Jon Bayne, our resident lightweight guru and great friend to the store, and I were discussing next year's snowmobiles tonight and pondering the actual weight/horsepower possibilities.  Ski-Doo is obviously talking about the weight/horsepower numbers on the new Rev XP and touting the fact that they have that ratio under three pounds per horsepower.  Since we know that's a sea-level figure, we started running some numbers based on our real data numbers to see how things might stack up. 

To start with, my turbo Apex is absolutely hands down the fastest, most impressive snowmobile I've ever been on (with perhaps the exception of our highly nitroused pavement sled, but that's really hard to compare).  It seems the actual dry weight of an Apex is around 623 pounds and we now at low boost with the GT-28 turbo, we're making about 220hp, so that gives us a ratio of 2.83 pounds per horsepower. 

For comparison, a stock M8 or stock Dragon is about 4.9, a stock Apex would be 5.7, the stock M1000 about 4.2, and this year's Summit 800 is about 4.0.  Jon's highly modified Dragon weighs about 445 now and with the RMX kit installed, he's got about 110hp, meaning he's right there with the Summit and the M1000 at 4.0.  An RMX M1000 would get you down to 3.8, and an RMX Summit 800 checks in at 3.9.  If Polaris gets the 800 everyone thinks is coming in the Dragon done and even if it's 7hp better than Summit (probably a very optimistic rumor), it would come in right at 3.9 as well.  It would seem, then, that based on the technology and sleds we currently have been riding that 3.8-4.0 pounds per horsepower would be a good running sled.  We know that Ski-Doo says that new Summit X 154 should come in a tick below 430 pounds and we know the 800R engine makes about 117.5 real horsepower, which would mean that's already down under 3.7.  Now, let's assume that with a few bucks and some work we can knock 25 pounds off.  That might require some air shocks, titanium springs in the rear, losing a couple boogie wheels, coating the pipe, removing the taillight, swaybar, excess foam, clutch guard, rear bumper, etc. but we think it's at least plausible for a still somewhat reasonable investment.  If you ordered a 146" track, that'd probably be good for another 5 pounds off and still give you as much track as a 155" Polaris or Cat, which would be sufficient on most days.  All said, that opens the possibility of having an 800cc right at 400 pounds.  If we add an RMX kit to the formula and bump the horsepower up close to 125, that would get us to 3.2!  We know and have tested a moderate nitrous kit on the R engine and had good luck, so let's be conservative and only squirt 20 horsepower of nitrous at it.  That way, we might have a chance of making the clutching work and not being out of nitrous almost immediately.  Then, if we divide 400 pounds by 145 horsepower, we're down to 2.75.  Hmmm...the same weight to horsepower as the turbo and we get to ride a sled that's over 200 pounds lighter.  Of course, the nitrous won't last long but we might give the Apex some trouble at least for a bit.  Good thing we can always turn the boost up on the Apex and it never runs out of happy juice.  At any rate, it definitely seems like next year could be some real fun! 

Thanks,

Donavon