Going Solo - an X3 to race

[Poke]

So its time to go solo. My last 2 4400 cars were built with some assistance by me. I did very little to zero fabrication on them. This time I am going for it, I have the basic know how its the patients to make things tight/look nice that I normally lack.

I picked up an X3 base chassis. Its straight, 2017, and apparently it was only driven a few hours before the PO build a chassis and swapped everything over.

Plan is simple... brace it, buy wrecked X3, move everything but the plastic over, add racing stuff... lose money trying to win racing. I will attempt to stay under $20,000 in parts and materials and I would like to drive it in February.

I ordered the CT RaceWorx chassis race brace kit. Its the basic gussets and bar they use to prep a chassed. Then I will add a cage, door bars, any other bracing I see fit.

This is heading off to get blasted tomorrow so its cleaner to weld on.

 

[jhama78]

In for another golf cart build.

 

[JR4X]

Subing

what organization are you going to race with? Sticking with Ultra4?

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Thats a bone stock X3 chassis?

 

[Poke]

Thats a bone stock X3 chassis?

Yes sir. What are you thinking or seeing?

 

[Poke]

Subing

what organization are you going to race with? Sticking with Ultra4?

Im not sure I could race U4 again.

Im building a Line Mountain car. I stared there, it’s historical, very competitive, and local. I will certainly race some Pro Rock because Joey Beck is an awesome stand up guy. My family likes his events the most.

if consider KOH again if my car and I were working well together.

 

[Poke]

The chassis was dropped off at the blaster today. CT RaceWorx said there race chassis brace kit will ship this week.

i registered as a dealer so I can buy totaled machines at insurance Auction online. I’ve got my eye on a number of RR’s and R’s.

Big question I raised tonight. For $10,000 is a wrecked machine worth it? I need the engine, front diff, drive shaft, wiring harness/switches, shifter, clutch/tranny, 4 stock axle shafts, intercooler, gas pedal, hubs, brake system, shocks/springs, I think that’s it. I’m guessing all that bolt on stuff is going to be $10k if I buy it one part at a time.

thoughts?

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Yes sir. What are you thinking or seeing?

I like the way the lower half of chassis designed. Alot more straight pieces of round tubing that would be easily replaceable if they were damaged or needed to be replaced with thicker wall stuff for strength.

Any idea of the wall thickness on the chassis tubes?

 

[Poke]

I like the way the lower half of chassis designed. Alot more straight pieces of round tubing that would be easily replaceable if they were damaged or needed to be replaced with thicker wall stuff for strength.

Any idea of the wall thickness on the chassis tubes?

I’ll measure it tomorrow. I have another X3 , ‘19 I’ll check on. That ‘17 chassis will be gone for 3-4 days with the blaster. My guess is 0.60? Making it .1 thicker than a rzr. We will see.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

The chassis was dropped off at the blaster today. CT RaceWorx said there race chassis brace kit will ship this week.

i registered as a dealer so I can buy totaled machines at insurance Auction online. I’ve got my eye on a number of RR’s and R’s.

Big question I raised tonight. For $10,000 is a wrecked machine worth it? I need the engine, front diff, drive shaft, wiring harness/switches, shifter, clutch/tranny, 4 stock axle shafts, intercooler, gas pedal, hubs, brake system, shocks/springs, I think that’s it. I’m guessing all that bolt on stuff is going to be $10k if I buy it one part at a time.

thoughts?

Buy a whole wrecked machine. Its the nuts bolts, brackets ect that will end up putting you way over that 10k budget.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

I’ll measure it tomorrow. I have another X3 , ‘19 I’ll check on. That ‘17 chassis will be gone for 3-4 days with the blaster. My guess is 0.60? Making it .1 thicker than a rzr. We will see.

Last I looked a similar x3 was somehow lighter than a rzr, despite being dimensionally larger in almost every way. I'd find it hard to believe that the chassis is thicker, but maybe the weight savings is where they use huge plastic structures in areas where Polaris uses steel frame. ​​​​​​

I'm curious why you went this way only to use a stock chassis? How much more was a chassis kit?

 

[Poke]

Last I looked a similar x3 was somehow lighter than a rzr, despite being dimensionally larger in almost every way. I'd find it hard to believe that the chassis is thicker, but maybe the weight savings is where they use huge plastic structures in areas where Polaris uses steel frame. ​​​​​​

I'm curious why you went this way only to use a stock chassis? How much more was a chassis kit?

