This is The Swiss Army Knife of Cars

**The RX3: A Swiss Army Knife of Cars**

The RX3 is an extraordinary vehicle that can conquer various terrains with ease. Its versatility shines through in its ability to handle both asphalt and dirt surfaces with finesse.

"We're about to get dirty," says the narrator, foreshadowing the RX3's capabilities. "The RX3 runs spring rates that are soft enough for dirt and it has sway bars that are stiff enough for the track."

One of the standout features of the RX3 is its adjustable suspension system. The upper A-arms have threaded caster and camber adjusters, while roll center adjustment can be made in the upper control arm. This allows drivers to detach the sway bar completely for off-road performance using just a single wrench.

The benefits of having sway bars on are clear: better performance on the track. However, taking them off provides even better results on dirt surfaces. The adjustable ratio feature, which controls the sway bar's stiffness, adds another layer of versatility to the RX3's suspension system.

"We can go from 30 inch off-road tires to 13-inch slicks and get the max result from either," says the narrator, highlighting the adaptability of the RX3. "All you need to do is adjust the sway bar."

In addition to its adjustable suspension, the RX3 also features modified shocks designed in tandem with Zebroz, a leading manufacturer of snowmobile suspension. This collaboration has resulted in a system that excels on both dirt and asphalt surfaces.

"The RX3 has the potential for 12 inches of wheel travel," notes the narrator, emphasizing the vehicle's impressive capabilities. "It has adjustable motion ratio, which means the rate in which the spring gets compressed can be changed."

This allows drivers to change the effectiveness of their springs without actually changing the springs themselves – a testament to the RX3's innovative design.

The RX3 also boasts four-way adjustable shocks with compression and rebound adjustment. The two-and-a-half-inch shock in the rear and two-inch shock in front are both equipped with external nitrogen-filled reservoirs, further enhancing the vehicle's performance capabilities.

**Testing the Limits**

Donut Media took a few RX3s out for a spin to test their claims. They ran a couple of tests for science, and the results were impressive.

"We thought it would be necessary to confirm this by doing a bit of field testing," says Jeremiah, highlighting the importance of putting the RX3's capabilities to the test.

The team encountered some unexpected challenges, including blowing out a tire and running out of gas. However, they persevered and demonstrated the RX3's ability to handle even the most challenging situations.

**Conclusion**

The RX3 is an exceptional vehicle that has earned its reputation as a Swiss Army knife of cars. Its versatility, innovative design, and impressive performance capabilities make it an attractive option for drivers who want to take on various terrains with confidence. If you're interested in learning more about this remarkable vehicle, be sure to check out the link in the description below.

And if you don't happen to have $50,000 just burning a hole in your pocket, Cole offers rides in these vehicles, so you can pay 75 bucks or something and rip a couple laps – which is guaranteed to be the most fun you've ever had on four wheels. This is definitely one of the highlights of my auto driving career, says Jeremiah.

