This is second hand info.The dealer I work at sells arctic cat and cannondale the owner attended A.C. training over the weekend.Last time he was there they rolled out the copycat z400 with black plastic that we have all seen already.
New news is they hired four new engineers to work on a sport quad for them they will not be selling the quad we saw everything will be reworked possibly even the motor they even said this is a response to the predator.
I believe that they should be able to do something awesome with a quad they have been refining a-arm snowmobiles for 15 years now evryone else has gone to a-arms.
This competition between the manufactures is great I was very disappointed when Kaw and arctic said they were selling copies all of us have made them see the light.

 

It would be nice if they did make it a world apart from the Z, because I don't see it selling well with Suzuki AND Kawasaki twins.

Keep the Z400 chassis
Build the engine similar to the BigPapa450 kits
Better looking plastic design
Price it around $6000

 

i can understand kawasaki wanting to copy the z because they had the 700 on the board. i could understand cat if they were trying to break into a new area. look at all the newcomers to the sport quad world in recent history: cannondale's fx400, bombadier's ds650, polaris predator 500, the return of suzuki with the z, and dont forget the company that started the four-stroke wars, honda and the 400ex. if cat wants a piece of the action, thats great, but they will need an original idea if they want to compete and not just show up.