Quad/ATV Quick Start Learning Guide
Get started on your race car project today with this Quick Start Learning Guide to help you choose books that will provide the best initial value, information and guidance.
Tips On Choosing ATV/Quad Books
Quads and ATVs, like other mass-produced recreation vehicles, are generally customized to perform for racing. Some daring people may scratch-build them as well, as the components are readily available. To our knowledge there is no specific book covering the design and construction of a home-built machine. There are internet articles on race preparation of a production machine.
We therefore suggest starting with a good ATV book that provides a comprehensive view of ATVs, riding, maintenance and if possible, racing. If you are interested in the scratch home-built idea, we’d also suggest looking into spaceframe design, suspension design and metal fabrication. If you’re ideas are really radical, you may wish to consider motorcycle engine race cars for inspiration as well.
| Book Category | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chassis |  Chassis Engineering: Chassis Design, Building & Tuning for High Performance Handling  (4.5 / 5)Chassis Engineering is a great introduction to race car design. In a practical and down-to-earth way, it covers the fundamentals of how race cars handle and the requirements for designing and constructing a car. The book includes chapters on chassis design, suspension design, frame construction, aerodynamics and tuning. Overall it provides the reader with the foundation of how the key components of a race car work and interact together. Get "Chassis Engineering: Chassis Design, Building & Tuning for High Performance Handling":    | |||
| Fasteners/Joining |  High Performance Hardware: Fastener Technology for Racers and Enthusiasts  (4 / 5)High performance hardware provides both theory and extensive practical information on hardware and fasteners. It covers material properties that relate to fasteners as well as pretty much every type of fastener used on a race vehicle. Get "High Performance Hardware: Fastener Technology for Racers and Enthusiasts": | |||
| Materials/Fabrication |  Competition Car Composites: A Practical Guide (4.5 / 5)A comprehensive resource for those building race car chassis or components with fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP). Types of composite materials, moulding techniques, structural techniques, layup, and applications are all discussed in this book. Get "Competition Car Composites: A Practical Guide": | |||
| Materials/Fabrication |  Metal Fabricator's Handbook (4 / 5)Teaches welding techniques, metal forming, hammerforming and practical metal fabrication projects. Project include forming custom body panels, tanks, roll cages/safety cells and exhaust headers. Get "Metal Fabricator's Handbook": | |||
| Materials/Fabrication |  Racer's Encyclopedia of Metals, Fibers and Materials  (5 / 5)Provides introductory and more advanced information about metals, metal fatigue, composite fibers and the uses of a wide variety of materials in race cars. Get "Racer's Encyclopedia of Metals, Fibers and Materials": | |||
| Powertrain |  David Vizard's How to Build Horsepower (5 / 5)A guide to designing the engine as a system and constructing it to produce maximum horsepower. The design aspects use the airflow through each part of the engine as a basis for instruction. Provides detailed information on how to select, modify and tune each component to work at peak efficiency with others in the engine. Get "David Vizard's How to Build Horsepower": | |||
| Suspension |  Competition Car Suspension: A Practical Handbook (4 / 5)Explains race car suspensions theory and design. The author explains the history of suspension design and types, handling theory, suspension design techniques, and the math/calculations used in design. The book also includes a unique string-based model approach to hands-on visualization of suspension movement. Get "Competition Car Suspension: A Practical Handbook": | |||
| Whole Car (Customize/Upgrade) |  ATVs: Everything You Need to Know (4.5 / 5)Provides a comprehensive guide to ATVs. Chapters on choosing the right ATV, ATV riding techniques, kids and ATVs, safety, performance modifications, maintenance and troubleshooting. Includes detailed chapters on upgrades and modifications to the ATV for better offroad capabilities, use as a workhorse, increasing engine power and conversion into a mud machine. Get "ATVs: Everything You Need to Know": | |||
| Whole Car (Design and Build) |  How to Build Motorcycle-engined Racing Cars (4 / 5)How to design and construct a motorcycle engine powered race car. This book explains how select and integrate the engine into a car as well as the design of the other aspects such as chassis, powertrain, brakes, fuel, coolant and electrics. Get "How to Build Motorcycle-engined Racing Cars": |
More Information
For complete information on the design and construction of the Quad/ATV race car type and a full listing of books and learning resources, see our Quad/ATV race car type article.