Pro UTV FI Big car vs Small car???

[Baja Bryan]

Hey races got a question. I raced the Baja 1000 last week in a 2 seat canam that is little longer that stock wheelbase I believe. Then I seen the cars we raced against and they were much longer. For desert racing how much better is a bigger car? Has anyone drove both in a Baja race. Burnett, Matlock, Millen all those cars are big almost the size or class 10. You dont see any small class 10's anymore. Any feed back would be great.

 

[ssb4]

Longer wheelbase have the ability to tackle the whoops better, which increase speed.


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[baja specialist]

It's all about the wheelbase, and the ability to put the wait were you want it in the chassis. But mainly the wheelbase is key!!

 

[///Airdam Clutches]

i have driven pretty much every one of the top racers cars, as they progressed from 2011 till now since i do clutches, and work with most all of the top teams and have to drive the machines and test them to make them perfect. i can tell you that wheel base is a big key to make the machine faster. for example, in one of my favorite places to test we have a nice loop thru the desert with a set of whoops that allows us to test many variables of the machine. in 2014 with the XP1000 2 seater we were able to run this loop in xxxxx amount of time and run the whoops around 45-55mph depending on how good the shocks were. in 2015 when people started building the 4 seater chassis we were able to hit the whoops around 55-60mph, then when the machines got the green light for 32s we started seeing lots faster lap times and 65mph thru those same whoops.

now on to today, burnetts, matlocks, and millens cars will all go 75+ thru that same set of whoops on 32s. the wheelbase, and suspension that the manufacturers have been tweaking, along with the aftermarkets tweaks to the shocks and motion ratios are allowing these machines to run thru stuff faster and harder.

a 4 seater with correct suspension and the 32s will blast thru stuff faster than you can imagine. a 2 seater of any sort will not compare to the longer wheel base when running thru rough stuff.

 

[tatum]

I think it depends on the race course and who makes the vehicle. Most Polaris racers have switched to the 4 seat chassis while only a few X3 racers have switched. I am sure that has a lot to do with the 2 seat X3 having a much longer wheelbase than a 2 seat Polaris while the 4 seat X3 is almost as long as a school bus. A very whooped up course a long wheelbase works better but is heavier and slower to accelerate. A course like VTR is smoother and a lighter quicker car will probably perform better and be easier on the rubber band.

 

[Matt Martelli - CEO]

The 2 seat X3 seems to be the right wheel base. Look at Blurton's car work.