I'm Ken Brough from New Zealand, I live in the country near the small town of Te Awamutu which is 100 miles south of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city. I'm a 50 year kid with petrol in my veins. I have along history of doing radical stuff, thinking outside the square and inventing things. Like 30 years ago when I was getting cars banned from speedway racing because they were different, even though they were built to the rule book. I left high school with only one qualification and that was in biology, at least now I know how worms do the wild thing. In the 70's I trained as a car mechanic then worked on motor cycles for some time along with some business ventures. I am self trained in engineering and panel and paint with years of projects on the go.
"Different is good" and just because it says in a book that "this is the way to do it" at the end of the day that is only one guy's view that wrote the book, there could be a better way. "Think outside the square". But then I say "what square"…………..
A couple of years ago while watching T.V. coverage of N.Z.'s famous "Race to the Sky" hill climb event www.racetothesky.com I thought "why not build a real super quad? On doing further research I discovered that I would most likely be able to get it road legal as well. So when our speedway season finished in early 2004 I sorted out my work shop and approached a Subaru parts dismantler/recycler whom I knew and he agreed to help out with parts and technical support. That's Mike from Auto-Mart (2000) Ltd in Northway St. Hamilton.
I started in earnest on May 1st 2004, working on it in my spare time and weekends but also giving up a part time job to allow more time on it. I had it up and running in 10 ½ months but still with some finishing off and refining work to be done as a project like this or any race vehicle is never finished as you are always doing developments and improvements. It was never really designed but more just "built as I went" based on a general concept that I had in my head, even when I started I could not have told anyone that it was going to look like it does today. It just "morphisized into what you see, sometimes it was as if my hands were working from my sub-conscious and not everything was done after a rational decision was made, at times it just poured out of me.
Mike of Auto-Mart supplied me with a trailer load of parts to start the project with, the motor and gearbox were just donor items to build with, the motor didn't have a fly-wheel and clutch and the gearbox was an empty casing without as much as a selector shaft coming out of it so this made things like clutch and gear shift mechanisms very much up in the air which I just had to allow for.
The width of the engine and 30 degrees of steering lock determined what the minimum wheel track would be (1220mm, 48") and then many comparisons were made to determine the wheel base (1800mm, 71"), which is much the same as our speedway midget cars, which also have about the same track, weight and power. The frame is made out of 38mm roll-cage tubing for the mains and 25mm high strength tubing for the diagonals and suspension. With the radiator mounted under the rear body panel it was decided to run the cooling water through the frame. It in fact comes out of the engine and into and down the right side of the chrome nudge bar, into the right hand lower frame tube and back to the radiator then returned back along the left hand lower frame tube direct to the thermostat housing while the top two frame tubes were sealed and pressure tested to become vacuum/pressure reservoirs just in case it was needed to supply a booster mechanism for clutch operation or an air operated gear shifter. See what I mean about allowing for things as you go just in case you need them later. Another example was for a power steering pump and ram which as it turned out isn't required. The steering was accomplished with a quad bike style steering collum and lever assembly with two universal joints taking the drive down the right hand side of the gearbox where it is transmitted through a knee action bell-crank to the tie-rods and idler arrangement. Steering input is 45 degrees each way at the handle bars which at the moment translates to 20 degrees each way at the wheels, by using a different set of holes in the idlers the lock can be increased to 30 degrees with the same input.
Weight was never really considered, I just built it with the thought in the back of my mind that is was going to be my ass on the seat, in fact the whole thing is well over-engineered and it wouldn't have been hard to reduce the overall weight by 40-50 kg. Total weight being - 530kg. Front/rear split - 70/30.
