I spent last weekend riding my AC 500 Auto with a guy who was on an older 350 cc 2 stroke chain driven quad. It was my first time riding my Big Cat with anyone other than another Big Cat. Although he was able to go everywhere I went, several times I noticed his quad struggling to get over the big logs or thru the deeper ditches while all I had to do was blip the throttle & the Cat just crawled over. We switched rides for a little while & he was very impressed with the ride of the Cat. The Cat's suspension is a big improvement over the older swingarm style rear suspensions. Overall, the biggest difference was with the power though, the old adage is so true "There is No Replacement for Displacement"

 

Your statement, "No Replacement For Displacement," is generally true, CatLance, but I think you compare apples and cumquats.

The operating characteristics of two-stroke and four-stroke engines differ markedly; also, cc for cc, a two-stroke out-preforms a four-stroke on maximum power consistently.

With twice as many power strokes at any given rpm, the two-stroke enjoys a power advantage; although the operating characteristics of a four-stroke provide a higher percentage of its maximum torque at lower rpm's. Yet a comparable two-stroke produces more of both torque and horsepower, albeit at a rather pointed peak, than a counterpart four-stroke.

Tree Farmer

 

From my own seat of the pants experience (whatever it's worth) I've always thought 2 strokes were built for accelerating--especially when you would hit the "powerband" if you will. The 4 strokes seem to produce more even power throughout the rpm range, & especially at low rpms. I've never understood why Lawnboy builds 2 stroke lawnmowers that usually run at a steady RPM, they always sound sick to me. What is the biggest cc 2 stroke ATV made now? All I remember from shopping this spring is that most ATVs I looked at were 4 strokes, which is what I wanted anyway.

 

Polaris explorer 400 and scrambler 400 and sport 400 that is the biggest sold stock from any dealer however as you probly know banshees and these polarises can be bored which puts these even futher in displacement,also a little note my wife has the xplorer 250 4x4 2stroke and I have the AC 300 4x4 and when comparing is as follows, drag racing she blows me away by alot both quads max out at around 45 to 50mph however she can get to 50 stop take a nap and go to the bathroom before I catch up,However pulling is diffrent but I cannot say its because mines a four stoke, my quad deffinatly pulls a lot stronger but I do believe alot has to do with A.mine is geared lower B.hers is a automatic and several rpms are needed before transmittion engagement.I would say add 100cc to a fourstroke to be equal in power to a 2stroke example her 250 2stroke is dead even with the wolverine 350 4stroke just as the scrambler 400 is almost dead even with the scrambler 500 4stroke anyway take it easy ya all!

 

NO replacement for displacement my a**. Look at the Grizzly's dyno run then look at Arctic Cat 500's.