The last couple of issues of Dirt Trax Magazine and on this website (check out our archives May 20, 2011: “How About a Gentler Razor?“) we’ve been hinting about the need for Polaris to introduce a down-priced single cylinder RZR with about 550cc’s of displacement.
The idea, we asserted was to get folks who don’t have the jing to buy fully jazzed models like the Razor S or the new XP900 into the market to experience the fun factor a buggy style off-roader offers. Lo and behold, we just received word Polaris has introduced a new model called the RZR 570.
This vehicle offers full-time 4-wheel drive and all the great suspension travel RZR lovers have come to expect. It’s actually considerably better equipped than we could have dreamed – we had originally suggested a 2-wheel drive vehicle instead of one with 4×4 to keep the price as low as possible.
The good news is this Razor will be priced about $2,300.00 less than a base RZR 800 ($9,995.00 US) and still uses good quality suspension components (Sachs ZF shocks with front and rear sway bars) and lots of travel (9-inches front and 9.5-inches rear).
We haven’t gotten all the details on the new Pro-Star engine yet but, although Polaris claims it’s all-new, we would guess it’s based on the company’s DOHC XP 550 mill and is perhaps punched out a bit to get to 570ccs. Dunno for sure yet.
One thing we do know is that Polaris has utilized a completely new transmission to accompany the Pro-Star 570 engine. Our guess here is that the positioning of the RZR’s power package (placed further back than the 550 Ranger) required a new casting to hook up its transverse mounted single cylinder mill to its CVT and rear differential.
Hats off to Polaris for building a vehicle that will bring new people under the sport UTV spotlight. In the future, we’ll try to keep reading the minds of the OEMs as well as we did on this one!