I have a scale here. I’ll weight the chassis so we can get a real number, not a factory one. once it’s back we will see the weight/thickness.

surprisingly. Pretty much all the winning CanAm’s are just gusseted factory frames. That includes both the KOH winners and the short course winning cars. There is no need to build a chassis and match the factory suspension mounts. It’s more trouble than it’s worth.

can am uses plastic bolted on plastic to somehow hold these things together. It’s a horrible design and hard to work with. There are places with 3 and 4 layers of formed plastic that are held together with a mix of bolts, snap fits, clips, and rivets. The bed has metal braces suspended off plastic and then it goes back to metal.

 

[JR4X]

Last I looked a similar x3 was somehow lighter than a rzr, despite being dimensionally larger in almost every way. I'd find it hard to believe that the chassis is thicker, but maybe the weight savings is where they use huge plastic structures in areas where Polaris uses steel frame. ​​​​​​

I'm curious why you went this way only to use a stock chassis? How much more was a chassis kit?

What chassis kits? I tried to find a chassis before I bought mine and couldn’t find anything other than single seat bouncer chassis.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

I guess I assumed there would be someone making chassis for these things



I'll be quiet now ​​​​​​

 

[snivilous]

I like the way the lower half of chassis designed. Alot more straight pieces of round tubing that would be easily replaceable if they were damaged or needed to be replaced with thicker wall stuff for strength.

Any idea of the wall thickness on the chassis tubes?

They're like .065 or something insanely fucking thin. I would brace the absolute shit out of it if it's already torn down, if not outright replace most/all of it. There is tons of cases of the X3 chassis cracking after a few thousand miles. The dual phase steel or whatever they call it is supposedly really good and what lets them get it so thin and strong and keep it lighter than a rzr, but they essentially have no fatigue life and fracture once the chassis flexes a few cycles. If you can stiffen the chassis then do it, I'd be surprised if their race brace kit or whatever has enough shit. I would put a door bar/side intrusion bar in or weld the top cage in. The top cage (part people replace) bolts in, plus is a shitty structural shape so the whole thing front to back in bending (suspension hitting whoops) is shit. A door bar at elbow level would really stiffen it up and help prevent cracking from flexing.

 

[JR4X]

I guess I assumed there would be someone making chassis for these things



I'll be quiet now ​​​​​​

Keep your eyes open, if something appears I’d love to know about it. I thought for sure there were production desert chassis’s out there but currently I can’t find them. Wide Open Design has single and two sweaters which are cool as hell but they are bouncer inspired where I want desert chassis inspired.

 

[Poke]

Keep your eyes open, if something appears I’d love to know about it. I thought for sure there were production desert chassis’s out there but currently I can’t find them. Wide Open Design has single and two sweaters which are cool as hell but they are bouncer inspired where I want desert chassis inspired.

Pruitts builds rzr chassis. There are No can am chassis that I’m aware of

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

They're like .065 or something insanely fucking thin. I would brace the absolute shit out of it if it's already torn down, if not outright replace most/all of it. There is tons of cases of the X3 chassis cracking after a few thousand miles. The dual phase steel or whatever they call it is supposedly really good and what lets them get it so thin and strong and keep it lighter than a rzr, but they essentially have no fatigue life and fracture once the chassis flexes a few cycles. If you can stiffen the chassis then do it, I'd be surprised if their race brace kit or whatever has enough shit. I would put a door bar/side intrusion bar in or weld the top cage in. The top cage (part people replace) bolts in, plus is a shitty structural shape so the whole thing front to back in bending (suspension hitting whoops) is shit. A door bar at elbow level would really stiffen it up and help prevent cracking from flexing.

You took what I said way to literally. All I like about it is the fact that they used a bunch of straight tubes to build the lower section of chassis. I like that because those tubes are easily replaced with real tubing. On my Talon id have to build a whole new chassis for it to be to my liking, but the rules say i gotta run it so I comprised and built it as strong as I could. Every SxS ever made has a shitty factory cage. Well known fact. Im also not a fan of whateverthefuck is going on in the lower B pillar area of that chassis. The door bar? Running into the B pillar and that horizontal tube its connected to has to go. Theres a ton more but I think you get the idea.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Pruitts builds rzr chassis. There are No can am chassis that I’m aware of

S3 Powersports doesn't build a Can-Am chassis? Or at least sell a very heavily modified stock one? The cars they bring to Texplex, including the Miller Brothers(KOH dudes) factory sponsored cars look nothing like a stock chassis. They are trick as hell! I bet they only use the bulkheads or something like that from a stocker.....

Website: https://s3powersports.com

FB Page: https://m.facebook.com/S3powersports/

Those guys are the reason I would not even attempt to race in the Pro Turbo class at Texplex. Ill stick to the N/A car. Hard to beat unlimited funding factory guys with a working man's budget.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

The S3 cars also have the bodies mounted 3" lower than stock. The visibility has to be killer in one of those cars.

