The 2015-2016 snowmobile season has been rather ordinary… Effectively, Mother Nature has not been quite friendly to fans of winter sports this year. Snow conditions have been highly affected by El Niño all over the Province of Québec. Fortunately, many regions received enough snow in March to allow some riders to enjoy the end of their snowmobile season.
If those variable weather conditions have been disappointing for snowmobilers, the launch of the 2017 models by the four major manufacturers has raised enthusiasm and anticipation for the coming season. And we can easily understand it when we take a look at all the snowmobile lineups… Effectively, each manufacturer offered nice surprises. Let’s take a closer look.
Ski-Doo
This year, Ski-Doo was the first to unveil their 2017 snowmobile lineup. With the introduction of the new REV chassis and the new Rotax 850 E-TEC engine, the manufacturer from Valcourt really made a splash. Some were asking for a successor to the popular Rotax 800 E-TEC while others were dreaming of a brand new platform. Ski-Doo fulfilled everybody by introducting many new models that offer this 4th generation of the REV chassis along with the impressive performance of the new 850 E-TEC engine.
The Ski-Doo MXZ TNT 850 E-TEC should be very popular next season
It is important to note that this is a new chassis, not an improved version of the previous platform. The design of the new chassis allows the pilot to be one with the snowmobile all while changing positions is natural on sinuous trails.
The Rotax 850 E-TEC engine develops 165 HP, which is 10 more HP than its predecessor. This brings the most powerful 2-stroke production engine in the industry. The manufactured did not only increase the power, he also wanted to optimize the riding experience by offering an important improvement of this engine performances. So, everything has been thought during the design of the 850 E-TEC in order to reduce, even suppress the time of response all while offering much clearer accelerations mostly at low throttle. This engine is also more efficient in matter of fuel consumption and oil / fuel ratio. According to the manufacturer, oil consumption is reduced by about 40 % versus the 800 E-TEC engine. This is major !
Yamaha
Fans of Yamaha snowmobiles have been waiting for a new engine since many years and they were happy on the first days of March when the japanese manufacturer announced the brand new Genesis Turbo engine. In fact, these same snowmobilers have been requesting year after year an efficient successor to the APEX engine. Their patience has been rewarded since Yamaha introduced not only a powerful engine, but the most powerful production engine in the snowmobile world.
This engine is so powerful that it is in a class of its own… a brand new class for the engines of over 180 HP. In fact, even if Yamaha has carefully announced that the Genesis Turbo engine was developing 180 HP, many dyno tests showed that its real power would be between 190 HP and 204 HP.
The Yamaha Sidewinder X-TX is equipped with the powerful Genesis Turbo engine
With the introduction of this new engine, Yamaha presents the brand new Sidewinder snowmobile lineup that includes 12 models, including the LE versions available only during Spring Power Surge. The Sidewinder models are built on a revised SRV chassis within the partnership with Arctic Cat.
Yamaha did not only put a turbo on a 4-stroke engine, but decided to use their motorist skills to develop an engine that offers great power along with a pleasant riding experience. So, the Genesis Turbo delivers all its power more gradually and with more predictability, which optimizes the handling. Also, this engine responds very quickly, even instantly, to the slightest press of the accelerator.
Arctic Cat
The 2017 Arctic Cat lineup presents a significant change this year :
- Replacement of the Suzuki Z1 Turbo engine by the Yamaha Turbo engine in the 9000 models.
With over 20 mountain models, Arctic Cat introduces a new model in this segment : the Mountain Cat. The Mountain Cat presents many small improvements for better handling of these machines when riding off trail or in mountain.
Arctic Cat brought back not only the name Mountain Cat, but also the name Thundercat. Effectively, the manufacturer decided to keep this legendary name for its « premium » trail model. In fact, the ZR 9000 Thundercat is a trail beast and it will not be surprising to see lots of this model on trails during the next season.
The ZR 9000 Thundercat is the Arctic Cat premium trail snowmobile for 2017
All these Arctic Cat models equipped with the 9000 engine are now built with new panels and new hood that can all be removed without tools in less than 20 seconds ! This allows a quick access to the engine compartment.
Polaris
After many consecutive years of innovations, we were right to wonder what Polaris would offer for 2017. Of course, since all categories had received major innovations during that period, many snowmobilers expected a rather quiet year… They were wrong !
The Switchback Assault had been forgotten when the Switchback models migrated to the AXYS models and for 2017, it has been updated. Effectively, the Switchback Assault is now built on the AXYS chassis and benefits from all the advantages of this platform.
The 800 Switchback Assault comes back strongly in the 2017 Polaris lineup
Have you been dreaming of a PRO-RMK 174 ? It is now a reality ! Polaris introduces the 800 PRO-RMK 174 in the mountain snowmobile lineup. As the other models of the PRO-RMK family, this model offers the best power/weight ratio in the industry.
Fans of high-performance snowmobiles will be pleased by the introduction of the new 2017 Rush XCR. As the name suggests, this machine is designed to take up all challenges of performance and durability of long distance races like Iron Dog race. Make no mistake : it is not a replica of a racing model, this is a racing snowmobile !
Those who like to discover remote areas all while being able to ride pleasantly on groomed trails, Polaris re-introduces the 600 Voyageur for 2017. Now built on the AXYS chassis, the Voyageur is definitely a snowmobile designed for Québec market. Unlike last year when the Indy Voyageur was only offered with the 550 engine, the new edition is offered with the 600 Cleanfire engine for better performances.
Conclusion
As you can see, the four manufacturers worked hard to make the next snowmobile season very exciting. We just have to be patient and to dream of the first snowfalls !
