I completely agree with you on that point. I will be the first to admit that it does take a considerable ammt of cash to have a late 80s quad that is as nice as the modern 4-strokes. My ZIllas have never given me any trouble, and I am not easy on them, but this reliability did not come without a price. I will have a total somewhere in the neighborhood of $7000 when I am done with this Zilla. While most would much rather have a more modern quad such as the YFZ or the new Honda, I am happier on a Zilla, Shee, or 250r. This preferance mostly stems from the fact that MX has never interested me. My preferance in a quad depends on its straight line performance, and nothing but. Ill also be the first to admit that a LT500 is useless on a MX track, and a properly set up 400ex would spank me everytime, even though it makes less than half the power of a built Zilla.

Its all about what you want to do with your quad,

 

Very possiable, even though the DG pipes are the puss filled boil on the *** of the exhaust world.

 

My 91 LT250 with the mods listed below (may also have been ported-not sure though) will beat a bone stock Raptor. When I get the LT500 up and running any Raptor in any state of tune can bring it on.

 

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img] A little food for thought. At Pikes Peak 2003 race.

Quad catagory:

1st- Banshee
2nd-Banshee
3rd- Zilla
Also the two Banshees beat the bikes. Quads beat the bikes for the third year in a row.

 

The Banshees always dominate the PP race. No doubt due to aftermarket support. I believe that one year a while back a Banshee was actually posted the lowest time of all the classes (cars, trucks, ect) thier average MPH was way below the cars, but apparently they made up a ton of time in the sweepers. I have an old dirtwheels where a turbo Shees average MPH was somehwere in the 79mph range, with a top speed of 110mph!!

 

Unless the raptor is highly modded it won't even be a race

 

My big heavy DS can bet a Raptor [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] LT500R are scary fast

 

not to say that a modded raptor isn't extremely fast, but look at the monster sized powervalved cylinders available for the Banshee, plus all the other performance mods that are made for a shee. there are more aftermarket mods for the Banshee than any other quad out there (i used to think that there were more mods for 250R's, but that has long been changed) there will always be more mods for the shee too.

 

I have had two really Mind Bending experiences in my ATV riding career.
The first was in 1981 when I rode the original ATC250R for the first time.
The second was when I rode the LT500.
All the other ATVs fail to make an impact like these two.

17 years later you guys are still trying to match the LT and they had to make a new class (pro production) so the four strokes would quit getting beat by the legacy of the 250R.

 

suzuki 500 will eat a Raptor !! two stokes kick *** !!