Projects

Published on September 15th, 2018 | by Joe

Polaris RZR XP 4 Turbo Upgrade Project Test: WITH VIDEO

CT Racing’s 4 door turbocharged missile put to the test!

CT Racing has worked with us on a few UTV builds over the past few years dating back to a 2012 RZR 900 adventure build. The staff of CT Racing has done a bunch of adventure builds, we’ve even had the opportunity to tag along on some of their adventure trips. Their style of going somewhere is not cruising along listening to a 1.21 gigawatts of power needed to supply a stereo system. It’s get in hold on and floor it, and there is plenty of backing it into the corners needed to keep up. So when we got the opportunity to thrash, I mean test their latest build,  a RZR Turbo 4 seat car, we were all over it.

You can count on a build with all the details handled and not any bling for the sake of bling. Keep in mind your dealing with a company that has won the Score Off Road Championship and Best in the Desert Championship too many times to list, so speed and endurance are a common theme with CT Racing and owner Allen Knowles.

Engine Upgrades

The Empire slip-on exhaust is as quier as stock, with a better note, and more HP

Empire build a nice set of dual exhaust slip ons. The stock headpipe is fine for HP and it’s a well-made stainless unit, so Empire builds from there, this Exhaust is as quier as stock, with a better note, and more HP, what else could you want. They made them duals to control the sound. The stock exhaust has the catalytic converter built into the can, you won’t find that inside the empire system so it may not be legal in some states. We found it to be an excellent system in performance, noise (lack of), fit finish, and a solid mounting system.

RZR’s as with just about every other off highway vehicles are set too lean to meet emission standards of many states (especially California), lean and clean runs hot and slow. We added a Dynojet Power Vision CX to the RZR. The Power Vision is a re-flash unit that you own. It comes with 4 tunes in it, stock, stock with a pipe, and one other mod tune. The nice thing is thaey not only fatten the car up for better power, they also kick up the boost, eliminate the brake delay, kick the fan on sooner and hold it longer, all beneficial, and cutting the temp is a good thing, and that comes with a richer tune.

Chassis and Suspension Upgrade

if budget is not a concern, and you want the best shock you can get, look at the Walker Evans Velocity Series 2.5″ shocks

Walker Evans VS 2.5 shocks. The RZR come from the factory with good shocks either the Walker Evans or the Fox Shox, while both shocks are good for different applications, price point and universal settings are always a factor. When you drive the car really hard (like we stole it) upgrading the shock is a good option. The stock shock can be re-valved and offer huge improvement, but if budget is not a concern, and you want the best shock you can get, look at the Walker Evans VS 2.5’s. This is the second build we have tested and these things are phenomenal. You can just plain knarly whoops like it’s a straight away. Plush ride, lots of adjustability and un-believable in the rough.

Walker Evans, Velocity Series shocks are phenomenal. You can just plain gnarly whoops like it’s a straight away. Plush ride, lots of adjustability and un-believable in the rough.

Walker Evans Sway bar link replace the standard rear sway bar link and provide a smoother initial ride over rough and uneven terrain regardless of vehicle speed while still providing a confident feeling while cornering. With 1.5 inches of dampened action per side your rear shocks will be able to act independently until a point where the Walker Link has collapsed enough to now act like a rigid link under heavy loads and when cornering.  You get the best of both worlds with these links, a more independent shock action at the initial stroke and a solid support under heavy loads, turning and when leaning on the sway bar.

Teixeira offers there Extreme Ground Clearance ( XGC) A-arms and radius rodsmade out of 4130 chromoly delivering superior strength.

Teixeira offers there Extreme Ground Clearance ( XGC) A-arms and radius rods, they offer maximum ground clearance getting most of the A-Arms and radius rods up to the level of the bottom of the car. This really keeps you from snagging rocks and causing serious suspension and chassis damage. The lower A-Arms are significantly stronger than the stock units as well with gusseting and stronger steel, using chromoly, instead of mild steel like stock. Teixeira builds there radius rods out of plate chromoly, we’ve seen lots of tubing radius rods straighten out with aggressive driving, that does not happen with these. The Teixeira radius rod has a front and back plate, plus a center plate that is stitch welded top the top and bottom plates where it is tongue and groove notched for assembly.

