Without a 2-stroke over 700ccs, Polaris clearly has a large hole in its snowmobile product profile.
It doesn’t require too many brain cells to deduce another, bigger mill must be in the works. However, it’s 2007 and the issue of what to invest tooling and development money into is increasingly complicated by the EP and the 2-stroke versus 4-stroke battle.
If Polaris were going to intro a hyper-powered sled with a 2-stroke mill, we would be perfectly comfortable with an upright Cleanfire Liberty 900, maybe based on the old Liberty 800.
This engine could realistically produce 160 plus horsepower and catapult Polaris into a very good position in the Hyper arena. However, if Polaris were to come with a new flagship snow shredder in the same vein as the Mach-Z, Apex and Cat 1000, maybe it would they be better to tool up a 4-stroke motor.
At 140 HP the current 750 Weber Turbo is at its limit. However, this engine is built by a savvy and innovative European casting company equipped to build a 900-1000cc variant and incorporate a turbocharging system capable of delivering reliable power in the 170 range.
With turbo packaging issues resolved in the IQ chassis, a bigger displacement Weber makes almost as much sense as a bigger 2-stroke.
