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Evolution
of the Sport ATV & Racing Preview
Can-Am, Kawasaki, KTM, Polaris,
Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha
(3/26/2009) -
If any of you were in this sport
back in the early 90's, you won’t have a hard
time remembering the limited number of choices of
models we had to choose from. Honda had scrapped
the TRX250R and the LT250R production ended after
1992, and we were left with the Banshee, Blaster,
300EX, Mojave and a handful of other models that
barely qualify for sport quad status. The Utility
market had a better offering, and usually it came
down to the brand you preferred leading the decision
making process for your purchase.
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| In
1985, Suzuki released the first high performance
ATV with the LT250R QuadRacer |
In
1986, Honda stepped up the plate with the
TRX 250R, which became the race ATV of choice
for the next 13 years |
Trackside, modified 250R's ruled the roost in most
venues, with everything else being pushed well past
their limits each weekend at tracks all over the
country, and the sport remained somewhat stagnant
until Honda released the every reliable TRX 400EX
in September of 1998, which added the much needed
spark to the sport ATV racing community.
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In
September of 1998, Honda released the highly
anticipated TRX 400EX, which sparked a new
era of Sport ATVs |
Two decades of minimal offerings had many of
us watching from the sidelines as the manufactures
retreated into their caves only to offer a few
styling changes, maybe a special addition sticker
package combined with some kind of attempt at
marketing the latest and greatest to support the
model of the day. The aftermarket was still buzzing
as the racers pushed the 250R platform to its
zenith and helped bring the 400EX to legendary
status behind its big brother.
It didn’t take long before some of the
other Japanese manufactures jumped back on board
with Yamaha releasing their first big bore sport
ATV with the Raptor 660, and Suzuki raised the
bar in the 400 class with the released of the
liquid cooled LTZ400 Quad Sport in March of 2002.
Just one year later, Yamaha released the YFZ450
into the market place, it was the equivalent of
walking to close to a fire with gas dripping from
your pants! The ATV world was suddenly on fire
with chatter of a new model from Yamaha’s
arch rival, Honda. The TRX450R soon followed in
2004, and once again we had two main players offering
racers the choice of weaponry to rekindle the
manufacture wars not seen since the mid 80's and
the infamous battles on factory backed trikes
with names like Mickey Dunlap, Marty Hart, Jimmy
White and others as they kept the magazines alive
with racing action and kept fans interested in
this sport.
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| In
the summer of 2003, Yamaha released the
YFZ450, which was the first 450cc sport
ATV released by the big 4 manufacturers |
In
2007, Kawasaki released the aluminum framed
KFX450R with fuel injection along with reverse
for woods racers |
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