Hello all, I am an accidental convert to the Suzuki scene, having recently been given a SWB hardtop Vitara minus motor, box and transfer case. So I have decided to make it in to an offroad racer, it's a bit of a challenge, but I think that's half the appeal of it, anyway,
so far the plan is to fit a  Toyota 3RZ motor with 2WD gearbox and rear diff, using 2WD only should allow me to squeeze a little bit more travel out of the front suspension, I am using Dobinson front struts and heavier rate springs, they should give me about 8" of travel on the front, I'll probably end up having to fit a 2.0 smoothie helper shock to avoid suspension fade,

For the rear I am looking at taking the standard shock and spring mounts out completely and replace them with a single remote-res coil-over mounted where the spring was on the diff and coming up through the floor, hopefully I should be able to get about 10" of travel on the rear as a result.

I'm open to suggestions, does anbody have any better ideas?

Cheers,
Sven.

Check out the Zukiworld Challange cars.  With the exception of coil overs, these Race cars are doing what you are talking about.  Most of them have a description of how they built their cars.
You might want to join them.  Although some of us might have a hard time converting a tin top into a race car, we all have radical ideas.