2008 real world shootout

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Acceleration, top speed, mid-season mileage averages, wet weights, mid-season reviews, AmSnow brings you all this exclusive data in our 2008 Real World Shoot-Out. You want data? We got it.

This is the only place you can get all of this easily comparable info from an independent test, with no dealer or manufacturer meddling. Let the chips fall where they may!

We didn't do dry weights because we wanted to show consumers what their snowmobile REALLY weighs when they ride it. We show you the sled times and speeds at various distances so you can apply it to any friendly competition you may be involved in. Simply put, if you read it here, you can believe it. (Are you a mountain rider? We have similar independent mountain snowmobile tests in Spring '08's mountain eval.)

The tests
In years past, our Real World Shoot-Out has focused on one segment of the market, but this year we had too many sleds to simply focus on one segment. Darn, too many sleds! We're sure you'll love the extra sled data too.

We weathered an early January thaw again this year, and conditions on our ¼-mile test run were near ideal. Test day saw 25 degrees on the thermometer and had an inch of hard-packed snow over slightly rough ice on our strip. Even though we decided not to stud any sleds this year, we still had excellent traction. Each machine was given three runs to garner a best top speed, elapsed time and incremental time and speed.

Like always, all the testing was done the same day in the same conditions. This year we were fortunate to have great snow early in the year so we logged 400 or more miles on nearly every test sled before test day. They were all well broken in.

Finally, all the sleds were production sleds that AmSnow took straight out of the box, and all the miles and maintenance hours before the test were logged by the AmSnow test staff. The same 175-lb. rider was used in each test run too. You won't catch us giving an unfair advantage to one sled, randomly weighing sleds at some dealer without even setting a baseline or pandering to a single manufacturer. Now that you know the drill, let's get down to the results.

Two 600 duels
It's interesting to hear people's opinions on what sleds we test, but, we can't get EVERY sled the OEMs produce each year, so we try to choose sleds we think are important to many of you.

Last year we focused on the 800s and this year we thought that the 600s should have their day. So we took four 120-horsepower class sleds and ran them bone stock. The steeds included the value-based Ski-Doo TNT and Polaris Shift, as well as the more expensive Cat F6 LXR and Yamaha Vector GT.

The most interesting duel to us, and many consumers in dealerships this year, was the TNT vs.Shift. While neither the TNT nor the Shift are big power sleds, we believe the majority of consumers out there are quite interested in these two price-sensitive, but performance-minded, 600 liquids.

So how do they compare in the Real World? The TNT wins the weight battle hands down at only 499 lbs. fully wet. The Shift tipped the scale at 561 lbs. wet. The TNT hit a top speed of 91.89 mph, which was extremely close to the Shift's top speed of 92.04 mph.

Basically, the TNT smacks the Shift off the line, but Polaris' carbed 600 motor has much longer legs (it has more ponies) and steams past the TNT on top-end. If you've got a TNT, we would suggest you keep your brag-racing to 1,000 ft., or less, to stay competitive. In the trail though, the TNT dominated the Shift in just about every test we threw at it. Corner to corner acceleration, turning radius, cornering at high speed, rider positioning and mileage were all in the TNT's favor.

The rear suspension in the Shift is superior though. However, the cheap shocks in the Shift's rear skid lower the performance immensely. Also, not having a thumb warmer on the Shift is annoying. We know this is a base model, but seriously, lacking a thumb warmer is ridiculous.

The TNT was not without its woes though. The handlebar warmer recall was certainly needed as the right warmer went out very early on in our testing, and was soon followed by the left. The problem is that the neoprene layer that covers the heating element on the bar has a tendency to get twisted, which prevents the connection from working properly. We nicknamed this sled the "ice-chest" it was so cold with the super-low windshield and dead bar warmers.

Also, the TNT gas tank had a recall, which was tied to an improper mold at the factory. Really, only one mold out of four was defective, but there was no way to track which gas cells were produced from that mold, so all were recalled. Finally, there was a throttle cable recall on the Ski-Doo too. First year model woes!

On the upper end of the 120-horse class, the Yamaha Vector GT proved to be a great option, but fell just a little short in the trail tests. The Vector got the best mileage of any sled in our entire fleet this year at an AmSnow tested 16 mpg. Vector actually had the second fastest ET of the 120-horse sleds in the ¼-mile at 13.52 seconds. The TNT was quickest, but not by much.

Vector beat the Shift in all our acceleration tests. However, the Vector's top speed was 90.35 mph, landing it third in that category. This really surprised us because it felt like the sweet sounding carbed Yamaha 4-stroke had super long legs, but it was only a perception of speed. Even though it felt like we were still winding out, the radar told us the real story. Vector's cornering was sometimes unpredictable, and the big bump ability of the Vector was not quite as good as the others in this class, but the easy throttle pull and the comfortability of this sled made it popular among our testers.

