Here is a few picks of my customized riot. Over the winter, I made some chassis changes consisting of changing all the side bars (to flat panel the sides), changed the whole top halo, changed the rear cage bars, cut the whole front end off and added 4 inches of wheelbase, moved the radiator to the rear, moved the oil cooler to the rear (added an electric fan), moved the oil tank, moved the shifter, added dzus tabs, mirror mounts, light mounts, built an all aluminum body, dash and trunk spoiler, built an exhaust, and did a turbo conversion.

Thanks to all the information on this site as well as information shared by its members, I was able to piece together and build my own turbo conversion and save a bunch of money. I couldn't be happier with how the car runs, drives, and steers now!

Shot of the dash.

Shot of the motor/turbo

Wow, that is a lot of work. Looks great!

Wow, that is beautiful. Congratulations on the end product.

Looks great. How does it handle with the extra wheel base?

There are pros and cons with just about anything and this is no exception.

1st off, I was wanting to run taller tires and my shorter front tires were rubbing the side panels a little bit so I needed some extra length anyway.

I moved a BUNCH of weight off the front end with removing the heavy bumper, lights, radiator, oil cooler and hood and so the car is not quite as aggressive on very sharp low speed turns (that's the con) BUT on the other hand, my tires don't rub the body and the car is very stable at speed and goes through the whoops much better so I am happy with the outcome.

Originally, I felt like my car was a little soft in the front and stiff in the rear and the front end would hit the sand and shower us with sand pretty easily. These changes seamed to balance out the car better and now the front wheels stick out in front of everything and it doesn't hit the sand anymore.

It was quite a bit of work but after driving the car, I feel like it was worth it. That's just my opinion though and everyone has one lol!

Your absolutely correct, for every change you make to a car, especially with suspension there usually are unforeseen results. The car looks great, I really like the new look at the front end. Looks like one of those high dollar sand cars..... Can't see much of the rear wing, but it looks cool. Everyone has an opinion, but it doesn't matter what others might think, if you like it and it does what you hoped for, it's all good. All these cars are basically custom built and the personal touch and changes is what makes this stuff cool.
I have recently added stage 4 Elkas. I had the front springs from my old shocks installed on the rear set of shocks.. I put about 1.5 inches of preload on the shocks to get my ride height and set the low and high speed compression about in the middle. I am going to the dunes in two weeks for fine tuning of the suspension. Will let you know how it works. You are correct the front is too soft and the rear way too hard as they come from the factory. I see no reason why you could not put the rear main spring on the front and the front main spring on the rear and see if you like it....... A local expert at Oregon Motorsports told me that you should run as light of spring on the rear as you can and still be able to use the preload adjustment to get your ride height. If the car uses no preload on the rear shock for the correct ride height, you have too heavy of spring. I am still in a steep learning curve on the coil over shock stuff. I hope the changes are a move in the right direction....


Later,
Scott