The quads that I have ridden AND that have enough torque to snap your head off include:

Sportsman 800
Kawasaki BF 750i
Outlander 800


I'm sure the AC Thundercat takes the cake!

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: reconranger

Torque is what twins are famous for! And small twin cylinders??? I can't say that I am up on twin cylinder utility engines, but the only ones in ATV's that I recall are the Kawis, which at ~700cc don't seem all that small to me.......</end quote></div>


The Banshee 350 and Can Am Renagade/Outlander 500 are small twins even a 650 seem abit small to divide into a twin to me if low end grunt is what your after.

Put a small twin (500-650) against a single cylinder 500-600 in a Motorcycle,put both in 3rd gear at a stop and roll on the throttle from that dead stop and see which one gets up and going off the line first.

Yes twins are know for torque in the Motorcycle world against most "4 cylinders"bikes at 800cc and up. But not with small displacement motors found on "MOST" ATVs.

Could you imagine a "twin cylinder CR 450" trying to get the "hole shot" out of a sharp turn into a straight away in a motor cross race. It would need a extra down shift on every turn compared to a single cylinder.

In this 500 shoot out there is only one twin and it is the fastest with the most HP no questions asked but they do say this about it.

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>This machine is built for speed and performance and has tall gearing in high range. The low end of the power curve is weak compared to the rest of the rpm range,</end quote></div>

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Though it dominated the engine category, the Can-Am's gearing and power are difficult to mesh in tight, technical terrain. It lacked overall finesse and maneuverability when space was tight; power was stabby when it needed to be graceful. </end quote></div>

Thats because it relies on rpm build up to get into its power band more than the single cylinder thumpers.

 

The Shee a torque monster...and it's a 2-storke anyway. Those things have no low end and that engine is all rev not grunt....and once it reaches max torqe it falls off the curve real quickly.

I think you are mistaking rev for grunt! The 450 engine designers were shooting for this.....that thrilling 2-stroke performance from a cleaner running 4-stroke engine.

 

Its impossible to find Torque numbers for ATV but its easy for Motorcycles. Here a good example.

A Harley FXDSE has only 89hp@5500rpm from it 1800cc "Twin" but it makes a whopping 105ft/lb torgue at a low 3000 RPM. Thats only half of idle.

A Kawi ZX 1400cc has whopping 180hp @10,000rpm from it 4 cylinder and makes 106ft/lb torgue but needs a screaming 8,000rpm to produce its torgue.

Now if you planed on throttle burping these above bikes through a slow technical ATV trail which power band do you want?

I would like to see ATV torgue numbers but I,m just guessing a 600 cc single can produce more torgue or the same at a much lower rpm than a twin of the same cc with more HP.

Once you get into the 750cc and up the twins is the way to go who wants a paint can going up and down under there a$$. LOL