I have a bud who is building a scorpion. He is doing a sweet job ft/rear steering HP 35 sp 60s, atlas, 700r, alum. vette engine, hydro assist...top of line stuff. He got the chassis real cheap thru some part/tool swapping.
The suspension is different to say the least ...He said the cage pitches into the suspension travel to keep it level.
The workmanship looks great but it looks rather heavy.
Anybody have any experence with these things ? How well do the handle/climb ?

Pat G. at pull-pal had gotten one somehow and used it in compitition. He didn't do well with it though.
I heard that there was a contract to build scorpions for the military. If thats true, they couldn't be that bad.

Their over built and less then engineered but work good on cross or side type running but all out their very heavy and are no better then a cruiser.......

tough!

there suspension is a good idea but wierd

the same two wheels can not go up and down ant the same time
(at least on hte first one-it has been awhile)

sonni is one hell of a thinker though and I think for a feild vehicle they are pretyy cool - for comp only - or trail rides they can be improved

Originally posted by Moab Austin
tough!

the same two wheels can not go up and down ant the same time
(at least on hte first one-it has been awhile)



both fronts can compress at the same time, or both rears. If both fronts are compressed, it will force both rears down. the forced articulation prevents body roll, compressing the right front extends the right rear, and vice versa. all in all it's a cool rig, but you could build something better from scratch today...

I'v never heard of it, does anyone have a link or pics... just curious...

here's a pic of their 4 seat version:
http://www.scorpionvehicles.com/images/4seat_sideview.jpg

All i got to say is 2" tubing? What are these people thinking?

Actually the way the original scorpion worked the front axle could travel straight up and down independantly of the rear and the rear axle could travel straight up and down independantly of the front the only relationship that was forced, was if the front axle articulated one way the rear axle was forced to articluate the opposite way.
If both front tires are compressed it will not force both rears to compress.
This is the best way to do forced articulation and the mechanism Soni designed is the cleanest simplest way I can think of to do it. I agree that the vehicle was over built and under engineered, but it was really on of the very first rock buggies, and had a totally inovative suspension. Yes there is room for improvement, Yes "better" vehicles have been built, But that first Scorpion was in my opinion the most revolutionary rock crawler ever built it really did trigger a major change in the sport, or at least put that change on the cover of the 4X4 rags.

I'm actually working on my own version of his design. The biggest flaw that i can see of the scorpion is the rear suspension is a swingarm. This means MAJOR ANTISQUAT. In the later versions he tried to remedy it with an additional airbag working against the suspension. Not a bad solution. Overall it's a very revolutionary design and Sonny is a fawkin' genius. It's too bad the scorpion hit it off so well, I'd like to see what he would have come up with next!

Actually the reason the Scorpion has really bad anti squat is the center of rotation (instant center for multi links) for the swing arm is way too high if it were to be lowered to below the transfercase the anti squat wouldn't be nearly so bad. The main problem I have with the Scorpion design is the front and rear suspension only attach to the frame at 1 point each unfortunatly I don't see a way that you could get the same effect with a multi link design.