When it comes to driver comfort and fit & finish. The RZR is like sitting in a golf cart in an upright position with little leg room, where sitting in a new Can Am X3 or Yamaha YXZ is like sitting in a buggy, lower center of gravity, sitting more in the machine with your legs more forward. Way more leg room. The only negitive I found by sitting in the X3 was when getting out, there is an exposed part of the seat frame that catches your hip when climbing out. Aftermarket seats would fix that problem.
I have not driven an X3, but from what I saw, and from those who have. It's leaps & bounds better then the RZR and it's probably going to take a complete new RZR to catch the new Can Am. Polaris seems hung up on the HP numbers. When going to their display, it's all about them having the most HP. HP is not going to beat pure handling. You cant duplicate wheelbase with wheel travel numbers or HP.
The guys at the Can Am display at the Sand Show said Can Am's business plan is to release a new recreational vehicle every 6 months through 2020. As he said we got the green light, and the X3 is just the start. You are going to be impressed with what's to come. I asked about a 4 seat X3 and was told don't be surprised if it's not coming soon. He said the X3 was just released and is hitting dealers this week, yet 40% of the questions they are fielding was when is the 4 seat coming out.
Spoke with a guy who does aftermarket parts for the Yamaha, and has a relationship with Yamaha. He expects some form of performance 4 seat from them this year. Was not sure if they would try to stretch the YXZ or build a spacific 4 seat machine. But as he said their is to much demand for them and they are asked all the time. He did think what ever it is, he would think the engine & drivetrain would be the same, but tuned & geared for the weight & load you would see with a 4 seater.
Arctic Cat was excited to show that the RG rear suspension was now standard vs a limited edition on the new 2017 Wildcat. When asked if this was the new machine we have been hearing is coming out? He said No, but would not say when or if it would come out. Just talked about the improvement the 2017 has over the past model.
Spoke to one of the guys with RG's program that I know. Once we got past the tragedy talk. One topic I asked was the Arctic Cat in RG's shop. I was told it is going to come out and it's not what we saw today. The rear suspension design would be on it, but the rest is also RG designed with Arctic Cat. A few issues had been engine choice as Arctic Cat had not nailed down what would get used in a production model when a Robby was designing a new machine. Also trying to take a custom part and design it to be built in a production process is another big hurdle. A production part will be stamped out and machine welded. You can see that in the rear trailing arms they are mass producing vs the arm RG built for the prototype, and the ones they are racing on. I asked if they delayed the release of the new Wildcat or whatever it will be called, once Arctic Cat knew what Cam Am was releasing? He said who knows, but he too agreed the new X3 is pretty bad ass.
