DezertBound Racing BITD X3 build

[Gilroyboy]

well i bit the bullet and bought a new car, yes this will be a bitd legal car but i will probably go to a few other races. This is no big baller budget build, i work a normal 40 hr week career then work a side job another 10 hrs a week. So this build will have to squeeze in, i am sticking to the KISS method and want to have fun while doing it. i guess not going broke would be key to haha. Shane from S3 could not have said it better during their build, "If its not done on time, then i guess we will have to sleep less". we shall see !

As the build progresses i will post more, but as of right now the car is torn down, lasted 6 days before i cut it apart, gotta love race cars. Most had followed my old build pretty well and i had a huge learning curve then. Knowing what i know now, i am going to apply that to this build and put 150% into it.

 

[JoeyD23]

Thanks for sharing! Can't wait to follow it!

 

[Bumpers]

In


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[kmb760]

Yeah! Gotta love to see a new build start a new year of racing.

 

[Whattha]

Subbed

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[sand shark]

Should be a fun project.

 

[jajl22]

nice!

 

[Gilroyboy]

well put in a good 20 hours down at the shop this weekend. Need to mount some sheet metal and some plastic back on, but should be good to go so i can at least go break it in before i tear more into it.

 

[Gilroyboy]

And got it all welded up for now.....looks goofy with no panels haha

 

[zambo]

Hey what is the material and thickness of the original cage? Was there any thought given, since it is a welded cage to start with rather than bolt-on, to just strengthening what was already there? Sorry for the dumb question.

 

[Gilroyboy]

Hey what is the material and thickness of the original cage? Was there any thought given, since it is a welded cage to start with rather than bolt-on, to just strengthening what was already there? Sorry for the dumb question.

Stock cage is not BITD legal, also the stock cagecan not take a roll over due to the thickness of the material. This car is being built for racing, its 4130 chromoly 1.5" tubing. Approx three times the tensil strength as what was on there stock.

And dont worry there is no dumb questions, just dumb people )) entirely kidding!

 

[zambo]

The website says it is made of 980 DP, which is what car and truck A and B pillar cages are made of. It looks from the pictures that the whole chassis is the same material? What is the thickness of the original cage? BITD says they want .090 but that is in 1.5" tubing and that cage looks like its larger diameter than that stock? What process to attach the 4130 chromoly to the 980 DP original chassis, or is the chassis part made of different material? Are you sure chromoly is stronger than the 980 DP?

Another question if you don't mind, are there pic with the door panels off? Does your cage go behind the door or can you still open the door and crawl under that visible tube to get at the seats and other things inside the cab?

I appreciate any responses, I race a truck but these things have caught my eye recently and I'm trying to learn about them. This x3 model seems like a real nice piece of gear. I don't know if I'd race one but if I did buy one I'd at least like to know about some of the possibilities. BTW I assume this is for the stock turbo class?

 

[Glamisfan]

If it's 600MPa rated, then that would be about 87,000 psi. Pretty darn close to chromo.
Stock diameter is 1.85".

 

[Gilroyboy]

The website says it is made of 980 DP, which is what car and truck A and B pillar cages are made of. It looks from the pictures that the whole chassis is the same material? What is the thickness of the original cage? BITD says they want .090 but that is in 1.5" tubing and that cage looks like its larger diameter than that stock? What process to attach the 4130 chromoly to the 980 DP original chassis, or is the chassis part made of different material? Are you sure chromoly is stronger than the 980 DP?

Another question if you don't mind, are there pic with the door panels off? Does your cage go behind the door or can you still open the door and crawl under that visible tube to get at the seats and other things inside the cab?

I appreciate any responses, I race a truck but these things have caught my eye recently and I'm trying to learn about them. This x3 model seems like a real nice piece of gear. I don't know if I'd race one but if I did buy one I'd at least like to know about some of the possibilities. BTW I assume this is for the stock turbo class?

Stock tubing is beefy is diameter but thickness it is lacking, its close to .083 wall which is not legal for a cage in bitd. Also the back half of the stock cage is bolted and had a couple rivots holding it on, not worth trying to make metric tubing work to be legal. Same with the roof, the center supports are bolted in. Its great for the weekender just trying to have fun but i wouldnt trust it doing 90mph and rolling.

The cage does not go behind the doors, the door bars just are not done yet, waiting until i drop in my fuel cell before finishing that part. So it will not have operational doors, also not legal. And yes i will be in the production turbo class

 

[zambo]

Thanks again for the replies. I was looking the online pic of the cage and trying to see where the back unbolts. I can see the overhead tubes in the roof halo have bolt flanges.

For it to be BITD legal where did you have to cut it off? Do you just sleeve chromoly into the old cage above the dash area and tig it together? Do you leave the rear shock mounts? Or do you cut off everything above the suspension and motor mounts?

BTW I believe that when it comes to strength that tube diameter is far more important than wall thickness. In the same material I'd opine that a 1 7/8 at .083 is probably a hell of a lot stronger than 1.5 at .090. I thought in the past that BITD tubing standards were advisory rather than mandatory.

In any event I wouldn't race this thing off the showroom floor, I'm just saying that perhaps adding braces and Xs could be an easier option than chopping it all up if BITD would let you. Keep the pics coming!

 

[zambo]

I just talked to Chad Ragland over at Cagewrx and they should have a weld-it-yourself kit for the X3 in a month or so for about 700 clams. He said you cut the tubing just below the body work and there are plates there that the new kit bolts too, or you can mig/tig it to make it race legal.

 

[Gilroyboy]

I just talked to Chad Ragland over at Cagewrx and they should have a weld-it-yourself kit for the X3 in a month or so for about 700 clams. He said you cut the tubing just below the body work and there are plates there that the new kit bolts too, or you can mig/tig it to make it race legal.

Yea there is a few that sell kits now, the platform makes it really easy. As to your stock chasis picture, the tubes behind the seats going to the back fenders are bolted/rivot on to the main cage. So for me id rather build my own and know i have something sturdy around me. But the rec user can easily add some tubes in to make it a more solid cage for sure !

 

[JoeyD23]

Guys said slow rollover but I've heard that before. Either way, probably good to just upgrade the whole cage Zambo.

 

[Gilroyboy]

Thats a nice size wrinkle everybody claims slow rolls haha luckly its not messed up more but thats exactly why its a good idea to upgrade. My life means more tham whay it cost me in material

 

[zambo]

Without seeing the crash that produced that wrinkle its hard to say how strong the stock cage is. But for sure and without a doubt, it is not strong enough in stock form to race with or even serious prerunning. Mainly due to the fact that there is almost no triangulation. Whether you keep the stock steel and add to it, or replace the upper half with chromoly, you can't build it in that same design and expect to have hard impacts at the top of the A pillar without some crushing at least. Glad to see that even with that wrinkle it is more or less intact.

At a bare minimum, you would need to add a door bar from where the A pillar meets the dash back to the upright behind the seats. Then you'd need a vertical post from the top of the A pillar to the door bar, and then diagonals from that intersection going to the lower front and rear of the passenger compartment. And you need lateral bracing, probably from the front shock hoop to the top of the A pillar, as well as an X that starts at the A pillar and goes through the back of the halo and down to the back of the cage above the rear suspension mounts.

In any event, unless you cut the whole car up and build the cage straight off the chassis you are still just making a top half cage that mounts to the factory tubing halfway up the car.

If y'all don't mind me asking, how hard is it to remove the motor and trans from the car? Do you pull rear suspension off and come out the rear side or what?