<B>Expanding the 4-Stroke Family</b>

Even though snowmobile sales have declined the past several years, Yamaha has been able to increase their sales and gain market share. The way they have it figured, their growth will continue. Here’s the logic; there are 1.6 million registered sleds in the US. Only about 60,000 of them are Yamaha 4-strokes.
Back in 2003, only 40% of snowmobilers said they would consider buying a 4-stroke. Fast forward to 2007, and now 77% of snowmobilers say they will consider buying a 4-stroke. Yamaha calculates this out to 1.2 million prospective customers! And yes, these riders have indicated that they will buy new again.
Combine this with the fact that, as an industry average, only 20% of buyers are “brand switchers”. But when it comes to Yamaha, over 40% of their buyers come from other brands. Yamaha’s sales and market share has more than doubled in the last three years!
Coming into 2008, Yamaha had targeted the rough trail rider as their next conquest. They had strong (industry leading) sales in the “power trail rider” class and the “trail cruiser” class, but they were at the bottom when it came to the rough trail rider. Thus, for 2008 they introduced the FX Nytro in an effort to get some of these riders onto team blue.
During this time, Yamaha has been racing their 4-strokes, helping them develop their rough trail product, but also identifying with the rough trail riders. These riders believe racing is important to prove the value of technology, more so than the average snowmobiler.
So here we are, 2009. Yamaha wants to continue their growth with their 4-strokes, but most especially with the rough trail riders. To that end, they are committed to show customers that their sleds meet their core needs and deliver a unique advantage that the competition can’t (or hasn’t) delivered.
Core needs? That’s a term from market research as to what snowmobilers want and expect from their sleds; performance, handling and ride comfort. Think of them as the three main food groups of most every snowmobiler. Without any one of them, you tend to starve.
Add to this the “Yamaha Advantage” of gas-and-go riding. As a fleet, Yamaha claims the best fuel economy, the best reliability, the best resale value, the lowest EPA ratings, and the lowest cost of operation. Yamaha thinks of these benefits as a feature with no specifications, or “better by design”. Like we said, gas-and-go riding.
That’s the theory behind how Yamaha aims to get more of you to buy one of their 4-strokes. For 2009, they are expanding upon their desire to better penetrate the rough trail riders with an expansion of their FX Nytro models.
Derived from their race program, the FX Nytro models are designed more for the rough terrain than they are the more trail-friendly Apex and Vector models. On the FX Nytro models, you are in more of an “attack” riding position, more vertical and less seated. The entire sled is designed around this riding position, prone to better take on the rough terrain.
So to expand their rough trail appeal of the FX Nytro, Yamaha wanted to improve the ride comfort, handling, rough trail stability and off-trail capability. If this wasn’t enough, they also wanted to increase the top speed and acceleration of the FX Nytro. Seems like a tall order, right?
We really expected Yamaha to take the easy way out and simply make a 136” Nytro and be done with it. Silly us. Instead, they took it to the next level and made their do-all FX Nytro XTX an even longer-tracked sled with a 144” track length! They wanted a 4-stroke crossover sled that was a true hybrid between rough trail and mountain.
The end result is a sled that corners like a 121” Nytro, with tipped-up rails that make it act shorter on hardpack, yet the full length is in contact when the snow gets deeper. Short track cornering, with mid-length bump bridging, and long track flotation. Did you catch that? It corners like a 121”, takes bumps like a 136” and floats like a 144”.
This is a fully-coupled rear suspension with a more pronounced six-degree tip up to the rails, making it more effective. Combined with a new tunnel, it flat out looks better, corners better, rides better, and yes, gives us a sled that works well in a far wider range of conditions.
One of the biggest differences is found in an all-new front suspension geometry. This new arrangement has much less bump steer, less caster angle and more trail, aimed at making the sled more stable and less responsive to the steering input. “Slower” steering would be an accurate description. 2008 FX Nytro models are known for their “twitchy” handling, great for short-tracked race courses but not the best for high-speed trail riding.
We put the XTX through the paces and found it to be a delight to ride, better all-around in all but the tightest conditions compared to our 2008 FX Nytro. The front end changes were amazing, better matched to the way we ride and the way this sled will be used in the field.
Yamaha also integrated this new front suspension design into their FX Nytro and Nytro RTX models, along with additional changes that best matched the 121” versions. Let’s just say that those who wanted more of a trail sled and less of a race sled out of their Nytro will be pleased with the changes in manners. It corners flatter, doesn’t shake its head at you as much when you get out of the throttle, and gives you added confidence of what the sled is going to do.
