The McLeod County fair just got done with the 2nd night of motorcross (my son took 2nd place in sport quads) and I got to watch Rath race a brand new Polaris 850 in the utility quad terrrain division. It was stock, very quiet exhaust, looked like 14 inch wheels on it, I have to say, either Rath is that good, or that machine is pretty damn fast (ya, I'm sure Rath driving had something to do with it), the suspension worked great, seemed to soak up the logs, rocks and tractor tire barriers very nicely, never bottomed, even with some pretty good jumps. I have no idea if it had been messed with at all, but the announcer said Rath had been given a pre-production quad to beat on to see if any thing was going to break, looks like this might be a pretty good quad, the new a arm front end took the bumps and turned nice, the motor seems to have good snap right off the bottom, and the new plastic and front end looked a little better than some Polaris models I've seen. I don't know why Polaris waited so long to make these changes, it really seemed like a totally different quad.

 

it does come w/ 14" rims now(personally i dont like them) and im guesing it had suspenion work tweaked a little. still a nice ride though im sure.

 

IIRC the only mods it has is tires and a steering stabilizer, but I could be wrong.

Edit-found the article. Quote from Dayrl:
"These guys racing have exhaust systems, clutching, motor work and suspension on the race machines, I put on some Dunlop Tires with Tireballs, and a Precision Steering Stabilizer and headed for the line."

Here's the article:
http://www.atvriders.com/atvne...-sportsman-xp-850.html

 

That 850 is bitchin ain't it!! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

It sure seems to be so far...too bad I'll have to wait until December to find out for myself [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

 

imagine what it will be like after a few racing tweaks!

 

I was there Thursday night, had about 5-6 guys in the Quad Terrain class. How many on Friday? Yeah, I'm sure Daryl riding it made a big difference, and it was way too quiet for my taste, but I'm sure we'll see some aftermarket exhausts pretty quick.

 

There were only 4 on Friday, Rath on 850, a 700 Brute Force, a Cat 650 H1, and a Scrambler. Thursday had a couple more, I was real dissappointed by the guy driving a brand new black 800 Renegade, he drove that powerful machine like a little old lady, a Honda Foreman even beat him !!! Too bad I'm too busy traveling back and forth from my house (still trying to sell) and my new job in Duluth, or I would have had time to finish up on my Wolverine 446 kit, that would have been fun to run with all that extra power! well, maybe next year.

 

Yeah, the rest of the pack was really disappointing. Was there a Pro quad class on Friday?

 

Ya, there were only three on Friday, less than Thursday, which was a surprise, usually more show up on Friday, but this year it was the opposite. The mini quad was fantastic this year, so many they divided them up for the first time into the 50 cc class, then the 90 class. This year, Rath's kids were in there, one was even riding both 50 and 90, ditching the little quad and running back to the starting line to do it all over again !! The next Rath generation of racing is on the move !!!