THE BALLISTIC INTRODUCTION

The Ballistic, designed for class 1 off road racing here in Western Australia it is the largest buggy project The Edge Products have taken on to date.

Constructed from the ground up for off road enthusiast Steve Alford the Ballistic features allot of new innovative concepts not yet seen in off road racing. The Ballistic has been designed in house on a 3D Solidworks CAD station by The Edge Products owner Tony Sanger & features components
& concepts such as :

Progressive rising rate bellcrank suspension

Fore / Aft seating layout

Subaru WRX Turbo injected motor

Automatic 4 speed Transaxle

19" Twin Tire Wheels

Double "A" arm suspension on all corners

Collapsible nose cone

900kg dry weight

Spaceframe Chassis in CDS tubing

Removable tail section

108"wheelbase

78" Track

Suspension travel front = 600mm ( 23" )

Suspension travel rear = 500mm ( 19" )

Not only will the Ballistic be an interesting off road contender but The Edge Products will use it as a testbed to evaluate new ideas & concepts which will be used on smaller buggy designs.

NOTE : Please do not ask for plans to the Ballistic as they will not be available.
 

The Ballistic ROARS!!

Yes we have fired up the beast & even taken it for a little drive.

Steve has put in a huge amount of hours to get his "Mistress" running. It took allot longer than anticipated to get the complex wiring completed, something that Steve took on with a little help from Michael Steinochr.

The Autronics race computer seems to work a treat along with the full complement of gauges, switches & "Batman" button.

A few short drives up the street showed that the motor badly needed a dyno tune, ( yet to be done ) & that the brakes needed some tweaking. 

The brakes were quickly sorted out & combined with superb handling the Ballistic is showing that it is a very capable package.

The steering is so light that power steering has been ruled out as a possible requirement. The cornering & nimbleness are showing that it could even give some sports cars a run for their money!!, it is a pleasure to drive.

From the back seat viewpoint it gives the same indications, you can see the braking is progressive, the more the brakes are applied the more the nose dips & transfers weight onto the front wheels, which like a motorcycle becomes nearly impossible to lock up under heavy braking.

This is a trick learnt from The Edge Products Hypersprint with its upswept nose, now the concept is living in the Ballistic with great success.

When you do lift your head away from scanning the gauges the back seat gives a great view of whats going on. You can see the wheels moving up & down, the first stage shocks moving with them & a small amount of movement from the bellcranks when bigger bumps are found.

The turbo whine as the auto shifts a gear is very noticeable.

Next stop for the Ballistic is the Dyno room, then some REAL offroad excursions.
 

Gone Bush!

A lot's happened since the last update. The Ballistic has been on the dyno & although still on its standard 7 lb boost is producing good responsive power.

Some changes have been made which include re-plumbing the cooling system, new radiator & intercooler air intakes. The Electronic Auto transmission has been re-wired & fitted with a sequential "hammer" shifter & the driver now has a digital read-out telling him which gear he is in. A new trick "blow off" turbo valve helps keep the turbo revs up. 

Easter Monday saw the Ballistic at the local pine forest for a test & tune. A few soft laps indicated that everything was working fine, Steves wife Karen jumped in the back seat to see what has been keeping him away from home for so long. Needless to say she got out 10 minutes later with a big grin!

Acceleration, Brake & suspension tests were conducted before giving the turbo a work out.

Once Steve & Tony were happy that all was well Steve felt it was time to give it some curry. With James Barnett in the Flight engineers seat video taping the suspension Steve took it for a run down some very rough tracks.

Steve reckons that he felt the rear getting light on gearshifts, but rode the rear brake to pull the rear into line & even up rear wheel traction. Steering was always light, with little effort required, brakes pulled it up in seconds from speed, with no front lock up at all thanks to the weight transfer giving the steering wheels extra traction. 

James reported 160 kph as Steve grabbed 3rd gear. With most of 3rd & 4th gear still waiting, 220kph is not out of the question, as long as the horsepower can overcome wind resistance.

More work will be carried out on body work to keep the narrow chassis slippery.

From a spectators point of view the Ballistic was very impressive. This buggy coming towards you at over 150kph down a road that's so potholed & rough it kills the family car at 40 kph! Absolutely Wild! The Ballistic chassis remains dead still as you watch the suspension & wheels leaping up & down like a demented spider.

The loud Pssshhh as the turbo blow-off valve dumps manifold pressure on shift & the un-muffled WRX on full boost & this THING rushes past you, its all music to a rev heads ears!.

A great day, I just wish the offroad Gods blessed us with more photos.
 

Test Track

Monday on the 4th of June saw the Ballistic at The Edge Products test track for another round of testing. 

This time the Ballistic clocked over 150 km of track time.

The current track is over 1 km long with two very twisty forest sections, two stream crossings, a 130kph straight & a 160kph straight with a high speed sweeping corner.

The two way intercom was an invaluable asset with both driver & navigator being able to talk without background noise.

Tony kept Steve informed of engine & transmission temperatures & the occasional advise on cornering techniques & gear shift timing.

As the day wore on track speeds increased as Steve became more familiar with the Ballistics handling, even though the track became increasingly rutted & boggy.

To sum up the experience of the day for both Driver & Navigator would be " such a comfortable ride".

At no time were there any bumps or impacts felt by the occupants.

Body roll was so minimal in corners as to not be noticed, but suspension travel was  awesome as the Ballistic soaked up jumps, ruts & potholes.

The next outing on the test track will be endurance trials.
 

On the Dunes

- Another Test Track Session

Late December in Western Australia is always hot, this weekend was no different. On the way to the test track the local radio station reported 41 degrees C, (around 106 degrees F). The weekend was very hot, very dry & the wind was howling. Great for testing buggies to the extremes but very hard on the crew.

This session was for testing the cooling system efficiency & as usual push the beast hard & see if anything breaks. Two of these photos show the Ballistic winding through the bush track. The track is very rutted & tree roots are now showing, creating a very diverse obstacle coarse. The picture of the Ballistic "turning in" was at the end of the straight approaching the creek crossing. As can be seen the Ballistic has minimal body roll even in high speed corners.

Another 200k's were clocked up in this session.

The Ballistic was sold mid 2007 & the current owners are planning to race the Ballistic in the International Dakar rally. Go here for more information:

ALICE TO DAKAR

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