The Cat F6 LXR was last on the top speed and acceleration ladder by a significant margin. At 87.9 mph top speed, it gave up almost 4 mph to the TNT and feels more like a 500 liquid than a 600. This is a heavy machine at 649 lbs. wet, and our gas mileage was a meager 9.2 mpg. Cornering was less responsive than the other 600s too, but we know that's being worked on for 2009.

The thing the F6 has going for it is how incredibly comfortable it is. When the temps dropped below 15 degrees, or after about the first 100 miles of a long day, everyone started scrambling for the F6. It's warm, takes the big bumps and stutters as well or better than all the snowmobiles in this class, and even though it pushes when you get aggressive in the corners, it takes less effort to steer. The F-sleds also seem virtually bulletproof, as one tester found out with an unscheduled and abrupt stop in a poplar grove. They can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'!

Snocross wannabees
We know that the 600RR and FX Nytro are in two entirely different horsepower ranges, but the two chassis compete on the snocross circuit and we wanted to do a Real World follow up to our "Race Ya" article that was in the Buyers Guide.

As we wrote earlier, the Polaris Race Replica is the same setup as the race sled, except shock and spring calibration is de-tuned to make it trail friendly, and the tank is 5.5 gallons bigger. The RR has very positive steering in corners, a tight turning radius, is quick for a carbed 600 and is a blast in open fields and park-like terrain. At 551 lbs. fully wet, this sled is lighter than any other machine in our fleet except the TNT and Renegade.

However, the RR is certainly not a trail machine. The best gas mileage we saw was just over 8 mpg and we averaged only 6.5. With a 9-gallon tank, we had less than a 60-mile range most of the time, and that'll barely get you across the lake and back in many cases. Any temp colder than 15 F meant the RR got left at home.

This motor, and many others from Polaris, have notoriously come running rich from the factory and often run better with some quick jetting changes. While we didn't have any severe bogging problems, we did load it up once or twice when we let it idle for just a little bit at a stop and then got back into the throttle. Our last Polaris carbed 600 was off two jet sizes. However, since this was a Real World test of box stock machines, we did not change anything until after our tests.

The RR performed slightly out of character in the acceleration tests though. Even though you would think it would be a rocket out of the hole and through the mid-range, it didn't outperform the other 600s like we thought it would. Obviously it wasn't built to run away on the top end, but the RR's 13.66-second ¼-mile time was still very close to the other 600s we tested.

The Yamaha Nytro on the other hand performed almost exactly how we expected in acceleration tests. The Nytro was very quick in the ¼-mile, completing it in only 12.83 seconds, and from a stop to 660 ft. it performed well. Nytro's top speed was 96.33 mph, which landed it fourth in our fleet behind the Apex LTX, Renegade 800R and Polaris Switchback 700.

All the testers liked the Nytro's pull and sound, but twitchiness in the corners and exaggerated transfer made it a handful in tight trails and big stutter bumps. Look for improvements in the '09 model. At press time we were about to cinch up the limiter strap and try a new set of coupler blocks from Ulmer Racing to solve some of the transfer problems.

Long track extra
Finally, this year we put three long-track snowmobiles to the test back-to-back. Our test units were the Polaris Switchback 700, the Ski-Doo Renegade X 800R and the Yamaha Apex LTX. These are 136-inch tracked sleds (except for the 800R which is a 137-inch track) with 1.25-inch lugs.

Looking at power-to-weight ratios, the 800R has the advantage, weighing almost 70 lbs. less than the Switchback wet, and about 140 lbs. more than the Apex LTX wet. However, the Apex at 98.91 mph just barely inched out the Renegade at 98.36 mph in top speed testing, and the ETs were equally as close, the Yamaha at 12.68 seconds in the ¼-mile and the Ski-Doo at 12.79.

The Switch was a close third in the ¼-mile elapsed time at 12.98 seconds, but fell short on the top end, hitting 96.45 mph. Remember though, this is a 700 Switchback, so it should have trailed the others a tad.

On the trails, the 800R and the Apex LTX got a lot better gas mileage than the Switchback. The 800R and Apex LTX produced 13.3 and 13.5 mpg, respectively, and the Switchback showed a depressing 9.1 mpg. We were extremely impressed with the aggressive cornering ability of the 800R, as we hardly noticed the extra track underneath.

The high point of the Apex LTX is its comfortable seat and the engine, which simply rocks. Turning radius is larger than the Ski-Doo though, and you don't really want to take the LTX too far off trail because it trenches in deep snow.

The Switchback's only downfalls were mileage, the uncomfortably bent handlebars and a tendency to push through corners. On the upside, this one works incredibly off trail and we like what Polaris is doing with its rear suspensions. They're awesome!

More to come
Our friends at Straightline Performance showed up after we finished our testing to do some Real World tuning of their own. Check our next issue and www.AmSnow.com soon for some AmSnow tests of bolt-on performance parts. See what you can do to your stock sleds to up performance!