The Piranha III is one of the best-selling buggy designs in the history of well-known Australian company The Edge Products, this kit provides everything you need to built one at home with the exception of the engine and radiator.
Most people source an engine from a crashed or otherwise incapacitated superbike, these engines comes with a transmission built in of course, and many builders also take the radiator.
Depending on the superbike, these engines can provide 100 to 180+ hp, which is enough to build an eye-waveringly quick buggy.
Fast Facts – The Piranha III Buggy
- As the name suggests, the Piranha III Buggy is the third iteration of the design, it now has an all-new chassis and many other upgraded components for durability.
- The Edge Products offers plans, kits, and turnkey buggies for delivery anywhere in the world.
- Each buggy from Edge is tested in the Australian Outback, and only when it can withstand the conditions is it approved for production.
- With a 1000cc superbike engine the Pirhana III offers acceleration from 0 to 62 mph in 5.5 seconds or less, and a top speed of over 150 km/h (~100 mph), all on the dirt.
The Edge Products And The Piranha III
The Edge Products has been designing and building off-road racing buggies in Perth, Western Australia since 1989.
Above Video: Footage of a Piranha buggy doing the hill climb at the Maramarua Gravel Rash in 2015.
Thanks to the speed, toughness, and affordability of their buggies they’ve risen to become world leaders in their field, with people having bought or build Edge buggies in a vast array of countries around the world.
The Piranha III has a tubular steel spaceframe chassis that incorporates a full roll cage for safety, it has independent front and rear suspension with long-travel coil over shock absorbers, front and rear disc brakes, and rack and pinion steering.
Superbike engines from 600cc to 1000cc can be fitted, offering up to (and over) 180 hp, giving the 400 kg (880 lb) buggy a 0 to 62 mph time of 5.5 seconds or less and a top speed in excess of 150 km/h depending on gearing and surface type.
When ordering you can choose to get plans only, plans plus some parts, a full kit which includes everything except the engine, or a complete turnkey buggy. There are a number of different designs offered on the company’s website including two-seat racing buggies, single seat racing buggies (like the Piranha III), mini monster trucks, and smaller buggies for kids.
If you’d like to see more from Edge you can click here to visit the website, alternatively if you’d like to order your Piranha III kit you can click the red button below.
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