The first few months of the build were extremely difficult to the point where I almost pulled the plug on it a few times but kept myself going as a challenge and by writing motivational quotes around on the my workshops walls, such as "It's not the mountain (Quad) that we conquer, but ourselves by N.Z.'s Sir Edmond Hillary, the first man to climb Mount Everest. "It would be a waste of life to do nothing with ones ability - as I feel that life is measured in achievement, not in years alone", N.Z.'s (late) Bruce McLaren, F1 champion. And Walt Disney's "If you can dream it, you can do it". I was also motivated by other New Zealanders such the late John Britten who built the legendary 'Britten motorcycles' (see www.britten.co.nz)hence my blue exhaust headers as a tribute to him and also the other late great 'Possum Bourne', much loved N.Z. and world renowned rally driver (in a Subaru of course).
I had new ½ shafts made up (approx 125mm shorter) and a one piece drive shaft made up accordingly, the ½ shafts run out to the original hub carriers which were modified to accept "A arms with an "H arm on the lower rear links. Brakes are Sti 4pot on the front and 1 pot on the rear, these are fed from ¾ " master cylinders with an adjustable balance bar. In the final build up I fitted a mid 90's Sti engine and 5-speed box using an 1800 cc Leone clutch assembly as it is a bit lighter so that I would have no hope at pulling it in with my left hand (without the complications of having to use a booster unit). This was only accomplished after building what I call my 'gorilla' clutch lever because that's the kind of hand you need to operate it. Then came the gear shift, yeh the gear shift, that bloody gear shift. From day one I knew I was going to change gear with my left foot but I didn't know how, but after six months of sleeping on it, it came to me. The toe of my left foot goes into a stirrup on the end of a shaft that comes out at 90 degrees from the back of the gearbox. This stirrup shaft telescopes in and out, this moves the gear shifter across the gates, then shifting the lever up and down selects the gears i.e. up for gears 1,3&5 and down for 2,4&rev.. Still the same "H pattern, but on a different plain.
I have retained the standard turbo (and boost, for now) which runs out through a ceramic coated 2 ½ pipe and big bore muffler, at one stage I was afraid that it was going to be too loud but it has turned out sounding perfect (what would be too loud any way). The exhaust is in one piece, this was only made possible by having the chassis side bracing (chrome slashes) bolted on and removable. The exhaust could only be run inside the confines of the frame, this was determined by the position of my leg……by the seating position……by what looked right (no body at this stage)……by the placement of the handle bars……by the intercooler……by the gearbox……by the suspension……by the main frame rails……by the motor, so that's were the exhaust went. See what I mean, a challenge. Ever played a game of chess where you always have to be thinking 8 moves ahead of yourself? (I haven't).
The fuel tank is also inside the frame, running from above the diff up to the gearbox tail shaft and holds 28 litres (6.25 gal).
I had an idea what the rear body was going to look like so I produced the plug for that then dreamt up the rest of the panels as I went, using fencing wire and cardboard to create the artistic form and flow. Then onto the colour scheme, that was the easy bit, like it could have ever been red or green.
While this build process was going on I was also filling out reams of paper work for the "Low Volume Vehicle Technical Association to try to get it approved for road use (this was more frustrating than building the Quad). They didn't know what it was or what to call it or what category to put it in, so they put it in the too hard basket. All I ever received from them were two brief phone calls until I forced a letter from them which said. That "due to the vehicles design, construction, basic dynamics, narrow wheel track (narrow compared what ?), the steering system and high speed potential the vehicle is not dynamically suited for road use". As if a V-8 engine motorbike or a V-12 trike has good dynamics, but you can put those on the road. Someone had to build the first V.W. trike years ago, bet that wasn't done in N.Z. where "different is BAD". I would love to hear from anyone out there who can let me know about a country where a scratch built Quad can be road legal. See you there.
As for the Race to the Sky hill climb, the event organizer said he would run like to run it in the event but the N.Z. motor sport official said "NO WAY to a car engined Quad bike. But as you can see it really morphisized into something that you wouldn't want to run in the gravel. Mind you it would be fun. Maybe another time and another place for a gravel version…………………………………………………..
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