Interesting project... "Kudzu DG2 IMSA race car - street car project - tube chassis, body channeled 8", Chevy V8..."

$15000

craigslist link

More info

That car is awesome. I wish I had the money.

Cool! I have a feeling you'd have trouble making that street legal.

The front suspension is cute.. do you think they both have torsion bars in them?

I wonder if he knows his tires are on backwards..

hahahhahaha

4 914 a arms!!!


ROFL

"4 914 a arms!!!"

Well at least one 911 a-arm - check out the swaybar mount...

still, looks like fun

Thats some ingenious engineering..

I would love that car... drive daily!!!

That guy should be shot. That car would've been great in Vintage racing before he started his butcher job. I especially like his bathroom grates on top of the front fenders. Or maybe I'm just biased because I was in Brumos race shop today and saw some real machinery. And I got to sit in a SLR. Sorry no pictures as cameras are not allowed in the museum or race shop.

T.C.

Designed and bult by Jim Downey in Atlanta.

What a shame.

Paul What is the negative side on the Jim Downey build??
CCLINMYLIST

that dude is high as a kite!

You could buy similar fiberglass and build a better setup from scratch for $15K. Start off by getting rid of that front suspension (I can't even begin to imagine what the bump steer of that mess would be like on the street) and all that square bar...

I can't really see the rear suspension but just a little inspection of the photos screams suspect.

And the fact the tires are on backwards is hilarious and completely indicative of how that whole build probably is. Maybe he used a 915 trans and forgot to flip it so it has 5 reverses and one forward

Not quite. Like ByndBad914 pointed out, the front a-arms are equal length, which makes for a horrible geometry. Think about the dynamic camber, dynamic toe, and... well, basically all the bump characteristics, which basically means he would be lucky if it handled as well as a Target shopping cart.

It aint easy to build a race car. It takes lots of work and knowledge, and I'm sure he put work into that thing. Unfortunately he doesnt know much about design... at all.

Well.. If I built a race car.. thats probably how it would turn out


that being said.



dont let me build your race car...

hehe
(and I dont even drink!)

No negative on Downey, just on what has been done to the car now.

The lower control arms are mounted on spacers. Not a big difference but they are indeed not equal length. That said I wouldn't do it that way but who knows.

How does Downing get into this conversation?

It says it is a former Kudzu IMSA car. Downey built the Kudzus. Named after the Ga. state vine, the kudzu.

i wonder if it has ac? that would be one hot(temp wise) car to drive on sunny days.

k

That picture of the front end shows about 1" of shock travel 'till it bottoms out.

The Kudzu DG-2 was first built in 1991 and designed around the Buick V-6, but could also accept the Mazda Rotary. They utilized the Buick due to a rule change involving piston engine capacity increases, something the Rotary obviously is immune to. Jim Pace, driving for Essex racing won twice and 3rd in points. 92 saw Andy Evans, Fermin Velez, Leon Bender Dominic Dobson, Charles Morgan and Tommy Riggins( Scandia/Norwegian CruiseLines) and Jim Downing & Howard Katz ( Bel-Ray Oil) take 2nd in class (6th overall) at Daytona, 2nd (10th 0a) @ Miami, 2nd (8th oa) A Road Atlanta, 1st @ Mid-Ohio and 1,2,3 (9th 10th and11th oa) @ New Orleans 2nd (8th oa) @ Watkins Glen, 1,2,3 (8th,9th & 10th oa) @ Road America, 2nd (5th oa) @ Phoenix, and 1st (6th oa0 In 1993, Jim Downing & Tim McAdam were 2nd (8th oa) @ Miami, 3rd ( 13th oa) @ Sebring, 2nd (7th oa) @ Atlanta Motor Speedway, 2nd (5th oa) @ Mid-Ohio. The Camel Lights Champion all 3 years was Parker Johnstone in the Comp-Tech Acura Spice.

T.C.

Regardless of what each of us think.That poor guy is taking a serious bath when it comes to what he's got in it.




I wouldn't doubt for a minute,he's getting .30cent on the dollar or less.


Can you imagine what his wife is telling him


Whoever buys it at that price has one helluva starting point for a serious ride.



Ron

What is going on with this car? I have seen various Kudzu cars in various race track paddocks from the early IMSA GTP days to their last showing in the Grand Am series at Daytona, but have never seen a chassis that looked like that. The cars I have seen were all aluminum monocoque construction, not square tube space frames. What did this guy do? Find a DG-2 body shell and build the chassis. To say this was designed by Jim Downing/Kudzu is insane. Jim Downings teams and cars may not have had unlimited budgets, but I don't think he would ever produce something like this.

BTW, if you want to see a brief history of the Kudzu racing cars click on this link and go the the Kudzu files. http://www.mulsannescorner.com/

This site is run by Mike Fuller, who worked with Jim Downing in the past. I really like his site. Great info on many racing sportscars, especially if you are interested in the the aerodynamic aspects.

TC, you know all that crap off the top of your head? You Mr. Kudzu.

That is exactly what I figured as well - he got a body and went to town in his barn. Whatever that body is worth is all the car is worth - buy it for the body and chuck everything else.

I feel a bit sorry for this guy as well if he bought it that way and really though he would have something. But then Darwin says some people just need to take a bath every once in awhile. What will be interesting is if it actually ever sells and for how much - then we can determine if there are two crazy people out there or just one.

Brett - I think you would agree that those arms are equal length - look again. He may have the pivot points spaced differently, but the arms are equal. I know you know your stuff... just look again. What he should have is an upper pivot point moved outboard, not inboard, and a physically shorter arm on the top. Through travel in its current configuration, on 2" of compression I bet the toe change would be insane (if you could even get 2" before bottoming the shocks out as URY pointed out). At 2" of compression travel would be a minimum for a "street" car unless you cruise gated communities with perfectly paved streets.