So go check him out, support Cole – he's a good dude! Follow us on Instagram at Donut Media, follow me @jeremiahburton, and until next week... bye for now!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Don't you just wishthere was a car out therethat could conquer thedirt, the dunes, the track,even a freaking frozen lake,but still be able to legallydrive it on the street?If you look at the historyof do-it-all vehicles,they often tend towardsmaking design compromises,rather than achieving thebest of multiple worlds.But, there's one companyout there making carsthat don't only do it all,they do it all very, very well.If you took your childhood go-kartand it made sweet love to a trophy truck,and then that creation thenmade sweet love to a motorcycle,you'd have this.(motor revving)And today, we're gonna figure outhow the engineers over atSierra built one of the coolestand most versatile vehicles of all time.They did a sub 10 minutePikes Peak run in this thing.Then they gotta swapped out the wheelsand freaking jump this (beep) in the dirt.If that doesn't tingle yourfreaking car loving bones,then you must be a jellyfish.Don't be jelly.Get boney.Let's go.(upbeat music playing)- Check out the allnew Donut sticker pack.Five of your favorite Donut designs,ready to stick anywhere.And I mean, anywhere.They stick to your bumper, your window,your laptop, a water bottle, a lunchbox,your blocks bunch, yourbest friend's best.Slap the beans on some beans.Put Yoda's tacos on a taco.RIP on some popups.Slap for your love forDonut, anywhere you want.Go to donutmedia.com andgrab your pack today.And that's not all, we gota new hat, I'm wearing it.Next time you're off-roadingout in the sticks,don't get lost, findyourself with this all new,find yourself Donut hat for just 24,98,which is so much cheaper than $30.And hurry up because thismerch is in insaneo style,and it's gonna sell out quick.donutmedia.com.Go now.- Trying to drive on different terrainscan make wildly different demandson both the car and the driver.You need a totally different setof tools to drive onasphalt, dirt, or ice.So how does Sierra Car in their RX3,dominate each of these surfaces?Well the answered liesin the sum of its parts,as well as the verylightweight of all those parts.Power to weight ratio is a big partof what makes this car so versatile.Let's start with the weight,which is largely dictated by the frame.The RX3 is super lightweight,because of a tube frame chassis.Now road cars are gonna be a lot heavierbecause of their frame.Even the lightest cars out there,made with a an aluminum alloy framewill weigh more than anythingon a tube frame chassis.The total weight of a super light car,like a Lotus Elise is gonnacome in in about 2000 pounds.The overall weight of theRX3 is a mere 950 pounds.That is super impressive and a major partof the overall agility of the vehicle.Now weight was kept to a minimumby utilizing finiteelement analysis or FEA,oh, that brings me backto the days of college.Oh, you gotta do an FEAanalysis on this frigging pin.We had to design pins in school.The Sierra team was ableto run stress simulationson 3D modeled components,by simply applying computerizedforces to certain surfaces.The geometry and overalldesign of the RX3's partsare such that the carstays as light as possible,while still retaining thenecessary strength neededto resist strain or deformation.You don't know aboutstrain and deformation?Cool, those are two bigwords you're gonna learnin college, maybe.Strain is the ratio between deformationand the original length.Deformation, is a measure ofhow much an object is stressed.That being said, this frame makesfor an incredibly sturdyand responsive environmentto cradle the driver.The frame is rigid andmaintains its abilityto transfer vibrations to your butt.Now that obviously doesn't makefor the most comfortableevery day driving,but those vibrations, being ableto feel what's going on underneath you,is what allows you tomake the right decisionsat the right moment.Like not hitting this Prairiedog crossing the street,while you're doing a Pike's Peak run.And whether you're on dirt or asphalt,being able to feel and respondto your environment is key.Adding to the lightness of thecar, they ditched the doors.Other than being a mechanicallyfun aspect of the car,not having doors, having toslide through the window,it also serves a purpose.If your goal is to shed pounds,one way to do that is byremoving not only the doorsbut all the hardware andhinges associated with it.They save 10 poundsper door by doing that.And that might not seem like a lot,but on a 950 pound car,that's 2% of the weight.So finding 2% throughout the car,helped make this a sub 1000 pound vehicle.But the next part of thatweight to power to ratio,is the power part.That's the fun, okay?You guys know me, I'm a power bottom.So I like talking aboutlow end grunty power.So when you're looking for an engine,to power your lightweight Swiss army knifeof a car, where do you go?Well, you need an enginethat also is lightweight,makes a lot of power, and as a bonus,I don't know, can rev up to 11,000 RPM.How do they go about doing that?Well, luckily, Suzukialready makes said engine.Sierra uses none otherthan the four bangerfrom the Hayabusa, theperegrine falcon itselfto power its cross cards.Peregrine falcon!Pew. Pew. Pew.