sonic sand cars is a one man show, the chassis are built out of house. james acts as an assembler. the cars are copies of "short" sand cars... though the a-arms are a little different. the big drawback to sonic's cars is the lack of a rear differential. i guess no big deal in the sand... but basically they handle like giant go karts. drakart is another company you may consider in your search. they use the quaife style unit to add reverse and give it a diff improving handling. ive seen some crafty people using subaru 3rd members to give there motorcycle powered buggies a rear diff.

i would try and buy from a more reputable company, one that actually builds the cars they claim to build. makes service a bitch when no one really knows whats going on.... that just being my 2 cents.

oh yeah, if you think reverse is no big deal try backing a 1000lbs car off a trailer, completely by yourself. getting over the tire wells should be real interesting.

 

Stay away from this guy! I bought a car from James and so did my buddy... my car's turbo was installed wrong and it overheated (no coolant to the turbo) no oil plug and the turbo and the engine fried with less than three hours on the car. I sent Sonic an e-mail and James told me that he's gone out of business! Funny thing because he told one of my friends that he's got 16 cars on order! My buddies car is nothing but trouble! The electrical system was a mess, dangerous! The steering broke the 1st day out in the dunes. We just heard of another guy whose gonna take his car back to James. I'm out $6,500.00 because my car was 'thrown together' smoked wiring, loose heims joints, surging engine (before it broke) he said the car was built for a guy thats 6'3" tall, well I'm 6'3" and my head hit the roll bar. I had to re-do the seats and the peddles because James was not honest.

 

Don't buy a Sonic!!!! Read my post below...

 

well first i must admit sonic sand cars are junk... but he doesnt really build any of the car. the chassis and all is done out of house, james just assembles them. as for the turbo situation. if the car was running poorly {surging} and you kept driving it frying the motor was your fault, not his. also coolant lines to a turbo are by no means necessary. i do recomend cooling the center section of the turbo on street cars, but for applications like this is not really necessary, the turbo kits used on teh busa use a t25 turbo that is a stock application turbo for mitsubishi eclipse's and other dsm's this is why the chra is water cooled.

if anyone here is interested in a full size rail check out www.sssandcars.youngbiz.com
any motor/tranny combo you want.

as for tompro design his billet arms look like knock offs of the tatum billet arms used on the black widows. though they look cool, i would not want aluminium arms on my car, they tend to bend pretty easily, usually right around the shock mount on the lower arm. i cant say anything good or bad about tom or his work, but if you are going to run the car hard id go with chromoly... and as long as those arms are, why is there only 18 inches of front travel?

 

Yea, I screwed up by not having the car checked out when I heard the noise from the engine. Hind sight is very clear. The performance repair shop that I took it to said the engine and turbo were assembled wrong and that's why the motor spun. BUT STILL, this guy James still mis-represented the car and his quality is terrible! He tells people things that are not true to make a sale. He's lucky he lives five hours from where I live or I'd be up there with a real bad attitude. I should have bought a TomPro car...

Stay clear of Sonic! Spread the word. The guys a 'you know what'. I hope he reads this because he should feel terrible about what he's doing to people and putting families in danger. I think I will go see him... This is making me angry all over again!

Hey you can see my car on his website, www.sonicmotorworks.com I bought it last summer and he still shows it for sale, it's the blue car with the Short Sand Car frame. I've been trying to find a new Hayabusa motor to replace the one he threw together.

 

Sorry to hear about your luck with the car.

I'm off to St. Anthony next week. Hope everything runs good!

Jeffroe. . . any moves on your end?

 

try http://www.sinistersandsports.com/

 

He's just completing his first two-seat Hayabusa build. Pretty sure it doesn't have a turbo but, could be wrong.

I think he'll have a great product but, I'ld like to see him get a few more builds of this set-up under his belt first.

Jeffroe: Are you still looking for a turbo busa buggy?

 

i had tompro "start" to build me a rail until he started screwing me over and then i saw some of his craftsmanship. I would not recommend TomPro or Sonic imo. Im building my own car now with a TP chassis. His billet arms look just like tatum arms, just like the rest of the stuff he sells [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]

Stay away from both of them. Ill write more about it in a month or so after i finish my car. Im doing our own turbo kit that will make a reliable 350rwhp and can be turned up to 450 (although obviously the car cant handle that)

 

Where can I find a Hayabusa 1300 motor? I need to replace the one that was thrown together by Sonic Sand Cars...