Quote:
Originally posted by socalpunx:
Thoughts?

Yeah, I think that you should listen to the guys here and on RDC that are trying to tell you that you need to relax a little.

25" WHAT? Travel? you are going to build a trophy truck out of an Xterra? Did you not see what I wrote about wheelbase? 600HP? Why? You don't know what you need. You don't know what you want. You don't know what you are talking about. When you go on a racers site and talk about your skinny pedal being your own limitation and how you are used to driving fast in the desert you look like an idiot.

You have no clue what fast in the desert is to those guys.

I'll try this again since you are young and have a tendancy not to listen. You want to build a tube chassis 600HP 25inches of travel race car that's fine. Don't start with a stock Xterra. I have one of those two "kits" on the market. You will run into limitations with a "stock" vehicle. ESPECIALLY since we are likely talking about your daily driver.

Let's get this straight: you ARE talking about racing your daily driver right? Great. Now stop. It's your transportation. Once you cage and tube it, and link it (you will have to to keep up with the monster 25" front end you want) you will have to cut the rear body, cut the rear of the frame, install a fuell cell, and eliminate all of the creature conforts of a streetable vehicle to make it raceworthy.

Race trucks don't have AC or power windows after all. I really was trying to be delicate for you but you don't get it. Start small. I understand that at 20 you know everything and you managed something for what I'm sure was a great career. Just slow down. Learn about suspension. Learn about scrub,camber change, and ackerman angle.

Are you planning on drawing up everything in solidworks and then just cutting and welding it together? Do you have a bender? Are you planning on MIG or TIG welding it? How well do you weld?What kind of metal are you planning on using? 4130? DOM? Cromolly? Mild steel? Do you know the properties of metals when it comes to building a truck and protecting your head?

How much do you know about cage design?

My point is that you don't take a stock truck and turn it into a racecar overnight. It takes an eduaciton, skill and an understanding of a great number of skills before you just slap a number to the side of a car and enter a race. It's not that easy.

And the worst thing you can do is take the car that gets you from home to school and to work and back and start cutting it up without knowing what you are doing just because you got a hair up your ass from seeing something cool on the internet.

[Finger]

Oh yeah. Since you seem to think that I don't know what I'm talking about here's mine:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nfB-RvmVaTU
Dude seriously, why are you reaching out to me. I appreciate the opinions and thoughts and advice, i really do. I dont know whay you are so upset. No one else has replied so much like a jerk nor givvin me so much information. So...this time I am going to say thank you; sincerily.

As for cage design yes. I would be TIG welding 4130 Chromoly. Its strong and thats what I have used in the past on race cars. I have helped design and build 4, 6, 8, 12, 20-point cages. While at the same time TIG welding entire cars...right over the factory MIG welds to strengthen chassis. Plus the TIG is just about the most time consuming thing I have ever attempted...it sucks. I weld good enough for street cars to work magic on them, but like you said a truck isnt built overnight, NOR by ONE person. I would ofcourse be getting help. And yeah I have ready access to a hydraulic pipe bender and a mandrel bender. Creature comforts? screw creature comforts. I drove a 450whp Honda CRX around with NO A/C, STIFF TRACK SETUP SUSPENSION, REDICULOUS RACING ECU TUNE, and a cage for quite some time while managing the shop. As for it being my daily, its not. I am about to add a third to the garage, something fun on the street aside from the bike. Probably going to sell my Acura.

Your truck...the video of you tearing down the beach...THAT is what i want to do with the Xterra. Just something fun. You have the SPL kit (i think thats what it is) it has the ol' torsion bar setup...I think I spoke to you a while back about the product in comparison with TCF's coil over conversion.

Then, RDC...I didnt know what kind of site it was, so I am sorry for posting there at all. I thought it was a conglomerate source for offroad enthusiats but i was wrong. Seams more like a professional place ONLY, so i will stay out.

Yeah, I am 20 years old. So what. I dont know everything, I know barily enough to get by, but i am always willing to learn more by asking people who know. So when i saw RDC it seamed perfect for the questions I had. Just wanted to know if it was possible and if would be plausable. Appearantly not. I just had my heart set on doing something out of the ordinary...even if it just ended up a show car.

Either way, I will probably continue the project and have FUN with it, since THAT is what life is all about. If it doesnt work, I am sitting on a stock pile of stock Xterra parts, a 350Z engine and tranny, and a whole bunch of other crap...so i can sell it all later anyway. So seriously, why discourage me, if i have nothing to lose but time and money?

Quote:
Originally posted by Shmittey:
Is it at all possible that somone could build the turbo Xterra in private?

Then when it is complete: Wow us with pics, video, and so many dyno sheets that evey member of XOC could get one to hang on the garage wall. :p laugh
Sure! Consider it "Black Booked" [ThumbsUp]