve judgement on the Mazda until i see pics... and see it in the flesh.... and being that i drive what is affectionately known as the ugliest of the clan, i'm allowed too

Although after a day on the dodo juice it looks spanking lovely!!! must take pics, but now dark and rain tomorrow... but the old girl looks great...

Rain tomorrow????? Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

[Mobius 1]

Rain tomorrow????? Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

Shouldn't be with us until late afternoon, thundery showers, (but don't quote me on that )

Right I'm off to bed for an earlier night cos I know how early Chris gets up and I don't want him waiting around too long for me with the cider/beer tempting him. He's got a long day ahead of him as I teach him to weld

Ben

Ps. I'm not very happy with how painting the grill turned out. It was a nightmare to begin, with my black paint reacted with the stuff already on the grill, but then Chris turned up and we fixed all that. All was going well, got a nice finish with the back but then managed to put a run in the clear coat Sanded it back and re-clear'd it but it's obviously not perfect. I'm sure it will need redoing in a year when it's covered in stone chips anyway, so I'll leave it and fit it on the car tomorrow along with the splitter hopefully, and chris's air box, it's going to be a busy day

Edited May 24, 2009 by Mobius 1

[Mobius 1]

Bird poop everywhere then!!!!! Or is that just me and my weldong lol!!!

Pics asap!! :boldblue:

Yeh and that was just my welding Chris didn't try. He seemed to be concentrating hard on not falling asleep with boredom so I thought best not to push it

So the demazdification continued today. The grill had been left to harden over night ready for fitment today. In the end Chris very kindly did this for me whilst I made his cold air shield (cheers Chris )

I think it now looks a whole world better. As Chris said it's a shame the plastic bar behind the grill is so obvious but it's less so than on the original

Was fairly easy to get the bumper off and make the change.

We also had a look at the splitter. We agreed that the best way forward on that was to add some extra GRP to it instead of trying to force it into shape. There is a small portion each side that has had too much trimmed of it so it leaves a gap between it and the bumper. I'll work on that this week

Mazda??.......................where??...............

I hope this is enough to keep you happy Matty??

Cheers

Ben

Edited May 25, 2009 by Mobius 1

[andyjudge]

Having seen the car in the flesh today Ben I must admit it looks v nice.

See you again soon

Andy

[Mobius 1]

Having seen the car in the flesh today Ben I must admit it looks v nice.

See you again soon

Andy

Thanks for the kind words mate. Shame I didn't get to stay too long and talk to more people, but there is always next time

I will continue to work on the exhaust this week and may get it done next weekend. Will put a video up.

Cheers

Ben

[Mobius 1]

Yay finally the exhaust is done

Seems like it took forever. I had intended on taking more photos of it but time was slipping and many late nights were spent at work trying to get it finshed, one became an early morning

I remade the cat pipe, cetre pipe and backbox.

The cat pipe has a s/steel flange cut to marry the end of the down pipe. The original tube was 2 1/2" in diameter but was made from quite thick metal. I have remade it in 20swg (0.9mm) thick 304 s/steel and kept the original diameter. At the end of the cat pipe where it joins the centre pipe I have done away with the sprung ball joint and used male/female rings with V band clamps. Also this pipe needed a bracket to hard mount it to the diff casing and a lambda sensor boss.

The centre pipe was made from 60mm tube. This I have upped to 2 1/2" (63.5mm) and again made it from 0.9mm wall tube. I replaced the ball joint with a v band clamp which is a solid joint so to introduce some flexibility back into the system I have a s/steel braided flexi section. Then it runs down the car in the original channel, however I managed to get it a little higher than the stock one. This was helped by the fact that my centre pipe enters the backbox in the centre instead of one side like the original. There is another v band clamp just before the backbox.

The backbox is also made from 0.9mm sheet, but where the centre pipe enters it there is a doubler made from 1.2mm sheet to reinforce this area. Is is cut in the shape of a "splat" to reduce the risk of vibration cracking and is the same for the "flower" which is welded around the lambda boss sensor.

The backbox has s/steel perf tube inside. They are merged at the side where the centre pipe enters and then split off to each side of the box. This part is 60mm tube. Then there is another bend out of the box to the tail pipes where it cones up to the tail pipe size of 3 1/2". That is the same size as the Prodrive box I took off. I have only made a single tail pipe exit each side as this was quicker and I didn't know if it would even sound ok I can change this at a later date if I wish but I thought I see how the single looks.

So it was all finished on friday night and the sound................ well it was exactly what I hoped for. I sounds pretty stock on tick over and if you just tickling around it is still quite subtle, tho it does sound more meaty still. Then when you open her up there is a nice flat four rumble and a bit of a bark too. On coast there are some pops too, but again not all the time and quite subtle. Thats exactly what I was after.

Inside you can hear it a lot better and it has got rid of the really annoying bass drone that it had. All round winner

I made a video but it not that great so will have a go with the apprentices after work tomorrow.

Any thoughts on the tail pipes?? Here is the original

Cheers

Ben

Oh I also got the Whiteline rear ARB and link braces fitted today. Body roll has deffo been reduced and feels more positive in the corners. Will do the positive traction kit this week

Edited June 21, 2009 by Mobius 1

[stum450n]

Bloody hell Ben mate that's awesome work!!!!

Much prefer the exit pipes now too!

[gc8-r]

just had a inspection of it, and must say......

spot on job ..

[Big 'D']

Looks the dogs danglies mate, good job

Cheers Iain

[FruityPebble]

So Benjamin ....i shall be dropping the car of tomorrow for its new one of those!! i seem to have a touch of the green eyed monster. That looks lovely! i'm keen to hear how it sounds!

[Mobius 1]

Thanks for the nice comments, cheers guys

I took inspiration from the video I found on youtube of the Miltek system. That was the one I liked the sound of best, then I found some photos of it to see how it was layed out. I nearly made two straight through silencers, one for each side (like the Haywood and scott) but in the end went for the single which is the same size as the prodrive one, but with less resistance inside. I'm glad I did as I think it would have ended up louder than I would like.

Who knows I might have even released a few more horses

Cheers

Ben

[Mobius 1]

So Benjamin ....i shall be dropping the car of tomorrow for its new one of those!! i seem to have a touch of the green eyed monster. That looks lovely! i'm keen to hear how it sounds!

ohhhh thats a real shame cos it wont fit your car

You'll have to get a 330s

B

[FruityPebble]

ohhhh thats a real shame cos it wont fit your car

You'll have to get a 330s

B

I'm not sure i want to go down that route now .... what was that about a 'proper car'

Shave one tail pipe off and bend the tube a bit and i'm sure you can make it fit

[Mobius 1]

Shave one tail pipe off and bend the tube a bit and i'm sure you can make it fit

Easy as that eh?? Well I'll look forward to watching you do that

Anyway, who said I was a benjamin?? (i hate it when your right)

[FruityPebble]

Easy as that eh?? Well I'll look forward to watching you do that

Anyway, who said I was a benjamin?? (i hate it when your right)

Actually i'm not so bad with a grinder, i've chopped many a roof skin off a Nova in my days! ... i might need assistance with the welding it back together though , im rubbish at welding ....

I'm always right

[Mobius 1]

Ok here is quick exhaust video

Cheers

Ben

Edited August 12, 2009 by Mobius 1