A good way to figure out how to go faster is to reach out to other racers, learn, watch, and ride along. As we’ve been making improvements to the race car, we can push harder, and once we figure out tuning and clutching, we will be at a whole new level of speed. The shock tuning has given us a ton of confidence! We met up at Geiser Loop to see how it felt, in a spot we know well. We linked up with Brent Mann and Adam Castaneda, and had Adam drive my RZR with me riding passenger. Brent assembled both of our cars and has been in my RZR many times. After driving it, he mentioned that adjusting the front tow would keep the RZR from wandering around. Also, I’ve been thinking of bumping up to 33” tires, as I also think we can gain some more traction and performance.

Adam Castaneda is a FAST driver. He races a Fortin X3, and after riding with him in my RZR, I can confidently say that he pushed my RZR harder than it’s ever been pushed. We learned a lot: my clutching is off quite a bit, and the power is lacking. Unfortunately, the original ECU/ clutch tuner I used did not do a very good job, and that’s become very clear over time. I’ve decided to move on to a different tuner, Queen Racing, in Lake Havasu. I wanted to use this day as a shakedown to see how the car performs before we have Queen work his magic.

Adam liked the longer wheelbase, but ironically, the RZR bucked hard in a fast big G out at Geiser Loop, that his shorter wheelbase X3 can hit at the same speed. I think Adam’s driving is simply faster and more aggressive, and his X3 is set up to do so. My eyes were definitely opened up to what a faster pace feels like, and unfortunately, we put the motor into limp mode due to high temps.

I’ve really learned the painful lesson, that you need to push the car hard, at race pace, to figure out the issues. We are hoping Queen can get us a faster running RZR, clutched properly, and keep the temps down. We also ordered a remote oil cooler from Holz, to help aid with cooler engine temps.

We will report back after the tuning session with Queen.

Transcription:

What’s happened everybody Chupacabra off-road back in the desert back with Brent man American engineering Adam Castaneda best the desert pro racer right here in geyser loop met Brent mobile know each other – Brent Brent assemble both of our cars and both came ready for her future races so Adam tell us a little about yourself how you got this this addiction to all-pervasive oh man it started when I was probably three years old got my first 50 and it all went up from there got my first razor s 800 and drove in circles around our four acre shop for years I had that thing for three years I just do circles all day and graduated to the 1,000 and now I’m here at the Can Am and gonna be so you just have this car assembled nuta does their racing and you’ve done a couple races in this yeah I need a desert racing this year it’s an experience for sure and we moved on to Laughlin and we’re happy with where we are going till the end I’m sure you to learn at a time I saved as you have a couple races where do you think we’re at right now and what do you think you need to do to to be able to step it up and push hard and get a good finish I think we’re close the shocks are dialed the cars pass and fudging scan [Music] once we get that spur Lankan Tamil pretty well awesome I’m glad Adams coming to town to think of his car from Brenda there’s a good scenario for us to all get together so control my car you guys can follow the channel or YouTube we just put a new XP Pro trans or anything clutching an ECU two new McQueen next week and what Adam drive it as well so I’ll start with you rent redshirt is my car a couple times doctor first hat together and a lot of improvements its what Wayne did with the shocks tonight day are very stable predictable we probably need you a little clutch huge improvement started and real happy real impressed with it today I was really hoping to do a race before this whole pandemic happen with the old transmission and then convey with the bell temps were with the new XP Pro my friends that are way faster they mean to run or run in extra coat and really good I think say print on some sensor somehow he would old nab and I we just got to make these cars run as little as possible about 90 degrees out high temperatures so I think that’s a man all the electrical faster that’s what they tell you guys you guys want to go racing that that’s why we’re at a couple races more money more time we’re planning dry land air more learning you know it’s a small motor that we’re asking a lot of it so I think that yeah we need to eat you know better water pumps or it just it seems like as you you’re in the gas full throttle you got to back out just a hair and let it cool go again and you know I’m used to trophy trucks where you have the big cooling and the coolers and all that and it almost seems like with these cars we need to do that and Adam was talking about he weighed his car you guys aren’t gonna believe how much this probably twenty six sixty both of us in it full of fuel rates ready so more than I thought I haven’t weighed my vehicle I was hoping my car was around 22 but I’ve got to be easily market yeah you’re in you’re at least 25 26 so final puddle mess we got some cool video last run of the day Adam drove with me this dude can’t drive and I’m not just saying that because he’s here thank you but he pushed my car fashioned it’s never been pushed we had a nice hucklebuck back here and the suspensions up for me my driving level now hold the gas bottle so but I’m really happy like I said we have more tuning coming up thanks you guys it’s always fun learning next race on the schedule is silver state most likely so I got about five weeks so yeah it’s gonna be up north of Nevada some elevation some dusk here yeah it’s a fun race it goes in the trees and gathers elevation and it gets dusty because but cool area of Nevada and racing it’s not just open rocks and you know like the mid 404 some elevation changes threw some towels it’s it’s really a cool place I’m excited for every race we’re going to this year it’s new to us yeah we take it as we see it and you’re happy with Auckland a lot of those guys have spent lots of time our first yeah animals weren’t a really great pace top ten for quite a while which is amazing secondly salver I think it’s probably one of most competitive if not the most people we started in he started in the back I meant he’s sick and he was in the top ten physically you know so we were top I don’t know seven or five car I’m going into the last lap so very impressive him like you said Adam can drive and I’m looking forward to bigger and better things with them so I’m gonna get back to Yuma I can get back and do some video editing as always right hopefully and I gotta get back in the shop tonight sure yeah we call him Brent soon provide some more upgrades on the car so thanks for watching guys have a great weekend time.