Polaris Slingshot - Review

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IT’S A MOTORCYCLE! WAYNE DAVIS PHOTOGRAPHY THE 2015 POLARIS SLINGSHOT 12 Harley-Davidson’s Surprising Street 750 A new size for a new customer 16 BMW’s S1000R SuperNaked Superbike performance in an upright package22 20 Zero’s Impressive SR Skeptics be warned, they got it right this time 24 Honda’s New CBR650F A torquey middle-weight sportbike at a great price 25 Leatt’s STX RR Neck Brace Now, protection for street & track riders 26 Indian’s New Roadmaster Full boat tourer to take on the Ultra Classic H-D 28 Polaris Slingshot It’s a motorcycle (legally) that acts like a sportscar26 30 Traction Control Testing Using BMW’s HP Race Data Logger telemetry 32 Legends of Motorcycling Ricky Johnson 34 Mental Motorcycling Countersteering 35 Medical Motorcycling Thyroid Levels 36 Motorcycle Design Tamburini Tribute 38 Proficient Motorcycling Track Day Prep, Part 2 – Advanced48 48 Innovation Of The Month SKF Fork Seal Kits: Eliminating “Stiction” DEPARTMENTS Open Road . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 MC Bulletins . . . . . . . . . . 6 Downtime Files . . . . . . . 8 World Motorcycling . . 10 What’s Happening . . . . 42 Motorcycle Justice . . . 46 Street Strategy . . . . . . . 46 Contact Patch . . . . . . . . 47 To order Motorcycle Consumer News, call 888-333-0354, or visit us at www.MCNews.com 100% SUBSCRIBER SUPPORTED SINCE 1991 VOL. 45, NO. 9 SEPTEMBER 2014 // $7

Transcript of Polaris Slingshot - Review

Page 1: Polaris Slingshot - Review

IT’S A MOTORCYCLE!

WAYNE DAVIS PHOTOGRAPHY

THE 2015 POLARIS SLINGSHOT12 Harley-Davidson’s Surprising Street 750 —

A new size for a new customer

16 BMW’s S1000R SuperNaked — Superbike performance in an upright package22

20 Zero’s Impressive SR — Skeptics be warned, they got it right this time

24 Honda’s New CBR650F — A torquey middle-weight sportbike at a great price

25 Leatt’s STX RR Neck Brace — Now, protection for street & track riders

26 Indian’s New Roadmaster — Full boat tourer to take on the Ultra Classic H-D

28 Polaris Slingshot — It’s a motorcycle (legally) that acts like a sportscar26

30 Traction Control Testing — Using BMW’s HP Race Data Logger telemetry

32 Legends of Motorcycling — Ricky Johnson

34 Mental Motorcycling — Countersteering

35 Medical Motorcycling —Thyroid Levels

36 Motorcycle Design —Tamburini Tribute

38 Proficient Motorcycling — Track Day Prep, Part 2 – Advanced48

48 Innovation Of The Month — SKF Fork Seal Kits: Eliminating “Stiction”

DEPARTMENTSOpen Road . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3MC Bulletins . . . . . . . . . . 6Downtime Files . . . . . . . 8World Motorcycling . . 10What’s Happening . . . . 42Motorcycle Justice . . . 46Street Strategy . . . . . . . 46Contact Patch . . . . . . . . 47

To order Motorcycle Consumer News, call 888-333-0354, or visit us at www.MCNews.com

100% SUBSCRIBER SUPPORTED SINCE 1991

VOL. 45, NO. 9SEPTEMBER 2014 // $7

Page 2: Polaris Slingshot - Review

28 SEPTEMBER 2014 // MOTORCYCLE CONSUMER NEWS

IT’S A MOTORCYCLE — legally — but it’s unlike anything else you’ve ever driven. With three wheels, it conforms to the DOT’s defi nition of a motorcycle and may require a motor-cycle endorsement, but it has side-by-side seating and the controls of a car: steering wheel, foot-controlled clutch, brake

and throttle pedals, and a center-mounted gearshift. There’s no roof, doors or windshield (unless you pay extra for one).

