I dunno, if you want to stay on the cheap side, get some coil spacers & 30's. Fix what need fixing, maybe a little trimming in wheelwells... & run it. You can have a street legal rig that likely will go most places a buggy would. The 33's on your friends are prolly what makes it seem sluggish if it's not regeared... thats more tire than trackicks like. Lower diff & or xfer case gears would take care of that. Is it 2dr or 4dr? If 2dr, then swapping in 4dr springs will give you some height too. Next is going to OME spring/strut/shocks... but cheapest I've seen em is $699 on LowRangeOffroad, then Calmini etc etc... theres tons of options out there. Spools, lockers, the list is endless... Guy on ebay (Hoepkers aka jeff1997 on zukiworld) sells spacer kits pretty cheap. Really, a bit of lift/tires/wheels & some armor, maybe a locker or 2 & you can run these little rigs thru alot. Just think, you can show up to the trail in your trail rig & help your friend unload his buggy from the trailer!
hth
Fuzz
