Last week I stated that I had seen many buggies that could have been successful if the designer had taken the time to do it right. This week I wanted to bring attention to a relatively new designer who's working hard at doing just that. The buggy is the Tricked Flame Racer GT by TrickedOut. The scoops, louvers and other styling cues are well done, and the quality of workmanship is excellent. Priced at 14,500t this buggy is one that should be checked out by anyone looking for quality at a reasonable price. 

A few days ago I dropped in on an old friend. Ovni and I, along with several others, went through some of his very extensive collection. Up until then I thought a one seater was a one seater. I have to admit I was stunned when I saw his tall one seater! Someday I'd love to have one of those. The tall one seater was derived from a Dirt Devil TUV. As you can see from the side by side comparison, there's quite a difference.  

 

Then Ovni asked me to drive another one seater. I expected the usual sluggish buggy. Imagine my shock when it accelerated quickly to a very respectable speed! When I put it in reverse, it even backed up easily! What's up with THAT! He explained that there's a speedy one seater too. They're even more rare than the regular one seaters. Visually, they're different in that the rear wheels make no contact with the body. As you can see from the images the regular one seater's rear wheels are almost embedded into the body. On the speedy one seater there's a definite space.  

I thought I'd seen it all. Then he popped out a stubby. Now I've seen stubbies, I even own one. This stubby, however, was from a relatively new buggy. I know this because it's one of mine. I'd NEVER seen a ZMW stubby before, EVER. The Taranto is one of the lowest priced ZMWs made, but the one Ovni owns is  worth many, many times what the regular buggy sells for. Sonblock told me a long time ago not to expect to ever see a new stubby because they'd fixed the computer problem that caused them. In this case, there's only the one that I know of so while the overall glitch may have been corrected, it's apparently still possible for an occasional stubby to appear.  As you can see from the side by side image there's a definite difference which is even more apparent in the rear views. 

 

Wow, so no more surprises, right? WRONG! Did you know there are also two different Groovy Bugs? I didn't. Ovni had me take one out on the water and drive it as fast as I could. Suddenly I was passed by another Groovy Bug that went by me like I was standing still! Yep, there's a speedy Groovy Bug too. Visually there's no difference, until you see one go streaking past you. Then it's obvious.

 

Ovni's done some testing on all of these buggies and he's given me permission to reprint his results here.  

All Tests were done over water at New Kansas, September 20 2006 at 2.00 am, total time in test 2 hrs. Tested 2 different Groovy buggies, and 3 different One Seater buggies.  

Normal Groovy buggy 

Max Speed: 180 kms

Speed flying back: never

The motor on this buggy has an old sound like when a car its using the last drop of gasoline. The car was really stable, didn't wiggle to sides.

 

Speedy groovy buggy 

Max Speed:450 kms

Speed flying back: 400kms, rare but it did.

In this buggy the motor has the same sound. At 400kms the buggy's body moved side to side as balancing over the wheels. Such movement didn't caused any wiggling on the wheels. Always stable and firm, this car can fly back at 400kms, rare to do it but it did it.

It was cool to see it flying back, getting over the air from the front wheels and rolling back like a turtle on cement. The Groovies look exactly the same from all the ways you look at them. The only difference is the speed and its allot difference.  

So normal Groovy  we have max. speed 180kms, speedy Groovy buggy max. speed 450kms. 

Taller One Seater buggy 

Max Speed: 400kms

Speed flying back:400kms

Wild one seater monster buggy, the body its 1/8 taller than a normal One Seater buggy. The back wheels are touching the buggy's body. It's easy to do reverse and starts running slowly as any normal buggy. It's interesting in that it has a fly back speed equal as its maximum speed, both are 400kms.

 

Speedy One seater buggy 

Max Speed: 500kms

Speed flying back:400kms

Easy to do reverse. It starts slowly as any normal buggy. The tires are NOT touching the buggy's body. Because its 50kms faster than the Speedy Groovy its not too stable at full speed. It wiggles side to side. Even if its 50kms faster than the speedy groovy, in a long distance run the speedy groovy its the winner as it will turn less times because the better stability of the groovy even if both will fly back at 400kms. Control its really important when you race.

 

Normal One seater buggy 

Max Speed: 135kms

Speed flying back: never

The back wheels are touching the buggy's body and the reverse is difficult and slow. This buggy doesn't have an even and normal starting. It's hard to get it moving and when it does it almost jumps, so use safety belts. I still think that of all the One seater buggies (the speedy or the taller) this normal one seater its the most fun to drive around. The motor makes a special sound that's sort of like if you say time after time "watchout watchout".