Rotax Your Rhino debuts during Halloween at the Imperial Sand Dunes

| November 14, 2009 | 0 Comments

Yamaha Rhino with Rotax Engine

This Yamaha Rhino was the brainchild of Brian Bush. Brian has been a fan of Yamaha Rhinos for several years, but being an avid sand dune enthusiast, he was always trying to get more power. After several iterations in the hunt for horsepower, Brian finally decided to take a completely different route.

BRP Rotax Engine

The heart of Brian’s Rhino was swapped out for a new 2006 Can Am Outlander Rotax engine from BRP. CanAm Outlander and Renegade ATVs (2006 – 2009) come with a 799.9 cc V-twin EFI engine that produces 71 hp from the factory and are well suited for this swap. That about doubled the horsepower that Brian’s 2006 Yamaha Rhino 660 had and also coverted it over to electronic fuel inject at the same time.

Doing an engine swap like this typically involves quite a bit of custom fabrication, but Brian thought that this type of swap would become quite popular for those seeking reliable v-twin power and decided to create a business out of it.

Lonestar Racing XTR-F 6.5" Long Travel with Fox Racing 2.0 Position Sensitive Dampening Shocks

Rotax Your Rhino was born and Brian set about creating engine mounts, skid plate, shifter linkage, through shaft and much more that take a lot of the fab work out of dropping a Rotax into a Rhino chassis.

I had the opportunity to catch up with Brian and Greg from Lonestar Racing during Halloween at the Imperial Sand Dunes while they were out testing it for the first time. Let me tell you, it came out awesome.

Sleek lines really set off this Rhino. No way to tell there is anything up with any engine swap from here, but hidden within lies a Rotax 800 v-twin engine complete with 12:1 pistons, Woods cam kit, Muzzys Dual exhaust.

Ross McNab from Fox Racing Shox

Fox 2.0 DSC Position Sensitive Dampening shocks with Lonestar arms and Muzzys Dual Exhaust set off the rear. This is the new Lonestar Racing XTR-F 6.5″ wider long travel, featuring front and rear shock towers for Fox position sensitive shocks, 14.5″ of wheel travel, easy adjust caster, optimum shock geometry, and low leverage ratios for racing conditions.

Brian and Greg spent some time with Ross McNab from Fox Racing Shox over Halloween weekend to get the new shocks all dialed in. Greg and Ross spent a lot of time running through the big whoops near Glamis Flats and in the dunes and have the new XTR-F kit working great.

Brian still has some fine tuning to do, but for his first trip to the dunes, I think everything went well. I really like how clean everything was put together and how well Brian’s Rhino hauls through the dunes. I can only hope that the long awaited Can Am side x side will be setup something like this…

Specifications:

2006 Yamaha Rhino
Rotax Your Rhino Engine Installation Kit
BRP Rotax 800cc with 12:1 CP pistons, Woods cams – Built and tuned by Rotax Your Rhino
Lonestar Racing Long XTR-F 6.5″ Travel Kit
Lonestar Racing Custom Cage, Bumper and Fabrication
Fox Racing Shox – 2.0 8.5″ (front) and 10″ (rear) DSC shocks with Position Sensitive Dampening
Muzzys Performance Dual Exhaust
PWR Radiator and Oil Cooler
Dalton Clutch
PCI Race Radios
PRP Seats
Jaz Fuel Cell
Unisteer power steering
PRP harness’ and window nets
Mr. RPM billet oil cooler adapter
Trail Logic skid plates
UTV Crap odds and ends
Quick-light wireless whip
Trinity Racing spindles
Seizmik center console
HJC Helmets
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