Hey, I'm pretty new to this site, i've only posted a few messages. Anyway on to the story. I have a used 95 Polaris Sport 400, which i think is stock(it has a sticker on the tranny cover that says COMET, so i don't know). I ride with my neighbor who has a 2001 Scrambler 500 2x4, which is also stock but he has a rack on the back and a custom trailer hitch. We ride tight woods trails, open feilds, some mud, hill climbs, etc... We then stumbled on to a long, straight pipeline and decided to race. We siad to each other that we would open them up an see what happens so we did. We lined up tire to tire, I got the rpms up on the Sport while he gave the countdown. Then when he said go, we both let 'em rip. I took him of the start with the Sport he never caught up. I bet him by about 4-5 bike lengths. I was wondering if this is normal, should that 500 been able to keep up? I thought i was going to eat his dust, but that 2-stroke KICKS! Thanks for reading, just wanting to share a good time riding.

 

im pretty sure a scrambler 500 should be able to keep up becuz ive raced a sport 400 with pipe and clutch and he beat me at the very end of the field by only about half a quad lenth and my 500 is stock so urs might have a kit on it...

 

Your experience is exactly as I would have expected from such a race. Your sport is a little bit lighter and the two stroke engine (in my personal observations) is a little bit faster in a drag race. Put a pipe on your machine and you'll absolutely demolish your buddy in everything but rock crawling and stump jumping. Make sure you warn your buddy to wear full face protection as you'll be kicking up a good stream of rocks and gravel behind you. I have a piped Scram 4x4 with digger tires on the rear (Maxxis Sur-Traks) and I can hear gravel and golf ball sized rocks riccocheting off of trees behind me when I am ripping down a trail.

 

Sport95,

That's what I thought would happen too. There are several factors which helped you. The first is weight. Your Sport should have weighed about 50+ pounds less than the Scrambler. It seems as time goes on, the Polaris sport machines get heavier and heavier.

Second is the gearing on both quads. I'd wager that he was running 13/36 gearing on his Scrambler, while you were running 12/34 on your Sport. The with the higher gear ratio on yours, you would have smoked him from the start, although he would have caught up eventually (all things being equal).

 

Your outcome is about right, With the ever growing list of mods to my 400 I can smoke my
co-workers piped 500 by about 10-11 lenghts at the drag strip at Haspin, Your 2 stroke has alot of potential, The 500 is a very nice ride but cant be built to the 400's level with-out major cash I have a sneaking feeling the 500 2x4 will be Polaris's only "sport" offering here in the near future, The way 2 strokes are leaving the market place I would definetly hang on to what you have, The 400's might be a hot commodity in the near future due to the EPA. Hopefully the 700's are coming

 

I have both a 96 Sport 400 an da 2000 Scrambler 500 4WD. Just completely rebuilt the Sport motor last spring, piston vibration broke piston skirt. I bought the Sport for my 17 year old son to ride. Now, we live next to a hard packed dirt road nice and straight, we've lined em up many times outcome always the same. Dad wins by a nose. Maybe he's letting me win just so I don't take his ride away? The Sport is bone stock except .010 oversized. Also have a PSI pipe and spring and weights to put in the Sport. Never tried to run em with the pipe on it's just to damn loud. Mumma says he can't put the pipe on. Just thought I'd chime in.

 

MaineRider,

The 1996 Sport is the first year they used the different gearing on the Sport. They went from a 12 tooth countershaft sprocket to a 13 tooth.

It's really interesting how much of a difference gearing can make. Back when my Sport was new (and mostly stock) I raced a 1998 Scrambler 400. You'd think that with the extra weight the Scrambler had I would have easily won. This wasn't the case though. The Scrambler had a 4 tooth larger sprocket in the back and allowed it to get the jump on my lighter Sport. My buddy, who owns a 1995 Sport,and I also raced.He took me out of the hole, but with the taller gearing (and perhaps a fresher motor) I beat him in the end. Horsepower may be similar in most of these models, but it's the gearing (in most cases) that makes the difference between the two.

 

When I had my 99 400 Sport, I raced a 00 400 Scrambler 4x4, and a 00 Scrambler 500 4x4 and beat both of them, by about two lengths. The 400 4x4 and 500 4x4 were both about even at the end.