Slowpoke attempts to kill himself in a golfcart!

[SLOWPOKE693]

I've been wanting to do a build thread on my new short course SxS for a few months but had no real place to put it. It's to "radical" for the the SxS forums and I didn't want to waste efforts posting it on that other site. This build is 100% P free.


I started off by buying a leftover 2019 Honda Talon 1000R back in early April. My original plan was to build it into a trail rig the wife and I could take to the offroad parks so i wouldn't kill the JKUR i built for her. Welp, while looking for places to ride it close to home i discovered this place: www.texplexpark.com. I found out they had a UTV racing series and decided to go check out the first race.... BAD IDEA!

Back when I lived in New England I raced circle track cars and also motocross. I always wanted to race a dirt track car but there was no place local to do it up there. Fast forward 10yrs and suddenly I find myself living in Tx and surrounded by dirt tracks. Wife gave me the green light to build one but I never got around to it.

Going to Texplex to watch the races was the nail in the coffin that started this build. My two favorite things combined, dirt track racing an MX racing....... FUCK YA!

This is what I started with...

 

[KrustyTJ]

That looks like one helluva park

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

I basically test drove it (like Robby Gordon) for 55 miles around the hay fields at work and then started cutting it up.

First order of business was installing a real seat and 5 point harness. Picked up a Corbeau FX pro tub style seat and PRP belts. I managed to get the seat 5 or 6 inches lower than stock. That should greatly improve the COG and handling.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Next thing I added was a 2-1 steering quickener and a steering wheel quick release. A local company, Hess Motorsports had what I wanted so I ordered it up.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

That looks like one helluva park

It's one of the coolest places I've ever been to. If it plays in the dirt they have a track for it.

I can't wait to get out there and do this kind of shit!

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Next thing was going to be the cage. I took a brief look at the chassis when I bought it and couldn't really understand there thinking. Every fucking bar in the cage and chassis dead ended in the middle of another tube. Not a single node anywhere. I thought about buying a premade bolt on cage but didn't like a single one and the whole "bolt on" deal just didn't sit well with me. When I pulled the cage I was floored by the lack of weight..... I shit you not, it weights like 40lbs. I think its formed tin foil or some other crap. It's almost safer with no cage.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

I did a ton of research on UTV cage designs and settled on a cross between LOORRS and BITD rules regarding material wall thickness. I picked up 1-3/4" x .095 for the main structure and a mix of 1-3/4" x .065, 1-1/2" x .095 and 1-1/4" x .095 bracing.

i was going to buy bolt on roll cage bungs and build off those but decided to go a different route all together. I busted out the porta band and cut all 4 cage bungs off the chassis side and start fresh. SOOOO glad I did that after seeing the garbage I cut off.... No Bueno Batman!

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

And then I had this blank slate staring at me. I drilled some plug weld holes in the A & B pillar posts, took a few rough measurements for overall height and width and started bending.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

This is what I came up with for the A & B pillars. It ends up being 9" lower than the stock "cage" and still gives me plenty of head room with my helmet on...

 

[Aggie06]

In.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Seeing as how I cut the factory cage bungs off the chassis it gave me the opportunity to stuff the new cage tubes inside the factory tubes making it all one piece. I bent up the B pillar bar pictured above before I cut the bungs off and ended up remaking them with a longer leg so they would bottom out in the factory B pillar.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

While I was cleaning up the shop one night I made this rear bulkhead stiffener out of 1-1/4" x .095 DOM and some appropriately sized 1/8" thick flat washers...

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Added an A pillar cross brace made of 1-3/4 x .095 and 1-1/4 x .095 center support bars down to the factory dash bar. If you take a good look at the factory chassis in these pictures you can see the shortcomings of the design......

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Once I got the /\ bars tacked in i re reinstalled the dash, cowl and hood so I could clearance them around the new tubes...

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Moar later.....

 

[Fishbone333]

Nice work!

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Once I got the hood and dash finished I moved on to my C pillar dilemma. The back of the factory chassis was a pile of shit. The tubes running from the B pillar back to the end of the chassis were 1-1/4 x .065 factory and the C pillar on the factory cage bolted on to the rear of that with 4 10mm bolts. There was no way in hell I was going to do that again so this happened....

The new stuff is 1-1/2" x .095 with a 1-1/4" x .095 support brace running down to the upper trailing arm mount. The rear "bumper" bar is 1-3/4 x .095, same as the cage. Much better now.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Nice work!

Thank you sir.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Once I got the rear of the chassis squared away I continued on with bending up and installing the C pillar bars and a B pillar cross brace. The B pillars are .095 and the cross brace is .065

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

While I was playing back there I installed the upper B pillar cross bar, built out of .095 and a pair of braces in the back window made out of .065. At this point I stuck the bed back on and trimmed the plastic to fit around the tubes...

 

[Aggie06]

Nice work, looks like a big improvement over the factory stuff.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Nice work, looks like a big improvement over the factory stuff.

Thanks.

Ya, my idea of safe and what passes on these things as safe are two completely different things. I'll feel much better about sending it over 100' tabletops now.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

What's crazy is that the honda has the best cage.

I swear they use like 030 thickness though.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Let's side track for a minute.....

In the begining of this thread I installed a steering quickener setup. Only problem with running this is that I no longer have the paddle shifters on the column. The company that sold me the quickener had a steering wheel plate and button setup to replace the paddles but the price was literally out fucking rageous!

I did a little research and came up with my own setup that I think turned out pretty bad ass.

First I picked up an MPI 14" flat suede steering wheel

Then I ordered 2 universal trans brake button holders from Motion Race Works and a pair of large momentary buttons from Jegs

Figured out where they would best mouth on the steering wheel to keep them accessible, yet out of the way so the dont get bumped in the heat of the battle. This is where I ended up mounting them.

And this was the final result....

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

What's crazy is that the honda has the best cage.

I swear they use like 030 thickness though.

I shit you not..... My factory 2 seat cage weighted a little over 40lbs.

I almost think no cage would be safer. At least then you dont have to worry about a bunch of tube coming down on your head when you roll. Ducking down should be just as effective.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Once I got the cage roughed in I started adding bracing. The roof center support bar is 1-3/4 x .095 and the roof side braces are 1-3/4 x .065. The A pillar roof bar corner supports are made out of 1-1/2 x .095

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Next up, and I debated it a bunch before going through with it, was the door bars. Technically i dont need them to race at the local track, but If I ever wanted to run a BITD or LOORRS short course race I'd need them. So I came up with this...

The spliced horizontal bar in the picture was for mock up only. It took me a few tries to get it bent and positioned exactly how I pictured it in my head.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

With the body work off there was a hole in the side of this thing big enough to fit a SxS through. Cant be having that!

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Once I got all the angles figured out I got the final product installed. The horizontal bars are 1-3/4 x .083 cromoly, the lower supports are 1-1/2 x .095 and the A pillar supports are 1-3/4 x .095. That should do the trick....