BEST 4-STROKE
Yamaha Sidewinder SRX LE /
Arctic Cat Thundercat
O
ne of the most highly con-
tested debates among
sled-heads for years has
been, which is better a
2- or 4-stroke? It’s rare to come
across someone who does not have
skin in the game. The 2-stroke sleds
might take a little more maintenance,
but those riders are used to putting in
the extra effort to go along with their
passion for the ride. The 4-stroke fans
are possibly more motivated by the
lack of work they need to put it. Most
of the time you can just gas them
up, turn them on, and go.
The downside to the
4-stroke side of the debate
has always been their extra
weight and scaled-back per-
formance. Yes, most 4-stroke
sleds are going to be significantly
heavier than their 2-stroke counter-
parts. Does that matter much though
when you have upward of 200 horse-
power under your thumb? A lot of rid-
ers are fine settling for a little more
weight with performance numbers
like the ones put up by the Yamaha
SRX and Arctic Cat’s Thundercat.
Now, we can’t just mention the
4-stroke Sidewinder and Thundercat
in all their glory without at least men-
tioning Ski-Doo’s latest, the 900 ACE
Turbo from Rotax. This motor is an
engineering marvel and they’re
expanding its presence in the lineup
to show its usefulness.
When coming up with the 900
ACE Turbo, Ski-Doo didn’t just slap a
turbo on its already decent 900 ACE
motor from previous years. Everything
from the housing shafts, bearings and
impellers were newly designed for the
ACE Turbo. A simple tune and bump-
ing the boost by roughly 12 – 18 lbs.
from stock could increase the output
to around 200 horsepower.
We can’t wait to see what this
engine is capable of in the coming
years when aftermarket and tuning
companies get their hands on it.
AmSnow’s Olav Aaen even suggested
that it would be pretty easy to see
one of these cranking out more than
300 hp in the near future!