Has anyone tried these two quads against each other? I'd like to hear how they stack up against each other in terms of acceleration and top speed.

 

I ride with a friend with a 2000 Kodiak and we like to race on the long straights sometimes.It is not very close in acceration and top speed 50 mph vs 55mph for the SP.He has his hands full when he races his 95 Lakota he sold to his buddy.

 

So by not very close you mean that you beat him easily? Is that from a dead stop? How is it accelerating from trail speeds? Do you have any trouble out running him in the trails?

kissofdeath, are you reading this?

 

We do not ride quick through the tight trails it would break our beer, but if we did the smaller kodiak would be easier to snake through the trails.When we do a drag race we just gas it and he just keeps falling back until I quit and slow up and call it off,yes I would call it being beat rather bad.
When he told me he raced his old Lokata he sold to his freind he told me it was about a tie.I only raced the Lakota once in a drag and beat it but not that badly,about 4 quad lenghts but I had a passenger on the back.Both races were done at the same place a long flat, straight and straigh fire road made of soft sand.
He also told me he race his freind with a new Fourtrax 350(Rancher)and that it was real close with him just crawling pass the 350 on the top end.
Are you racing one with you Wolverine? If so I woud not say a Wolverine would accelerate faster but have a much faster top speed.

 

I'd like to race one, but I don't know anyone around here with one.
If he only just beats a Rancher on the top end then I know I can beat him easily. When I raced my friend on his Rancher we were even until I got into 3rd gear, and after that I walk away. Same story with a 450ES.
So far, only a Rubicon can beat me, and that's all at the start. If we do a rolling start they're very close- too close to call really. As for top speed they're pretty much dead even too.
I haven't tried a Sportsman, though I did race an Xplorer 500, and beat him clearly enough.

Thanks for your help. We where having a bit of an argument in the Yamaha forum, with some Kodiak owners saying they could beat a Wolverine, and all the Wolverine owners knowing the difference, but wanting to prove them wrong.

 

If you beat a 400 Xplorer ,than do not worry about a Sportsman even a H.O. I have heard that a Wolverine is greared rather high and has a fairly fast top end.Did you out accelerate the Xplorer or just pass him when he topped out?

 

Here is my two cents. No way a Wolverine beat an Xplorer. The Xplorer would eat it up from start to finish. That is the hard cold facts!!!!


My Kodiak will get the Sportsman off the line every time. If it was a short race, I think it would be close, but top end forget it. The Sportsman has a lot more top end.

 

By short do you mean the first 3 feet? I do not know about yours but the blue Kodiak (pic below)which I ride with and ride all the time does not pick up speed like my SP does.

I know some of the sport quad guys think we should not even talk about drag races,but I would race a other lawn tractor for the h*ll of it if I was on another lawn tractor.

 

I didn't say an Xplorer 400, I said an Xplorer 500, which is a 500 fourstroke with independent rear suspension and is the same in everyway as a Sportsman except it does not have the handlebar mounted headlight.
Tim, as for your question about whether it was acceleration or top end, we tried both a standing, and rolling start, and I beat him both ways, At slow speeds they accelerate pretty much the same, but then I start to pull away and leave him behind.

I've never ridden with an Xplorer 400, which, of course, is the 2stroke, but I have heard they are quite fast.
Does anyone know how they measure up against some other common sport/utilities?

 

I meant some tourist from Michigan last fall ,they seem to be real heavy into this sport down there because they all had 2001 Machines and told me they trade in every Year! There was four of them one 350 Rancher,2 SP 500 H.Os and a Xplorer.The guy with the 400 said he had the fastest one out of the group and the other did not say anything about it, so I tended to believe him.I when for a little ride with the group but it was getting dark so no one was riding to fast.