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There is nothing wrong with another sibling, especially a more powerful one like the ACE 900.
One of our last dyno stories was on the previously released ACE 600. That sweet little fuel-injected 4-stroke put out 60 hp at 7500 rpm and 42.7 foot-pounds of torque at 6900 rpm. Now we’ve put the newest ACE (Advance Combustion Engine) family’s sibling, the 900, on the dyno and found that it’s certainly more powerful, falling in the exact power segment that has been missing from snowmobiling for many years… something for the Average Joe.
Take it easy turbo
That’s what a snowmobiling buddy says when someone gets a bit overexcited.
I think the snowmobiling world as a whole has been a little too excited, going “turbo” over all the big horsepower sleds. That’s why the 4-stroke, fuel-injected, DOHC, liquid-cooled ACE 900 is such a breath of fresh air. It has more power than the 550 fan engines and more power than its smaller brother, the 600 ACE. BUT, the 900 it is not a super-wild, big twin bear. It also does NOT have a turbo, so take it easy. As Goldielocks would say, this one is juuuust right.
We got our third party dyno information from the boys at Straightline Performance in Forest Lake, Minn., as they put a pre-production 900 that we’d tested last winter on their dyno.
The test was run in mid-July and the dyno recorded a healthy 97.3 horsepower at 7900 rpm. As you would expect, as far as torque goes, this one has a long fairly flat powerband. Max was 66.4 foot-pounds at 7300 rpm. That is the perfect amount of power for a “step-up” sled for younger or novice riders, or a great sled for tight twisty trails, or a long-distance cruiser, or an all-around fun machine that anyone in the family can handle. We call that multi-purpose!
These results don’t exactly jive with the max engine speed (higher than we expected) that were originally listed in the spec sheets. But being a pre-production model we think a few things could still change a bit. Certainly engine specs could be a tad different from this pre-pro version to the final machine.
Either way, it is still great to get a dyno done on this motor so early in the season. The folks at Ski-Doo were very gracious in letting us have our way with their early pre-pro machine.
More reason for the season
We aren’t here to sell you a new ACE 900, but if you need more reasons to buy, there are plenty. The 900 runs on 87 octane, whereas all the 2-stroke E-TEC Ski-Doo models prefer 91 octane. The 900 also engages at a low 2200 rpm, compared to much higher for other somewhat comparable 600cc 2-strokes on the market. The 600 E-TEC 2-stroke has one of the lowest engagements of any 2-stroke and it’s still at 3400 rpm.
We also saw low- to mid-80 mph trail speeds on this sled in Sport mode, which is PLENTY fast for the vast majority of trail riders.
Should you buy one? Uh, we’re running out of “why not’s"!