Everything about it is outrageous: styling that looks like it drove off a movie set, a 2.4 liter, 16-valve GM Ecotech VVT (variable valve timing) engine fi tted with a 5-speed plus reverse gearbox, fat low-profi les tires: 205/50R17 fronts (on 7.0" wide rims) and a 265/35R18 rear (on a 9.5" rim), and an exposed tubular spaceframe like a race car’s.

Polaris kept it a well-guarded secret. Although patent drawings hinted that it existed, you’d have to imagine it was nothing more than a concept study, unlikely to see the light of day. But it’s now in production, and we couldn’t have been more surprised by how well it works. Our previous experience with a variety of “trikes” (motorcycles converted to two rear wheels) were mixed. Only those with differentials and independent rear suspension really had decent vehicle dynamics. And the CanAm Spyder, with its reverse three-wheeled layout, required its own learning curve to master. In particular, the pro-active body English necessary to keep your body’s CofG inside the machine’s centerline during cornering. So, we were skeptical that a three-wheeler of any layout could approach the handling or stability of a lightweight sportscar (my Mazda-speed MX-5 as a personal benchmark).

But Polaris is an engineering power-house. Its ATVs and side-by-sides dom-inate their markets, and we’re already impressed by the quality of its Victory and Indian motorcycles. If anyone could make a three-wheeler that would attract high-performance buyers, it could.

The dimensions of the Slingshot are bigger than its pictures might suggest. The front track is 69.1"—almost fi ve inches wider than a Lamborghini Gallardo’s and the wheelbase is 105"—almost four inches longer than the Lambo’s. Unlike

the motorcycle-engined T-Rex, its engine is forward-mounted, and its overall weight is almost perfectly divided between the three wheels; 66% front, 34% rear. The standard model weighs 1725 lbs. wet, while its compan-ion model, the Slingshot SL is 1743 lbs. The chassis includes integrated forged aluminum roll bars, the tops of which measure 51.9" from the ground.

I was very excited to expe-rience what it could do, and jumped at the chance to be the fi rst journalist to catch a ride with its development test driver. We launched down a narrow quarter-mile test track to a skid pad at the end, easily burning rubber in the fi rst three gears. The 2384cc GM four, with 173 rated hp @ 6200 and 166 lb.-ft.

of torque @ 4700 rpm, had plenty of power for exciting accelera-tion. But it was the skid pad that held the greatest interest. Would the Slingshot have the cornering ability to challenge a Miata? Actually, it turns out that Polaris used one as a benchmark for its testing. Sure enough, the test driver demonstrated its amaz-ing grip through a series of skid pad diameters, revealing some serious G-force, as I did my best to hold a mini-cam off to the right side for a video. Equipped with standard traction control, I asked that it be turned off, to see what difference that made. It was hard to tell. Next, as I could see that he was using rear wheel power to tighten his lines, I asked that he back off mid-turn, so I could see if there was any instability. None, only a bit of easily controlled understeer. Very impressed, it was time to let another passenger have a turn, so I took the opportunity to shoot detail photos of the half dozen machines at the test site.

Next, we were allowed to drive the Slingshots on a loop of the company’s facilities and into the nearby countryside, accompa-nied by one of the project’s eager engineers, who were fi nally able to see what “civilians” thought of their top-secret efforts.

It was fun to wear a helmet in a “car” without a windshield or doors, and conventional shoulder/lap seatbelts kept us secure in its waterproof vinyl-covered bucket seats (if it gets dirty, just hose it off, inside and out). The control layout uses a tilt-adjustable

The Outrageous Polaris Slingshotby Dave Searle

FIRST IMPRESSION

Side view reveals the tubular space frame construction. Curb weight is 1725 lbs., the fuel tank holds 9.8 gals., ABS, Stability Control and Traction Control are standard, and the warranty is for two years.