(mimicking bird sounds)Hayabusa in Japanese, literallymeans Peregrine falcon.A 1.3 liter, 16 valve, inline four,capable of 200 horsepower.By pairing that enginewith its lightweight frame,it gives the RX3 a power to weight ratioof 4.6 pounds per horsey.The lower the number, the better.So for example, the GT3 RS,wild regarded as having oneof the better power toweight ratios out there,comes in at 5.99.That's a $200,000 car.The RX3, it costs 30grand and it smokes it.Freaking heck yeah, man.And really, I don't wannadistract too much from this,but the Pontiac 6,000 LEcomes in at a crazy 3.21.If you wanna know moreabout power to weight ratiosand why decreasing weight is important,click this right here.We did a whole episode on it.I promise you, you'll learn something.Maybe even cry.Now there's no questionthat the RX3 engineis capable of putting out a lot of power,but that means it needs atransmission strong enoughto withstand the abusefrom the Hayabusa engine.And solution was found in abulletproof racing transmission.A six speed sequential was implementedto send power to the wheels.This transmission is a bit different,than ones you'll findin most road going cars.The gears in this guy are straight cut,meaning that the gear box is less proneto self-destruct and the overall assemblyis lighter than that of roadcars with helical gears.The straight cut gearsmakes their gear strongerthan their everyday drivinghelical counterparts.Additionally, the carburization processmakes the gears harderat the teeth surface,while maintaining strengththroughout the part.Both the mechanical andmaterial design choices,make for gears that can withstand shiftingat 11,000 RPM without snapping teeth off.And the transmission, it's not just tough,it's also smart.It's got a flat shift sensor,which acts as shift assistso you don't have to cut as much throttle,when you go to shift gears.A sensor reads tension on the shift knoband then cuts ignition for gear change.So the driver can stay at high throttle,slam through the gears andworry less about grinding.This makes it possible todrive more aggressivelyand shift harder, which is perfectfor doing things like this.(motor revving)But having a good power to weight ratiois all well and good,but you to be able to getthat power to the ground.So what do they put in this sucker?A limited slip differential or LSD.Freaking groovy man.An LSD distributes power tothe wheel with the most grip,maximizing traction in any scenario.So at the track, an LSDimproves corner inabilityby allowing the inside wheelto rotate faster than the outer wheel.Helpful, since your outerwheels have to travela longer path than theinner wheels during a turn.If your wheels rotate at the same speed,you're gonna get slippage,which will have yousliding all over the place,might be fun for drift, butnot for going up Pikes Peak.And when you take the RX3 off-road,an LSD helps improve handling as well.The LSD allocates power to the wheels,which reduces wheel spinto an unloaded or less loaded tire.So even if the two drive wheelsare traveling over different surfaces,each will stay at the limit of grip,optimizing the vehicle's abilityto accelerate and handle.We actually talked about this morein an episode we releaseda couple weeks ago,check it out here.You got a whole catalog videos.You can just learn, learn, learn.Learn, and laugh.Learn and laugh.(upbeat music plays)A part of what makes this car so uniqueis that the tires were designed to playan active role in the suspension setup.You can take this car anywherein large part because you canput nearly any tire on it,thanks to it having anopen wheel suspension.Normally, if you wanna put bignobby tires on your mudder,you need to install lift,and rip out the fender flares to fit them.But you don't need to do thatwith an open wheel design.If you know how to turn a wrench,you can completely transformthe vehicle's performance.With just three different tiresyou can go from track, to dunes, to ice.Now on the track you want wide tiresthat maximize the tires footprint,for sand, bigger tireswith aggressive treadswill do the trick,and studded tires will get you acrossa slippery ice surface.Now another benefit ofan open wheel suspensionis that it gives thevehicle excellent balance.The driver in a singleseat, the center of massof the vehicle is pretty similarto that of a mid engine car.Most of the weight of thevehicle comes from the frame,the power train and the driver,all which exist in a centralized location.The control arms, the wheels, the brakes,those are the only systemscontributing weightto the periphery of the vehicle.But you might be thinking,Hey, okay you can putdifferent wheels on there,but what about the suspensioncomponents themselves?Now, how is it possiblethat changing only the tirescan effectively turn the RX3into three different cars?Well, the answer is,compromise in your suspension.The designers of theSierra RX3 didn't set outto build a suspension that was perfectfor every environment.They set out to create the best suspensionthat could transition between environmentsand transition with minimal effort.But it can get to about80% of what either can doand most importantly,can go between either settingwith very little effort.Now, while you don't technically haveto change anything to go betweentrack and dirt in the RX3,other than your tires,you can still make small changesto your suspension setup tomaximize your performanceand you only need one tool to do it.So what makes the RX3 sogood on and off the roadis that it has a lot of adjustability.For instance, we have thisrear sub frame right here,it's made out of billet aluminumand these arms right here are adjustable,so that you can control yourcamber on the rear wheels.Now inside right here,we have a toe adjustment.We have a sway bar right here,which is really, really