 

[snivilous]

You took what I said way to literally. All I like about it is the fact that they used a bunch of straight tubes to build the lower section of chassis. I like that because those tubes are easily replaced with real tubing. On my Talon id have to build a whole new chassis for it to be to my liking, but the rules say i gotta run it so I comprised and built it as strong as I could. Every SxS ever made has a shitty factory cage. Well known fact. Im also not a fan of whateverthefuck is going on in the lower B pillar area of that chassis. The door bar? Running into the B pillar and that horizontal tube its connected to has to go. Theres a ton more but I think you get the idea.

I was only answering your question about thickness, and assumed it was a real question. The rest of my comment was meant for OP and not in regards to anything you said.

 

[Poke]

The S3 cars also have the bodies mounted 3" lower than stock. The visibility has to be killer in one of those cars.

The number one thing is to pull the rad to the rear, the. You can lower the front plastic.

I’ll be lowering my front a ton for visibility. I might not put any plastic back on it.

 

[Poke]

S3 Powersports doesn't build a Can-Am chassis? Or at least sell a very heavily modified stock one? The cars they bring to Texplex, including the Miller Brothers(KOH dudes) factory sponsored cars look nothing like a stock chassis. They are trick as hell! I bet they only use the bulkheads or something like that from a stocker.....

Website: https://s3powersports.com

FB Page: https://m.facebook.com/S3powersports/

Those guys are the reason I would not even attempt to race in the Pro Turbo class at Texplex. Ill stick to the N/A car. Hard to beat unlimited funding factory guys with a working man's budget.

I talked with them about getting a car built. They have built chassis and will brace them to your budget. But they don’t have a standard chassis you can order that I know of.

they do have the CAD file from can am so they know all the mounting points.

 

[Poke]

I had a budget and plan to weld a cage in myself. That's out the window.

https://nolimitrd.com/product/canam-...eat-race-cage/

I spoke to NoLimit a few times now. I am ordering their race cage with rear radiator, intercooler mount, spare tire carrier, door bars, roof, window nets and hardware, and door skins.

The radiator is more expensive than my other options. $1500 as opposed to $1100. I am ok with it because the radiator is a custom CBR that was made to fit their cage.

this is far more 'bolt on' than I planned but it is a race cage. It bolts on in 7 places. I may weld it but I don't think its necessary, especially with all the lower chassis gusseting that is going in.

 

[Poke]

Grabbed a 1st place last night. 2 mile woods course after dark. Did it with a 120hp base model x3 against mostly turbo RZR. Some tuned up, some stock. It’s making me rethink getting an rr engine. Higher HP can’t overcome the smaller machines when you can’t use it. I only need acceleration not top end.

I can gain reliability if I keep the HP down. Less breakage. No need to upgrade the driveline. I might put my $ into brakes more than the engine.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Grabbed a 1st place last night. 2 mile woods course after dark. Did it with a 120hp base model x3 against mostly turbo RZR. Some tuned up, some stock. It’s making me rethink getting an rr engine. Higher HP can’t overcome the smaller machines when you can’t use it. I only need acceleration not top end.

I can gain reliability if I keep the HP down. Less breakage. No need to upgrade the driveline. I might put my $ into brakes more than the engine.

Was this a Line Mountain race?

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

I had a budget and plan to weld a cage in myself. That's out the window.

https://nolimitrd.com/product/canam-...eat-race-cage/

I spoke to NoLimit a few times now. I am ordering their race cage with rear radiator, intercooler mount, spare tire carrier, door bars, roof, window nets and hardware, and door skins.

The radiator is more expensive than my other options. $1500 as opposed to $1100. I am ok with it because the radiator is a custom CBR that was made to fit their cage.

this is far more 'bolt on' than I planned but it is a race cage. It bolts on in 7 places. I may weld it but I don't think its necessary, especially with all the lower chassis gusseting that is going in.

Any pictures of that cage/chassis without body work on it? How do they attach door bars to the chassis?

I bought a CBR radiator for mine too, price was a little hard to swallow until I got my hands on it. Nice stuff!

 

[Poke]

Any pictures of that cage/chassis without body work on it? How do they attach door bars to the chassis?

I bought a CBR radiator for mine too, price was a little hard to swallow until I got my hands on it. Nice stuff!

It was not line mountain. Local race series. I think 36 competitors. I got it by 1 second.

 

[Poke]

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

It was not line mountain. Local race series. I think 36 competitors. I got it by 1 second.

What series? I have a buddy up there looking to race his Talon. He's done a couple one time deal races but can't find a series to race in. I told him about Line Mtn and he said he can't find any info about it. Care to share your race info?