WAYNE DAVIS PHOTO

WAYNE DAVIS PHOTO

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steering wheel and the seat can be adjusted for distance and its back for tilt, just like most cars, so it was easy to find a comfortable driving position. The five speed gearbox has slightly long throws, maybe six inches, but the gates are much clearer than an MX-5’s six-speed and the shift effort is very low. The throttle has a very firm pedal, the clutch is reasonably light and the brakes use no power assist, so they need a firm push for a maximum stop. In a remote straight stretch, we made some drag strip simulations. With a bunch of revs from a stop, the rear tire will do a bit of fishtailing, but the stability control lets it have its head, and running to redline (indicated at 6250 rpm) I’d estimate its 0-60 time at under 5 seconds, and I backed off at around 100 mph. There were few tight corners, this being Minnesota, but I could sense a bit of understeer. And weaving back-and-forth across the lane, you could feel a bit more roll at the back than my modified MX-5. Back at the test track, I asked for permission to test some maximum stops down the drag strip portion. This was granted, with the condition that I not do doughnuts on the skid pad. These were drama-free, simply strong stopping without smoking tires or juddering ABS—very secure. But my real intention was to get a chance at one maximum cornering run. Knowing how hard it had turned with the test driver at the controls, I tried to duplicate that speed. This revealed that in a steady state condition, it has more understeer than I’d prefer, but extra throttle could make it neutral—if you had the experience to know how much. Incidentally, a video we were shown of the machine on track equipped with a G-meter indicated a maximum of .88 G, which is probably a peak figure.

A massive tubular sway bar, about 1.5" in diameter, helps to control front body roll, and playing with roll bar stiffness will probably be a popular activity for track days. The Sachs shocks are gas-charged coilovers, although their travel was not provided. Up front, beautiful aluminum double A-arms provide the geometry control, while the rear end is handled by a beefy motorcycle-like single-sided, hollow-cast swingarm that uses belt final drive. The explanation for the rather narrow belt (considering the power), is that it only needs to carry what the rear tire can deliver to the road, and it’s more than strong enough for the traction available.

The steering system is an electrically boosted, speed-sensitive rack-and-pinion, with a quick, Miata-like response to steering angle. However I could feel some “ratcheting” when turning lock-to-lock at a stop, like a segmented armature passing through magnets. I was told they were trying to eliminate that sensation. The steering’s on-center feel was fine.

The engine, intended for a small car, was very smooth and, of course, fully compliant with emissions right out of the crate. The power is very linear, and it’s easy to get rubber in the first three gears. In top gear, it would cruise 60 mph at under 2000 rpm. If

you wanted to play racer (how could you not?), you’d choose a gear that gave about 4000 rpm, when the acceleration was very strong, with a nice roar emanating from the boxy muffler in front of the passenger’s footbox. Of course, as any Chevy-head knows, GM’s Performance Parts Catalog is chocked full of goodies to transform the motor’s performance—turbos, superchargers, and anything else you could imagine, so I’m sure we’ll see some outrageously hot-rodded Slingshots soon after they go on sale in the fall of this year.

The driver sits just 11.5" off the road, and the ground clearance is 5", which helps to make the impression of speed even greater. The ride quality is good; quite firm but not harsh, and I had to imagine the seat padding was responsible for a significant part of the overall cushion.

“What were they thinking?” you may ask. Actually, Polaris as a company makes the lion’s share of its profits from products it has introduced in just the last three years, so carving out an all-new niche makes perfect sense, especially as they don’t have to share it…yet…with any other OEM-scale enterprise.

The prices are equally enticing, the standard model will come in Titanium gray for only $19,999, while the SL model, with a blade windshield, wider wheels and tires (225/45R18 fronts on 7.5" rims, and a 255/35R20 rear on a 9.0" rim), plus a media console with a 4.3" LCD screen, back-up camera, USB input, Bluetooth integration and 6-speaker audio system, in Pearl Red paint, will be $23,999. And compared to any car at that price, gear-heads of many persuasions could find the Slingshot an irre-sistible proposition. We can’t wait to get more time in one.

Okay, it may not be what we’d normally call a “motorcycle,” but it comes closer to the feel of a bike than anything else with a steering wheel!

The interior is waterproof and a windshield is optional. The styl-ing should appeal to extroverts of all ages. Also, the SL will come in red.

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