cool.Now this sway bar, is atorsion bar inside this sleeve.And a torsion bar is you might have seenon Porsche's, if you're a Porsche guy,that's the main weightbearing springin the suspension system.But what they have here, isthey use that as the sway bar.So they have two arms righthere that also can be adjusted.You can then adjust this barby taking it out and replacing itwith a completely differentspring rate torsion bar.So another way to change the stiffnessof this sway bar is thisslotted arm right here.So you can undo this linkageand shift it into each of these holes.This is in it's softest setting,right here is in its stiffsetting and it's on both sides.Right here, we have trailing arms.So there's two adjustmentsfor this trailing arms too.One is the vertical setting,which will change the pitchof the rear end of the car.And the second is thisthreaded rod right here,which can actually lengthenthe wheel base of the car.Pretty cool.Now upfront, we have someadjustability as well.We got this same sway bar system,with the torsion bar,same exact principle.We can change that torsionbar and change the slot here.And we have adjustable A-arms.We did a whole episode where we talkedabout adjustable A-arms on the catfish.If you want more info, youshould freaking click right here,get your cat catfish on man.This thing's like a catfish baby.So all that adjustability allows this carto be really good on asphalt and dirt.Hmm.And we're about to get dirty.(upbeat music plays)(motor revving)The RX3 runs spring ratesthat are soft enoughfor dirt and it has sway barsthat are stiff enough for the track.The upper A-arms areadjustable with threaded castorand camber adjusters within,and roll center adjustmentin the upper control arm.You can detach the sway bar completelyfor off-road performanceusing just a single wrench.Having sway bars on, givesyou better performanceon the track, taking them off,better performance on the dirt.Beyond being able to justtake them on and off,the sway bars run a splinebar with adjustable ratio.There's six different sway bar settingsgoing from soft to stiff,all controlled by the samesingle bolt you change,if you were to disconnect it.So if you wanna go from30 inch off-road tiresto 13-inch slicks and getthe max result from either,all you need to do isjust adjust the sway bar.Now let's say you want totune the car even more,get even more out of theSwiss army knife of cars.Well, you get to keep all thesame suspension componentsbetween environments.You don't have to changeyour shocks or your springs,however, by detaching onebolt off the front shocksyou can toggle between stiff and soft.The shocks were designedin tandem with Zebroz,who are the best known formaking snowmobile suspension.They modified their existing suspension,perfect for dirt andmade some small tweaksthat enhanced the suspension'sasphalt performance.The RX3 has the potential for 12 inchesof wheel travel, baby, from rear to front.12 inches, oh, no big deal.It has adjustable motionratio, which means the ratein which the spring getscompressed can be changed.This allows you tochange the effectivenessof your springs without actually havingto change the springs themselves.Pretty freaking cool.Three points of motion ratio take the RX3from eight to 10 to 12 inches of travel.Then, you've got a twoway adjustable shockwith both compressionand rebound adjustment.You've got a two and a half-(fly buzzing)You got a two and a halfinch shock in the rearand a two inch shock in front.All four are which equippedwith external nitrogen filled reservoirs.So the goal of the RX3's designers wasto keep the same suspension kinematics,how that suspension behavesin its range of motion,across any surface thatit might be traveling on.This means that the corecomponents behind movementdon't change, but the ratioat which the spring can change does.The RX3 is able to conqueressentially any arenabecause it was designed tobe able to conquer any arena.Add in a surplus of powerand customizable suspensionand it's a combinationthat's hard to beat.So this answer makes sense on paper,but here at B2B we thought,that it would be necessary to confirm thisby doing a bit of field testing.So we took a few RX3's out for a spinand we ran a couple tests,you know, for science and all.(motor revving)(upbeat music plays)(upbeat music continues)- You good?- I blew the tire off.I don't wanna say I'm proudof that, but it's pretty cool.I don't know when I lost it though.- Hello?- Is this Cole?- Yeah.- Hey Cole, this is Jeremiah.I'm sorry, man.(whimsical music plays)- I got a spare here.- Okay.- Bring the 4Runner back.- Okay.- Floor jack it and a spare tireand we'll jack up and put a new tire on.- Okay, cool. Sounds good.We'll be right there.- I'm running outta gas.I'm on empty.- Really?- Yeah.- In your 4Runner?- Yeah.- Oh great.(whimsical music plays)Beautiful.Thanks so much for watchingthis episode of B2B.If you wanna see more content like this,leave a comment down below.Hit that like button, subscribe buttonthat really helps us out.We appreciate you guys.If you want your own RX3 from Sierra Cars,hit the link in the description below.And if you don't happen to have 50Kjust burning a hole in your pocket,Cole does rides in these,so you can pay 75 bucks orsomething and rip a couple laps,which I can guaranteeyou will be the most funthat you've ever had on four wheels.This is definitely one of the highlightsof my auto driving career.So go check him out, support Cole.He's a good dude.Follow us on Instagram at Donut media.Follow me @jeremiahburton.And until next week.Bye for now.