Teixeira Tech, XGC A-Armr and radius rods offer maximum ground clearance getting most of the A-Arms and radius rods up to the level of the bottom of the car. This really keeps you from snagging rocks and causing serious suspension and chassis damage.

Wheels and tires

GBC Kanati Mongrel Tires hook up amazingly well, on hard surfaces and surprisingly they are even better in sand than the stock tires. CT used 32″ instead of the 30″ tires for added ground clearence on the longer 4 door car.

In the past CT used the Kanati Mongrel 30″ tires for their adventure builds, but that has always been on 2seat RZR’s so with this four seat and knowing the type of terrain they traverse they opted to go to  32″ Kanati Mongrels. The 32X10.00R15 Mongrel offers a little more ground clearance. That was something they figured they would need with the added length of the four seater. The Mongrels hook up amazingly well, on hard surfaces and surprisingly they are even better in sand than the stock tires. The key to the Mongrels is to run high air pressure, we find 20-22 rear and16-20 front works best for trail and hard terrain.

On adventure builds CT always recommends having a spare tire and running beadlocks. They run the same size tire all the way around, this is a common set up now days. Beadlocks offer a lot security in making sure you can get back to camp, even if you have to run the car on a flat tire. We’ve run as many as 50 miles on a flat, and while the tire was destroyed we could have gone farther and the wheel was still good and re-useable. For this build they ran the DWT Star Fighter in 15X7, DWT offers a great wheel at a very competitive price. Like other DWT wheels they are built in the U.S. and with a reputation for building some of the strongest wheels on the market allowing you to drive hard with little concern for destroying a wheel.

This build uses DWT Star Fighter in 15X7, DWT offers a great wheel at a very competitive price. Like other DWT wheels they are built in the U.S. and with a reputation for building some of the strongest wheels on the market

Pro Armore Cage and Cockpit Upgrade

Pro Armor G2 seats were mounted to the stock sliders and slid them back so the seat goes back as far as possible offering maximum leg room for the front seat occupants.

The Cage came from Pro Armor, the Pro Armor cage is well thought out. We’ve tested cages that were actually too low. Not that your going to hit your head, but if they obscure your view when going up hills. The Pro Armor is a good height lower and sleeker than stock, so it looks great and fits in the trailer, with it’s lower height. The cage also offers plenty of room for 6-4 CT Racing owner Allen Knowles. The Pro Armor cage comes with a very nice roof. What CT Racing did was dropped the roof off at an upholstery shop and had a layer of upholstery vinyl glued to the inside of the roof. Roof’s always come with some rubber to isolate them, but having it upholstered really cuts any potential rattles, and gives the car a nice finished look. While they were at it, they had they gave the Pro Armor doors skins the same treatment. We used Pro Armors door skins instead of a complete door. The Polaris door has a nice latch and frame so may as well use it, and there skins wrap all the way over the door and have a nice look, and cost less than complete doors.

The Pro Armor Asylum cage is a good height lower and sleeker than stock, so it looks great and fits in the trailer, with it’s lower height. We used Pro Armors door skins instead of a complete doors.

Pro Armor’s Race front bumper was added to add an extra level of protection

When you spend long days in the seat covering the ground the CT crew covers you want to run good seats. Pro Armor offers a few different seats and limitless color options. CT went with the G2 seats in black and Blue matching the cars colors. What the crew at CT Racing did was mounted the seats to the stock sliders and the slid them back so the seat goes back as far as possible offering maximum leg room for the front seat occupants.

Pro Armor’s Race front bumper was added to add an extra level of protection to the front of the car. The low profile race styled bumper is constructed of aluminum to keep weight to a minimum while better protecting the front end. The bumpers mini skid plate is sold separately. Together they enhance the car’s durability and appearance.

