Octane Race Team's Brit Mansell Develops and Races his Exclusive Center-seat Polaris RZR XP 900
- 1 Jul 2013
"For the past few years, I have been racing in a RZR, usually without a passenger," Mansell said. "After hundreds of race hours in RZR's, piloting from the driver's side, I decided that I was finally ready to make the commitment to transform the two-seater into a single, center-seater. The primary objective was to improve weight distribution and reduce the overall weight of the vehicle."
Mansell was successful in getting the RZR balanced within a couple of pounds left to right. Seated behind the steering wheel, the weight distribution is 55% in the rear and 45% up front, which amounts to 10% more on the front than the stock car. He attributes the improved turning precision to the added weight up front. "Another huge benefit is the overall reduced weight. The entire car performs better on a diet. I couldn't be happier with how well the King Shocks soaked up the rough terrain at very high speeds. There were sections of the course where I was hitting almost 70 mph." The course he refers to was round 1 of East Coast Off-road Racing Series (ECORS) in Dayton, Tennessee. The track is a four hour drive from Maylene, qualifying was scheduled to begin after 5 pm, and at noon that day Mansell and his dad where still finishing the final touches.
"Since we were late getting there, and it was now dark, I decided to only take the car out for one qualifying session, two laps. Everything was great during qualifying, but seeing that this was my first time with the car in the dirt, it was a very weird feeling driving in the middle of the chassis. After a few minutes of getting used to it, all of the hard work, time spent and money spent were vindicated. This was literally the best performing SXS I had ever driven. This car has literally rejuvenated my desire to go fast. The RZR was crazy fast, but suffered from a couple of mechanical, first-race demons, that put me out of the race. We had the fastest lap times of the race and passed well into the field in front of me (adjusted time) before the problems occurred."
No stranger to going fast and winning, last season Mansell raced a Polaris RZR XP 900 in the ECORS and the UTV Rally Raid series, finishing 1st and 2nd respectively for the season. For 2013 Mansell is also competing in the Georgia Off-road Racing Series (GORS), he recently completed round 3 of that series. "I qualified on the pole with the fastest lap time of the field. Unfortunately, we had another small mechanical issue that prevented me from carrying that momentum to the win in the GP race. However, the luck was quickly turned, as I won the 3 hour night race later that evening. Overall, I'm very happy with the results from this round of the GORS series." Knowing what he does now would he build this car again? "I'm not going to lie; it was an amazingly large amount of work. However, I'm very satisfied with how it performs on the track. But even more important, it gives me a great sense of pride to be racing a machine which I have substantially re-engineered. I would definitely build this car again and at this point and I wouldn't change a single thing about it." "Benchmark Performance built a killer engine for this vehicle and Chris has been there with me to sort out any issues immediately. The power delivery is strong and smooth, thanks to help from Dale at DirtyDawgPerformance and their RZR XP 900 clutch kit. Another pair of companies I can't overlook for this vehicle are GBC Motorsports and HiPer Racing Wheels. Those two companies kept our 2012 vehicle's power to the ground for over 60 hard race hours last year and with only one failure. I'm very proud to have them on board again this year. I would also like to thank K&N for their Aircharger Intake System (63-1129) and for their continued support of my racing career. My relationship with the motorsports team at K&N goes back many, many years and they have always provided quality products that have helped me with several championships over the years." |
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| Related K&N News Articles about Off-Road Racing: Off-Road Racing's Jon Crowley and Team UTVGuide Finish Second in the 2013 HRC King of the Hammers UTV Race; Guthrie Racing's Father and Son Off-Road Racing Team Wins 2013 King of the Hammers UTV Title; Off-Road Racer Cody "Code" Rahders Wins 2012 Production 700 Class WORCS Championship; Catching Up with Off-Road Racing's, LOORRS Racer and Young Gun Cody Rahders |
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