Polaris Drivetrain

[Jesse Brigden]

Has anyone had experience with using a Polaris drivetrain in an FSAE car? I see the university discount items are geared toward baja, but was wondering what drivetrain package is suitable for a formula car. Thanks.

Jesse

[Demon Of Speed]

I have used hubs from them, they worked ok. There are some LSD's in quads that are usable as well.

[Ockham]

Suitable is something you'll have to determine yourself. ATVs and snowmobiles present some interesting options, but those engines aren't generally suited for high power output. Pair them with a CVT (which is a bugger to tune) and you have a powerful combination.

If you're looking for a sort of drop-in drivetrain for FSAE, ATVs aren't a bad place to start. But if you're just starting out, you probably want something with discrete gears instead of a CVT. That limits your options, but I believe that the University of Michigan-Dearborn team (who I respect hugely) started with a 450cc CVT snowmobile engine with a factory dry sump, and through serious diligence, turned it into a superb platform. In their case, they took an engine which didn't require much low-level development, and spent most of their time tuning it. Clever idea, but there aren't many combinations which let you do that.

[fixitmattman]

We used polaris parts like christmas in our baja after we got the sponsorship. We also used a number of drivetrain parts in our fsae car as well. Held up just fine. Like anything you need to do some analysis/testing to see if it's suitable for your application. The hubs and cv's are a pretty solid start. Handle things just fine, the cv's we selected stood up to slicks and a spool without issue.