As we always say at the end of our annual Shoot-Out, results may vary from what we find at our Port-A-Tree Shoot-Out to what you may find in other conditions on a different day and location. Well, right on sled dudes! When we took our 2002 Yamaha Viper 700 er to Area 330 in central Minnesota, we found quite a bit had changed. In fact, we also took a few other of the Shoot-Out models just to see for ourselves what would happen in a different location. Not all sled gave us surprises, but we did verify that conditions make a world of difference.
At this year's Shoot-Out we had to contest grass and dirt. How would the real world of snow and ice effect the results. Of course, we weren't expecting that winter wouldn't show up until February 24th in Minnesota. But, when it did, we loaded up our test crew and headed for Area 330 for a day of snow action. Er, well, we also wanted to see what snow actually looked like, since we hadn't seen much of it this season. Heck, our editor had to travel to northern New Hampshire to get a test ride on FAST's new Blade HPO, but more on his thoughts of that $20,000 sled later.
What we wanted to know was how would our Shoot-Out models fare in actual snow. Our Area 330 test site had 6 to 8 inches of three day old snow covering an icy lake surface. And, unlike our Shoot-Out Viper, our Viper er was not studded and suffered from track slippage - as the 0-60 feet times indicate. Study this chart and you'll see that the Viper had to plow through some tougher going, but at least, the hyfax didn't heat up like it did on the grass and dirt course at the New York Shoot-Out site.
This was a new Viper er with low, low miles and no studs. But real world for most Viper owners, who buy this sled to be exactly what it is - an exceptional trail sled with excellent manners; quiet, but smooth power; outstanding brake; and, overall excellent build quality. We still enjoy our Viper even if the actual production versions we all got were "pooched" out a bit over what the prototypes were when we test rode them the year before.
For your information, here's how the Viper compared from the
Shoot-Out to Area 330.
| ------------ | ------------ | Port-A-Tree Shoot-Out (grass & dirt) | Area 330 Test Facility (6-8 inches snow) |
| 0-60 ft | Sec | 1.651 | 3.26 |
| 0-330 ft | Sec | na | 7.49 |
| 0-330 ft | Mph | na | 55.28 |
| 0-660 ft | Sec | 7.98 | 11.11 |
| 0-660 ft | Mph | 77.05 | 67.52 |
| 0-1000 ft | Sec | 10.82 | 14.38 |
| 0-1000 ft | Mph | 84.11 | 74.05 |
| 0-1320 ft | Sec | 13.41 | 17.29 |
| 0-1320 ft | Mph | 84.42 | 77.29 |
| 0-60 mph | Sec | na | 8.61 |