scrubber...
space is important, as extra space requires extra weight. not only that, but i'm not to sure how easy it would be to put a shaft onto a moto gearbox.

as far as budget goes, its only limited to how much the sponsers want to give you.
UWA's car cost (from their website) $50 000 last year...

The main limitation engine wise is that all air entering the engine must pass through a 20mm by 20mm square hole, and the engine cannot be larger than 610cc. Other than that there aren't many limitations. We can even bolt on a turbo if we want!

Last year we built a car for less than 20 G. The last diff we had was a torsen from a honda civic?
which was donated to us. We made our own housing for it allowing us to bolt a sprocket onto it.
Queensland Uni ran without a diff and they managed to set one of the fastest times around the track.
They used weight transfer to get around corners. It was a sight to behold.

The SAE comp is unreal..if u ever get a chance to see a car have a look.

Some teams make their own engines, shocks, pnuematic gear change mechanisms, data gathering systems, engine management systems, wheels etc... The University of Western Australia has a carbon
fibre monoque chassis!!! It looks so sweet.

And Darren, can ya check/reply to my pm which I sent you??

To get involved..all u really need to do is go to uni. Some uni teams use : pshcology, mech eng, business, elec eng, mechatronic eng etc students.

i'm getting some ideas here for an offroad buggy....

It's worthwhile having a look at the world of go-karting.
they all run a solid rear axle, no suspension, so the spring rate is determined by the tyres, the chassis stiffness and by the flex in the rear axle.

they make the things turn by putting insane amouts of scrub in the front steering geometry, turning a corner actually shortens the wheelbase on that side of the car by about 10%

I suspect that a 250cc superkart style of thing would wipe the floor.
Not as much fun as a clean sheet design though....

Interesting you mention the gokart tsillay - it reminded me of the hillclimb here:

there's both a F SAE car and a 500cc 6spd gokart that regularly run at MtCotton.
The SAE guys have done a mid 44 second time which is pretty impressive! that's almost exactly the same times as the psycho who runs the 500cc 6spd gokart!

Hey guys im doing SAE aswell, for Swinburne Uni here in Melbourne,

tsillay, one of the rules is 50mm of suspension travel also

we found ourselves a pretty tidy setup for our diff, and made our own housing to suit

the idea of the project is pretty cool but all the politics and plain bullshiet created by the people in it have ruined it for many people including me