Finally, Monday morning arrived, and we headed
out the ride site at sunrise for a safety presentation,
and then we would head off for a two hour long
drive through the desert. We were quite pleased
to find out that we would be driving on around
twenty miles of the 79 mile long BITD race course
as well as the Cienega Spring trails. Cienega
Spring was an old silver, gold and copper mining
area back in the late 1800’s and offered
plenty of diversity for our ride, which gave
us a great opportunity to see capabilities of
the new 2012 Polaris RZR XP 4 900 Limited Edition
model with EPS.
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There
were nearly twenty Polaris RZR XP's
out on the our 2 hour long trail drive
through the Cienega Spring area, &
we all took a pit stop out in the middle
of the desert overlooking the Nellie
E. Saloon
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The BITD race course was incredibly rough with
square edge lips and plenty of rock and whoop
sections, but that is exactly what Polaris wanted
in order to show the capabilities of their new
high-performance four-seater. Our journey also
took us on the Gray Eagle Mine Trail, where
we would ride out past the Nellie E. Saloon,
a saloon that is located out in the middle of
the desert.
On our drive, the power steering that comes
with the Limited Edition model made a world
of difference. It tamed the rocky terrain and
provided a smooth and effortless drive, but
at first, I really didn’t even think about
the power steering until, I hoped into the XP
900 without EPS, and it was amazing how much
more effort was involved in steering the XP
900 through the rocks without the EPS.
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The
2012 Polaris RZR XP 4 900 Limited Edition
model comes with EPS & after driving
all day out in the Arizona desert, we
were very thankful that we had the Electronic
Power Steering to handle all the rocks
& rough terrain
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Just a few miles in the non-EPS model provided
more arm fatigue than I felt after a half-day
of driving the XP 4 900 LE with EPS, which made
since why Polaris provided all the media with
EPS models to drive because it makes a huge
difference, and we highly recommend spending
the extra money for the LE model with EPS.
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“The
power steering was awesome, I felt like
I could drive around all day with one
hand on the wheel and never feel tired,”
Baron said about RZR XP 4 900 LE model |
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Polaris
RZR XP 900's 875cc Engine cut-away view |
As for power, the Polaris RZR XP 4 900 offers
an 88 horsepower ProStar 900 EFI twin engine.
The four-valve, dual overhead cam power plant
is lightweight, compact and durable and features
a class-leading power to weight ratio that provides
quick acceleration. The power of the RZR XP 4
900 was not quite as much as the two-seater XP
900 considering its extra weight with the longer
wheel base, but still was very responsive from
the bottom to the top, and Polaris claims just
3.3 seconds from 0-35mph for the four seater,
which has more than enough power to carry a full
load of passengers.