JoeyD23
#utvunderground
Feature Vehicle: UTVUnderground’s 2017 Polaris RZR XP Turbo (#Cinderella)
UTVUnderground’s foundation was built on vehicle modification. Our love for off-road and specifically UTVs led us down a path of becoming a leader in the industry for building over the top machines. Our years of trial and error have led us to the point where we know what we want to build before we ever start. In the case of CINDERELLA, we set a plan for a pure dual sport vehicle with no frills, no disco and geared it towards reliable performance.
Last year we introduced phase 1 of this build and it took us the rest of the year to get the machine to the finish line. What we have today is exactly what we envisioned and CINDERELLA has become one of our most liked machines, not only internally here at UTVUnderground but by our fans and followers. Everywhere we have taken this machine it grabs attention mainly because of its simple yet stout appearance.
The first thing you notice when you look at this 2017 Polaris RZR XP Turbo is its stance and its clean and simple appearance. We maintained the factory titanium grey color throughout the entire car accented by candy red and black. Powder coating was applied by American Powdercoat in Escondido, CA and was matched perfectly. American Powdercoat also has a sister company called American Off-Road and they assisted in the phase 1 assembly of the machine as well. We used the candy red sparingly but just enough of it to break up the monotone titanium and black. What resulted was a look that stands out amongst some of the most flashy builds in the sport without the actual flash!
While every mod we made is bad ass and everything has purpose on this machine we first had to establish our cage. We went with the CageWRX Race Cage, CageWRX tire carrier and SDR Motorsports doors. We also utilized CageWRX rear light bar wing and pre-runner style front bumper. We have always loved the clean lines of the CageWRX race cage & looks, functionality and style of the SDR Motorsports door package. The cage set the car off and established our overall style of the car perfectly.
With protection in place we had to move to suspension. Over the years we have kept our suspension set ups fairly basic but we always like to upgrade the factory components mainly for durability. But in the case of CINDERELLA we wanted to go all out and that meant a big, beefy, and purely bad ass long travel kit by HCR Racing. We selected the HCR +4 Dual Sport kit and paired it with their HCR spec tuned King Shocks 2.5″ Internal By-Pass coil overs. The suspension provides for a wider stance and increases suspension travel to 21″! Many of the LT kits on the market simply increase track width while still utilizing factory length shocks. This system is a true LT kit that uses bigger shocks, a front shock tower changing motion ratio and has a boxed design that not only looks bad ass but increases durability. The HCR system uses OEM style ball joints which is shocking to many who expect uni-ball type pivots at uprights. While you can use the factory ball joints we upgraded to fully rebuildable and ultra strong RCV Performance ball joints. In addition, we ran RCV Performance Pro Series II axles. Assault Industries sway bar links and rear radius rods finished off what we think is one of the best suspension set ups for the Polaris RZR platform available in the aftermarket.
To finish off the exterior of the machine we moved to wheels & tires. Having a wider foot print demanded a taller tire not just for proportion but also for added ground clearance, performance and of course stance. We selected Method Race Wheels 401 bead locks and wrapped them with 32″ Tensor Tire DS race spec tires. They completed the overall look of the car perfectly and we couldn’t be happier with the performance of the vehicle. We do swap them out when running in the dunes but the DS’s are perfect for all other terrains including the harsh & rocky terrain of Johnson Valley or in the fast and aggressive trails of Ocotillo Wells.
While lighting on off-road vehicles is a must, we went with a rather simple package for CINDERELLA. Don’t be fooled by the limited amount of lights on the build, what we used puts out an insane amount of illumination. We selected Baja Designs for the project for a couple of reasons, the main being quality. There is a lot of really nice lighting products on the market but you will be hard pressed to find an off-road brand that can prove to be brighter while looking as good esthetically. We replaced our factory head lights with the RZR “Unlimited” headlight replacement kit which places one Squadron Pro Combo fixture & Squadron Racer Edition fixture per side, increasing punch and spread. The kit is full plug & play and installed with basic tools in a rather short amount of time. The same could be said for the Squadron XL’s that we placed on the bumper. The 6 total, and rather small lights we placed on the build do the work of what you are used to seeing out of 40″ long light bars + lights on bumpers. Best part is, we did it all in a compact, clean and simple way. To complete the lighting package we installed a pair of 4′ Buggy Whip’s. These whips have not only the best light output of anything on the market, they are also the most robust with the cleanest and strongest mounting bases. You have to really screw up to hurt one of these and we have yet to have a whip that we have to constantly “wiggle” to make contact and work.
With the overall exterior design in place we moved to the interior. We spend a lot of time behind the wheel of our UTVs so we know exactly what we like and how we like it set up. There is no one way to design your interior which is great. In off-road, we all have different needs and different things we like displayed and within arms reach. I anticipated spending a lot of time in this machine by myself and therefor I wanted everything within reach from the drivers seat. To do this meant I had to install a custom dash and so without question I called upon our friends at GlazzKraft. The team at GlazzKraft set us up with their carbon fiber XP1K dash and brand new VTX carbon fiber center console. The package totally changes the inside look of the RZR and gives it a high end race car appearance. It also allowed us to place our Rugged Radios intercom & race radio as well as our SwithPro’s touch panel right in front of the gear selector.
