It is a lot of FUN!!! The landing in that picture wasnt bad. I have 10 inches of wheel travel front and 11 rear.
Tony,
I bought my frame already assembled and built it from there. The front suspension is pre66 bug suspension(aka Link pin). The rear is IRS(independant rear suspension as opposed to swing axle) from a VW bus. Its rear engine. I run a 6 rib 091 '76-79 bus transmission. The bus transmission is much much stronger than the bus trans. Also you can run bus CV joints which are bigger than type 1(bug) and can handle more angle. I have mine set at 16 degrees right now and havent had a failure in over a year of riding. To give you an idea of size that rear tire in the picture is a 33x12.50-15. I would do a rear engine rail first. You will have plenty to do and sort out with that. A mid engine requires even more work/time/money. Buy a factory built frame. You will make several mistakes in the first frame and end up building another one. Simply modify the factory frame to your liking. A book you need to buy before building a buggy is Jeff Hibbards Baja Bugs and Buggies. Some of the info is a bit dated but its still a very very useful book. If you havent found www.dune-buggy.com yet then you need to go check out buggytalk. That form is like this one except for with buggies. Be aware these are as addictive as 914s. They will end up costing you a lot of time and money. If you cant accept that get out now
Be prepared to spend at least 2500. Buying someone elses unfinished project can be a big help. I have found due to my habits of liking to leave the ground I need to build better suspension. I will be fabricating an a arm front end for mine using a 924 steering rack and vanagon spindles. I'm also going to be fabing some longer and wider trailing arms for the rear. I havent decided yet if I'm going to use airbags or coil overs to support the suspension. Anyway, check out DBC. You can ask questions and get parts there.
I stuck a picture of what my buggy started as when I got it.
John