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The results of this dyno test were certainly a surprise. We have done serious long-term testing on this sled and have compared it with all the top sleds in the industry and we have seen the Dragon hold steady or surpass even sleds with more engine, technology and taller price tags.
Polaris had told us that the '07 700 Dragon was a 140-hp sled, and throughout our field-testing we felt that was the case. So, when we saw 135.8 hp as the top number, we kind of scratched our heads and wondered how this sled performed so well.
The answer we came up with was the same that the Polaris engineers did. While this is not a "powerhouse" machine, the sled handles extremely well and simply works in tough conditions. It's not a "blow the doors off" racer, but it is light, quick off the line, easy to maneuver and just a lot of fun.
The testAt 8,100 rpm, the Polaris Dragon is generating its 135.8 peak horsepower. Top torque numbers were seen at 7,600 rpm where the Dragon produced 91.4 foot-pounds of pull. These numbers were seen after all the 2008 factory updates were complete. Dragon is easily tuned, and the sled feels fast underneath you. However, these numbers are slightly less than what we saw on Arctic Cat's famed F7, which pulled 140.1 hp at 8,000 rpm and 94.3 ft.-lbs. at 7,700 rpm.
Numbers are not always the final word and don't tell you real-world seat-of-the-pants reality. However, strictly looking at numbers, the F7 has the advantage in a straight-line pull.
In addition, the handling of the Dragon exceeds the old F7. Many correctly argue that we can't truly compare the Dragon with other 2007 sleds because there is nothing in the same engine category from any of the competitors. Even though we have compared the Dragon to several other big hp sleds, we decided to use the F7 here as a same-engine-size base comparison.
Test summaryAll in all, we feel the power of the Dragon is more than sufficient for its application, even if we thought the dyno might yield higher numbers.
Final thought: Yamaha now offers a 138-horse 4-stroke in it's Nytro and that sled weighs in slightly heavier than the Dragon 700. Even though we compare the Dragon to the Apex in our
Arm-Stretchers article on page 30 (again using Polaris' current biggest cc trail machine, that is, until the 800 IQ Dragon appears, likely later this year) is the real battle on the snow going to be the Nytro vs. the 700 Dragon? We're inclined to think so.