you can save $15,000 - $20,000 buying a base model F150 over the King Ranch F150...
people spend the money because they want added options & comfort features.

is it a hard pill to swallow dropping $13k on a new outlander? yep.
do I regret dropping $13k on a new outlander when I'm in the middle of the white mountains with my wife on the 2-up...? nope, not for one second.

it's no different than dropping $80,000 on a MasterCraft ski boat that you only use 5 months out of the year... and they sell all day long here in new-England.

 

have you seen the size of the radiator Polaris & can-am uses to cool their 80+ hp atv motors? it takes up the whole front end of the chassis.

you have to stop comparing atv's to sleds- 100% different applications.
the entire bottom of a 145hp sled is a radiator where snow can help remove heat- it's huge... and that's used 100% of the time in the winter months when it's cold and cooling a 145hp sled engine is a lot easier.

HP = heat, and lots of it.

you'd have to double the size of the cooling system for a 145 hp atv engine that's being run on a hot summer day- atv's simply don't have the room to fit larger cooling systems to keep a 145 hp engine in a reliable operating condition on a 105* day!!! Have you ever felt the heat generated on a can-am rotax 800 in an outlander? it literally cooks your leg to the point you have to place your foot on the outside of the foot-well.

There's a reason why these atv's get larger as the power increases- higher capacity oil reservoirs, fuel tanks, cooling system components and air intakes all have to be upgraded as well. the CVT on an atv has to be 100% enclosed unlike a sled. ATV's are run in muddy, dusty & wet conditions- this requires a lot of space for intake filters (my outlander has 2 large air intakes- one for the cvt and the other for the efi)- also, protective cladding and covers for the cvt taxes the cooling system even more- something sleds are not prone to. ATV's don't have a huge area to mount radiators to like sleds.


also- same exact premise with jet-ski's... they have a constant cool water supply from the lake to keep them cool- no radiator needed. there's a lot more room for engine displacement and hp when you don't need to worry about a huge radiator and there's an endless supply of cold water to pull heat away from the high performance engine.

 

Sad pzrt is this 1000 is not a Prostar, that will not fit the ATV chassis. It is a punched out 850 atv engine.

The best bang for the buck is the new 570 Sportsman, the 570 is a prostar engine. If you want more, get the 800 Sportsman.

 

Snowmobiles need the power to spin that track. Twice the resistance means twice the power to stay competitive. Atvs need torque to power thru the woods at slow speeds, sleds make power at a higher rpm, at least my sleds do. Put a sled on concrete and try and push it, then do the same with a ATV and you will see why a sled needs the extra power

 

Is it newer, bigger and better than my 97....sure....but wow, is that Scrambler ugly.

 

Your contriving yourself If a Sled has more resistance why do they go so much faster?

My sled would do 100mph in the summer on pavement or gravel if I did not care about it.

Competitive? I,d love to see any ATV keep up to a sled in summer until it over heated and exploded.
Lets see atv involved in this summer event.
Be like a Prop plane vs a jet.

 

Those are some fast modded sleds, that's for sure.

No question about it that sleds hook up instantly which would always gve it the holeshot. A stock sled is faster than a stock atv but it's not as big of a difference as you are making it. Look at some videos of drag ds650s,kfx700s and banshees. They are just as fast, if not faster and alot of them just build onto their factory engines. I think a highly modded ds650 or KFX could take it to those modified sleds.
Stock for stock, sure a snowmobile is going to be faster. People drive 500 miles thru the arctic on them and they want to get where they are going as fast as possible. Avging 60 mph on a sled is easy when there is nothing but snow and ice in front of you. ATVs avg a quarter of that speed. I've never went 60 on a trail as most people haven't and I've also never took my atvs on any 500 mile journeys. Sleds are looked at as a real way of transportation in some parts of the world(myself included). I've never been on a scrambler 1000 but I'm sure it is as fast as you would want to go on a ATV. Forget the top speed, that's just a limiter from the factory along with lower gearing to grunt thru the trail. Compact cars nowadays go 120-130 with 120 hp so the top speed number doesn't really mean much. If you need to go faster than 80mph there is always the aftermarket but you better put money into the frame/suspension first
I was going to explain a little more but I think beergut said it pretty good regarding the temp differences that go with slower speeds and summer days

 

comparing a sled to a 4x4 atv is such a silly debate-
100% different applications.
it's like comparing a horse to a dog.

the video above proves one thing (and absolutely nothing relevant to the conversation).... if you rev a sled motor to 15,000 rpm and dump the clutch you can get the holeshot over a 4-stroke atv

wanna mod 1000cc 2-stroke and mount it in an atv with 3" ice spikes in the tires and rev it to 15000 rpm, dump the clutch and see how fast it goes? An atv has at most, approx. 70 sq. inches (combined all 4 tires) contacting the surface at any given time- with a 9" wide tire... a sled has what, 500 sq inches sitting on the ground?

atv vs sled has nothing in common at all regarding the drivetrain, engine, fuel & exhaust system, cooling system or atmosphere- just a silly comparison. bring one of those sleds down to a sand pit in the summer and see how much fun you have before that big powerful engine turns into a block of molten aluminum