Yamaha has done a great job at segmenting their models. At the top we have the four-cylinder Apex models with their 150 HP fuelie under the hood. Next comes the three-cylinder FX Nytro models with 130 HP and a more aggressive stand-up riding position. Then we go back to an Apex (Deltabox II) chassis with the RS Vector models, better suited for sit-down trail riding than the FX Nytro options. And for those who want a smller and lighter four-stroke are the Phazer models, powered by the fuel-injected 500cc twin.
Once you grasp the engine sizes and power differences, then we can move onto the suspensions and sled capabilities. You will find base models as the “value” options in each engine size. Above this we have “GT” versions, better suited with features aimed at Groomed Trail (GT) applications. Then we have “RTX” versions, which are the rough trail calibrations that better resist bottoming but admittedly are not as compliant for the sit-down trail rider. These are all 121” track length options.
Next comes the “LTX” versions, which means a 136” longer track for added bump filtering and off-trail capability. The FX Nytro XTX shakes this up some, with its 144” track length, so it’s not an “LTX”. And then we have the “MTX” designation reserved for the deep lug, longer tracked mountain sleds. Combine the model name (engine size) with the suspension/feature/track length designation and you can pretty much figure out what each and every one of their models is designed to do, and how powerful it will be. 2009 also brings us the FX Nytro RTX SE, a tricked-out sled with premium suspension components, only offered in the spring
The odd ducks here are the Venture models. They come in various engine sizes, from the 80 HP Phazer engine in the Venture Lite to the new Apex-inspired RS Venture GT, fitted with a touring-tuned 120 FI engine, based on the engine from the FX Nytro. The power of this version is linear and smooth, not the stick of dynamite the FX Nytro has under the hood. We rode this sled with this engine and it is an ultimate four-stroke cruiser.
For 2009, Yamaha has a full compliment of four-strokes to satisfy most anyone and everyone. From the proven Apex and Vector to the lightweight Phazer and the race-inspired FX Nytro, and now a flagship fuel injected RS Venture. Buy any of them in the spring and get an extra three years of warranty, for a total of four years. No deductable, transferable, covers the whole sled. No wonder Yamaha keeps growing and growing.

4-Stroke 1200 Under 500 pounds!

Last year Ski-Doo shocked the world with their MX Z TNT that weighed 399 pounds! The sled wasn’t a fan-cooled cheater, it was a liquid-cooled 500SS (actually a big-block 600) that propelled the lightweight sled with authority, and provided Ski-Doo riders with an unfair power to weight advantage that hadn’t been seen in years.
2008 also marked the introduction of the REV-XP platform. Back in 2003 when Ski-Doo came out with their truly revolutionary REV that introduced the world to rider-forward seating, it was an adaptation to their existing chassis technology and underlying mechanical layout. When the REV and rider forward was validated, they knew what the next step was; to redesign the entire snowmobile around rider-forward, not just adapt it to their status quo.

This brought us the REV-XP platform, with its repositioned drive system that provided the extra eight inches of leg room, and gave us a snowmobile that got rid of extra weight and mass. These things are snowmobiles, which means we use them in the snow, and that requires flotation. Snow is not pavement, even if groomed trails are kind of packed down like pavement. We do use them in a deep medium and require them to be maneuverable and at times, we have to manually pull them out of a snow bank.
Rumor was there were some different looking REV-XPs running around northern Quebec last year, slightly bigger looking and more muscular. Our suspicious mind led us to believe that maybe they were going to not let the dust settle on their mighty 1000 SDI two-stroke that only saw duty for a short time. Or, could there be yet another attempt at making a viable four-stroke?
Ski-Doo had been watching Yamaha’s market share creep up ever since their stunning introduction of the RX-1 back in 2003, at the same time as the REV intro. Four-stroke sleds amounted to 27% of the market for 2008. This is expected to grow to 36% for 2009. Were they just going to sit back and watch? Research data indicated that while the western and midwestern riders were waiting for the E-TEC two-strokes, the riders in the east, and especially their backyard of Quebec, had a hankering for the durability of the four-strokes. Nobody can deny the long term durability characteristics of the four-strokes. Even as clean as the new E-TEC is and it’s non-existent oil smell with fuel economy that is actually better than most four-strokes, some riders simply wanted the torque and performance of a four-stroke that would last for thousands of miles, much like their car.
But Ski-Doo kept coming back to that weight thing. These are snowmobiles, not cars. We ride them through the snow, not on paved roads. They are performance vehicles, not merely transportation modes. Can’t we make a four-stroke lighter? Can’t we make one under 500 pounds? Sure they could, and they did.
Enter the 2009 MX Z TNT 1200 with a weight specification of 499 pounds. No typo there; four-nine-nine. That’s about 25 pounds less (on paper at least) than the Yamaha FX Nytro.
