2001 12 polaris 700 ves

Last winter, when we trekked up to Roseau for the 2001 model introduction, Polaris officials were adamant about not putting variable exhaust valves on big twins. "They don't have a significant effect on engine performance for the cost," they told us. "Hmmm," we thought quietly. "Someone should have told Ski-Doo, since Rotax had been churning out wide-mouthed, potent 670 and 700 RAVE twins since '93."

In late November, we broke the news on our website that consumers would find a limited quantity of 700 XC SPs roaming the trails with a set of variable exhaust valves installed on the cylinder. The market demand was strong enough to convince Polaris product planners to go ahead with the VES engine. "We are listening to our consumers who are requesting Variable Exhaust," explained Polaris' Snowmobile Product Manager Bow Crosby. We're glad they are.

In addition to the exhaust valves, the cylinders on Polaris' domestic big block 700 have been internally modified. "The major change was the addition of the exhaust valves and some port timing," Crosby explained. "We also added TPS, fuel selector switch and WTS (water temp. sensor)."

The whole package combined to show us 127.4 horsepower and 87.2 pounds of torque on the dyno. That's about a nine hp gain over the non-valved version.

"This is an excellent motor," said our dyno guy, Rich Daly from Dynoport. "We found the same power with a two-jet spread, so guys aren't going to have to be tuning all day to keep up performance."

In addition to the output gains on the engine, Crosby repeated what Cat's engineers told us about their variable exhaust engines: "overall performance will be improved as will running quality. In addition, consumers can expect to see an approximate 20% increase in fuel economy when the sled is operated at trail speeds (30-45 mph), obviously this is dependent on driving habits, snow conditions, etc. Also, the sled runs quieter because of the valves."

Polaris listened to its consumers when they demanded a valved big bore twin. The lineup is all the better for it.