We love side-by-sides around here. Check out our 2024 Polaris RZR XP review if you don't believe us. But the 100-plus horsepower a well-sorted, sporty side-by-side like the RZR can put out isn't enough for some exceptionally dedicated thrill-seekers. Especially if drag racing is what you're gunning for, big horsepower figures are just as crucial to a lightweight side-by-side as any big-block V8 dragster at the strip.
Say hello to D&M Racing, a Glendale, Arizona-based manufacturer of boutique high-performance racing engines for side-by-side UTVs. They built this custom 950-cc inline three-cylinder engine for the explicit purpose of mounting it in a side-by-side drag racing platform. If your only frame of reference for three-cylinder engines is the Mitsubishi Mirage or the Geo Metro, the abilities of what D&M came up with might shock you. At its core, this engine is an ultra-high-quality, custom-tooled reproduction of a Rotax 900ACE developed for Can-Am off-road vehicles and Sea-Doo watercraft.
But unlike OEM hardware, liable to bust apart at the seams if too much boost pressure is applied, the billet-aluminum WSI 900ACE block from Whalen Speed can handle as much boost as the mad lad who races this engine is willing to introduce to it. No worries about cracking the block or ruining the engine necessary. But above a simple billet adaptation of a normal production engine, extensive modifications to the inner crankcase, head studs, and the oiling system make for an engine block heads and shoulders above what this engine would have been from its OEM supplier.
On the top end, D&M's prized engine consists of a racing-spec, CNC-ported cylinder head from Total Performance Racing Industries of Santee, California, with four valves per cylinder. It's flanked by an R&D Ghost billet-aluminum intake manifold, also from Whalen Speed like the engine block. From top to bottom, this is an engine built to withstand repeated hard quarter-mile launches from a dig, withstanding immense pressures and temperatures each time without skipping a beat.
It all serves as a fitting foundation for what D&M Racing wanted to do with this engine once all the parts had arrived. For starters, two Brian Crower forged solid bucket overhead camshafts surely match the toughness of the rest of this engine. Six individual 2600 cc fuel injectors ensure this peppy, capable engine is fed as much juicy 93-octane as it needs to run through a rev range that can easily reach 10,000 RPM or more. Like a cherry atop this petrolhead cake, D&M Racing's Xona Rotor turbocharger setup caps off an engine build that might not be automotive grade by application but is absolutely legit by power numbers.
We're talking horsepower figures of 650 horsepower as of the last measurements. That's as much as a C7 Corvette ZO6 or over 90 percent as much as an SRT Hellcat V8. Yeah, we can only imagine what those drag strip quarter mile times are like when you shove one of these engines in a Can-Am chassis. We bet it'd make most supercars in production today look slow by comparison.
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