Since Arctic cat announced they were increasing focus on their atv lines, do you think they'll put out their own 450? I know that they announced the opening of a new plant and are waiting on it to finish before they start a "new" project, so im waiting to see if they will indeed go head to head with the other brands.

 

Talked to the dealer i bought my arctic cat from here this week and he said arctic cat may be looking at building their own 450 and their own big-bore UTE 800-900 area he said.....sounds like a good deal to me

 

I really would like to see Arctic cat take a more agressive stance in competing with other atv companies. Seems few american companies are really competative into the buisness

 

Polaris is the number 2 selling brand, Can-Am has been opening some serious cans of whoop the last few years, and AC is still making the best hunting/fishing/rock crawling/mud running quads imo. I think the companies compete just fine, and they are getting more and more serious about the sport side of the house too. Yes, I would love to see an AC racing 450, but they had better ebadge the LT-R or make one heck of a product, because next year by this time there should be 2 or 3 more 450's out.

 

When it comes to sport, american companies lack heavily. Yamaha, suzuki, honda, and kawasaki all out sell american companies. And Can-Am is a canadian company. As far as copying the lt-r, suzuki said something a while back about not licencing it to other companies like they did with the z. Where do you come up with 2 or 3 more 450s coming out? Because this is news to me.

 

Where do you come up with 2 or 3 more 450s coming out? Because this is news to me.
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I know if 2:
Kawasaki recently announced their KFX450, and Can-Am has also said their 450 is set to arrive soon(rumored to be a twin).

since AC gets some of their engines from kawasaki, i wouldnt be surpised if kawi or suzuki will supply them a 450. The suzuki and kawasaki partnership is over - so you will never see a rebadged LTR450 as a KFX450.

but im not sure if it effected AC/suzuki; i think AC still gets things from them as well. AC is a ***** getting atv/engines from everyone! seriously, im not bashing but do they make any of their own atv engines?

IMO i agree that the american co's are not very competitve in this area. Polaris has contracted with AUSTRIAN KTM for thier partnership on engines for the new outlaw and we can assume predator revisions as well. Before, they had Fugii(?) as their suplier. Wheras honda, yamaha, kawasaki, suzuki, can-am (mostly throughgh their rotax division; i dont think rotax makes the engines for the ds90/50?) usually develop their own engines. correct me if i am wrong...

 

The third 450 I am thinking might show up is the long rumored Dinli revival of the Canondale quads. Of course, they may just drop it with all of the competition out now.

 

FOund pics for the kawasaki 450, but i guess they dropped the 400 since they dont show it on their site anymore. Really this means that AC has to put out a 450 then to stay in the game. Especialy since lack of snowfall in recent years has led to snowmobile sales dropping.

 

The 400 was a Suzuki product that Kawie will no longer be selling. While I would love for AC to sell a 450 racer, I think they would need a lot of help from Suzuki to make it competitive right from the start. I would hate for them to make another Canondale fiasco out of it.

 

Really it wouldnt be that hard to put one out without help from suzuki. They MAY already be working on it since AC mentioned that the opening of the new plant will launch a "special project" that their really exicted about.