Lazer Star Lights

When you pick up the Lazer Star lights your dealing with a reputable company that is at the top of the pile.

Night driving is half the fun of running a RZR. With the advent of LED lights, you can hang so much light on the car, that it turns the nighttime into daylight. We’ve tried lots of different lights over the years, and it proves the old adage, you get what you pay for. We tried the eBay specials directly from China, not only were the brackets not correct or even useable, we’ve had the lights fall apart inside, seen them fill with water, and basically light the trail like your holding a flashlight out the front. When you pick up the Lazer Star lights your dealing with a reputable company that is at the top of the pile. They have been in the ATV/UTV business since ATV’ had wooden wheels. The light bar we received is a 40 inch bar for the top, we went with a 12″ bar on the bumper. The bumper light is important, as you want to aim it downward, so you can see downhill. Your big light bar lights up ahead, but pitch black below so this set up is important. We also set up a rear facing bar. The rear bar has lots of options and combinations of color. We set it up with outer lights running amber, then inward red lights set up as brake lights, and then the center is a bright white for backing or if you need to light up the bed. all of the lights from Lazer Star are controlled from a single console with all the switches easy to set up, and they supply different labels so you can mark them as you choose.

Rugged Radio

Rugged Radios, Ultimate Rider RRP 660 4 Person Car to Car and Intercom

We love having a Radio in our cars. It has a lot of good offerings for having fun when running as a group. It allows communication between cars so you can keep your separation, that way nobody is sucking dust. It offers a lot of safety, keeping a group together, and being able to announce oncoming traffic, alerting to an issue with the trail, or alerting of some type of issue, to get everyone together in a hurry. rugged puts together several systems, we use there 60 watt system the offers a lot of range, in some situations over 10 miles. They also have a communication unit for in car communication, the 660 can also be linked to a phone or iPod for sound, music In with auto muting . It’s available with helmet kits or headsets, helmets are required in many states now, and the speed this RZR travels out, it’s a pretty good idea to be wearing one. The com picks up with voice activation, to talk car to car, it comes with two microphone buttons, one for driver and one for co-driver, and that button has to be pushed. Rugged offers kits for all the popular UTV’s so they make mounting plates and so fourth for your ride. They do offer radios only without com, that may be what you need if you don’t want to hear screaming at you for driving like an idiot!

In Conclusion

Adding any of these parts individually will improve the performance of your RZR. The combination of all of them truly transforms the performance of the machine. Everything about the experience of driving or riding in the car is improved over stock. The taller tires and improved ground clearance from the Teixeira Tech chassis parts let you conquer rough terrain without betting hung up as easily as the stock car.  The bigger Mongrel tires and Walker Evans shocks and Pro Armor seats make you feel as though you are floating over the terrain, the difference in bumps transferred to the occupants is amazingly reduced, from the smallest hits to pounding whoops. All of the improvements in strength from the DWT wheels, Teixeira chassis components, and Pro Armor’s roll cage boost your confidence in what is possible and how much abuse the machine can withstand. This RZR rides softer in the rough stuff, while feeling more rigid throughout the chassis, just what we’d want in a vehicle we plan on driving at a race pace. This RZR is by far our favorite side-by-side built by CT Racing thus far and once again proves that by adding up a bunch of carefully chosen high-quality parts, you will wind up with a significantly faster, more fun, and safer machine. All of which we pushed to the limit.

Pick the parts you need to finish your build or replicate what CT Racing has built here, you won’t be disappointed.

Tags: a arms, asylum cage, cynojet power vision cv, door skins, dwt star fighter wheels, empire exhaust, g2 seats, gbc kanati mongrel tires, grou8nd clearence, lazer star dominator, polaris, proarmor, project, radius rods, Review, rrp660, rugged radios, rzr turbo, rzr xp 4, s&b filters particle seperator, sway bar links, teixeira tech, test, turbo, upgrade, velocity shocks, video, walker evans racing, walker links

About the Author

Joe

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