Fitted into a new version of the REV-XP chassis called the REV-XR, this new platform was designed to be more muscular looking and be able to handle the added size and torque of this new, built-for-snowmobiling 1200 4-TEC Rotax engine. The XR version is slightly bigger, but cosmetically very similar with improved wind protection as well. Many of the parts are actually interchangeable with XP sleds. Most of the difference is in the body panels and engine bay. The suspensions are pretty much the same, front and rear.
So the big news here is truly the all new 1200 4-TEC. While Ski-Doo made a couple of 4-stroke sleds up to this point, this is the first “performance” 4-stroke they’ve made specifically for a snowmobile. And what a gem.
This is a different animal. It is aimed at the meat of the market 130 HP class, not the high-end hyper sled class of the 800s or the 1000s, so don’t let the 1200cc fool you. The displacement is for broad torque, not all-out horsepower. This isn’t a high-revving engine, it is more of a grunter. For it’s class, you can expect the best torque, widest powerband, a lower operating RPM to make its peak power and torque, and a sound that is truly unique and unlike any of the other four-strokes. Combined with the REV-XP platform, it provides the best handling four-stroke to date, as well as the lightest one. We won’t go as far as to call it the best riding one; we’ll reserve that for the GTX SE/LE or the Arctic Cat Z1s.
Torque you say? Ah yes, that magical thing that spins the crankshaft and lifts the skis when you give it the gas. Can you handle 100 foot-pounds? At 6500 RPM? Are your eyes big yet? They should be. How about bandwidth? It makes 125 HP all the way from 7500 RPM on up, and gives you 130 HP from 8000 RPM all the way to 9500 RPM+. This engine is a stump puller with broad, wide, massive sweetness from a four-stroke.
The sound of the 1200 is different between the MX Z versions and the GTX models, through different manifolds and such. We’re told Ski-Doo worked closely with Rotax in Austria to give it a refined performance sound. The target was more of a European sport car than a sport bike. It sounds like it is somewhere between the higher frequencies of super bikes and the lower rumble of V-twins or musclecars. It’s kind of throaty and you won’t be calling it “industrial”.
Of course, being a 4-TEC it delivers excellent fuel economy and is super clean (cleaner than the Yamaha Vector and Nytro engines, according to Ski-Doo). We’ve seen fuel economy right at 18 mpg, consistently, but it all depends on how and where you ride. Not quite as good as the E-TEC, which has been a couple clicks better and usually more like 20-21 mpg in like conditions. Both of these can be down around 15 mpg if you’re really pushing them and have some fresh snow that increases the drag, so it is all relative.
OK, back to the engine. This is an in-line three-cylinder that makes 130 HP at 7,750 RPM. It has a big 91mm bore and a short 60mm stroke for lower piston speeds. Electronic fuel injection is dead-nuts on the money from what we can tell. Dual overhead cams run four valves per cylinder. It boasts chain-driven cams with finger-followers that Ski-Doo engineers were quite proud of. They tell us it is like what the BMW 804 engine uses and is a first in the snowmobile world. The benefit is greatly reduced mass in the drivetrain with much less engine noise. Dry sump lubrication lets it start easier in the cold. A single counter balancer keeps it smooth; not as smooth as a FX Nytro or Apex, but still quite smooth.     Service requirements are simply an oil and filter change every 3,000 km (roughly 2,000 miles) or once per season, with a valve adjustment every 20,000 km (12,500 miles).
Riding the MX Z TNT 1200 you might question the 499 weight figure, as the engine does place more of a bias on the skis than a two-stroke. Just like the Yamahas that show a light weight on the scale, a four-stroke carries more weight up front so they feel different. An Arctic Cat F8 that actually weighs more on the scale feels lighter on the snow. But you can’t deny the fact that this is the better handling four-stroke, and you know it is a REV-XP based machine. Take your MX Z from last year and refine the suspensions and give it a four-stroke with 100 foot-pounds of massive power and you get the idea. The engine doesn’t spin as quickly as the FX Nytro and doesn’t snap to attention as quickly, but the powerband is noticeably wider. It wails on the Arctic Cat Jaguar engine, as it should, but isn’t a match for the Z1 Turbo. The Polaris Turbo isn’t even in the same league.
So if you still like flickable lightweight two-strokes, you will notice the added mass of the 1200. If you want a REV-XP (XR) that gives you quiet and clean operation for thousands and thousands of miles, like 10,000 of them, then you need to consider the hefty price tag of the 1200. This isn’t for casual riders as much as it is for serious high-milers. The more you ride, the more you will appreciate it. In the TNT you get the performance-based suspensions so you can still go bashing the moguls, as an MX Z should. It’s right where you could paint it red and call it a GSX, but we’re OK with it being yellow and called an MX Z. You will be as impressed as we were.
The 2009 Ski-Doo MX Z TNT 1200 retails for $10,549.