To go along with out communications and switching on the dash, we removed the factory digital gauge and replaced it with the all-new AEM Electronics CD7 digital dash. The CD7 allows you to customize your dash layout while remaining 100% plug and play. While it is limited on the data logging side, it still gives you a much larger and easier to read layout and can display all of the vehicles diagnostics such as boost, oil temp, RPM’s and more. Lastly, it added to the overall look to our interior by giving our dash that final premium layout.
To go along with the Rugged Radios intercom & race radio, we also installed their all-new M3 Extreme Air two-port race pumper. The new M3 Extreme has a carbon fiber & billet aluminum design that not only reduces weight and improves versatility from a mounting standpoint, it also moves some serious air through your helmet. The compact unit is powered by a brushless fan motor that comes with an adjustable switch allowing you to fine tune the amount of air being pushed into your full face blown helmet. This is handy when riding in certain conditions where more air, or less, is desired based on the external temperature of the area you are riding.
With all of our electronics in place it was time to wire the vehicle. When you break it down, this was a rather basic electronic package then we usually put in our machines. Normally our custom cars are covered in lights from top to bottom, stereo systems and more. Despite our basic set up, we still wanted it to be done right, and again, CLEAN! We enlisted the help of our friends at SXS Performance to tackle the install & wiring of our electronics which would all be pushed through our SwitchPro’s 8 button control panel. The SwitchPro’s system is amazing and keeps your wiring simple without the need of a bunch of rocker switches. In addition, we were able to eliminate the our actual key’d ignition and instead replace it with a hidden whole car kill switch and program an ignition & fire button on the SwitchPro’s. This is something we are all used to seeing on high end Motec & Life Racing electronic systems on race cars, rally cars and trophy trucks.
To make sure we were comfortable for long periods of time in the machine we installed two of the cleanest BEARD seats we have ever had. BEARD built us a custom set of Torque suspension seats designed specifically for CINDERELLA. Its hard to beat the fit, finish, stitch & sew of the BEARD products. The seats are comfortable and durable and when paired with their 5-point 3″ race harnesses, we are held in secure no matter what!
A myriad of accessories finished the build off including mirrors & grill from Assault Industries, billet body mounts from Packard Performance, suede steering wheel and disconnect from GRANT Products, fire extinguisher from Safecraft, Blowhole clutch fan by MTNTK Performance, and my favorite; the Fourwerx carbon fiber hood!
What resulted is one of our best builds to date. A clean and simple look yet full of form and function and it works as good as it looks. We have loved driving this vehicle and the few people we allowed to take a spin in it have loved it as well. While we will list and sell this machine like so many of our top builds, we can say for certain this will be a tough one to let go of. For sure we can say we are done with this build, but we can also say that its going to be hard to top this one!
We want to extend a huge thank you to Polaris RZR for providing another bad ass unit for us to build. The machine in stock form is already amazing, but paired with our mods its definitely one of the best performing UTVs money can buy. We also want to thank all of the build partners associated with CINDERELLA. Of course, none of this happens without your awesome support!
SPECIFICATIONS
Model: 2017 Polaris RZR XP Turbo
Builder: Joey D. / UTVUnderground.com
Engine: Factory Polaris Pro Star Turbo Engine
Suspension: HCR Racing +4 Dual Sport Suspension
Axles: RCV Performance Pro Series II
Radius / Tie Rods / Sway Links: Assault Industries +4 HD Barrell Radius Rods / Tie Rods / Sway Links
Shocks: King Shocks 2.5” Coil Over Internal By Pass – HCR SPEC
Cage: CageWRX Race Cage w/ Rear Wing
Tire Carrier: CageWRX
Bumper: CageWRX
Doors: SDR Motorsports
Seats: BEARD Seats Torque
Harnesses: BEARD Seats 3X3 Padded 5-Point
Wheels: Method Race Wheels 401 Beadlocks
Tires: Tensor Tire 32” DS Race Tires
Mirrors: Assault Industries B2 Bomber
Lights: Baja Designs XL’s (Front Bumper) & RZR Headlight Replacement Kit
Steering Wheel: GRANT Products Suede Race Wheel w/ Billet Disconnect
Powdercoat: American Powdercoat
Assembly: UTVUnderground & American Motorsports
Fire Supression: Safecraft
Rear Storage: Polaris OGIO
Dash & Console: GlazzKraft Carbon Fiber
Digital Display: AEM CD7 Digital Dash
Communications: Rugged Radios
Whips: Buggy Whip
Switching: SwitchPros
Race Air: Rugged Radios M3 Extreme Air
Wiring: SXS Performance
Hood: FourWerx
Body Mounts: Packard Performance
Photos by: Jason Zindroski / Daniel Schenkelberg
Words by: Joey DiGiovanni
