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By: Jason Giacchino
Email:
offthepegs@atvsource.com
July 2007 - Off The Pegs
A New Generation of
Performance has Begun
Kawasaki KFX450R |
It was a day Justin Farmer won’t soon forget,
and it is just as unlikely to slip Kawasaki’s
collective memory as well. The young racer from
Kentucky headed in to his local Kawasaki
dealership and ordered a brand new KFX450R while
the press was still limited to running
photographs of the beast. He then proceeded to
enter his new machine in the Production Limited
class of the Moose ITP ATVA MX Nationals having
performed only the mild modifications required
to enter (nerf bars, tether cable, etc.). He, on
his yet unproven race quad, went on to win the
race!
In doing so, Justin got his name in the books
in recording the first official motocross
overall victory on the new Kawasaki. Best of
all, the machine on which he had won was
basically bone stock. Skeptics, pit pundits, and
industry insiders were finally treated to the
type of situation that has been lacking in the
ATV world for nearly two decades: Race-worthy
equipment that can be purchased right off the
showroom floor.
In finally releasing a 450cc entrant to the
performance class, Kawasaki has completed the
puzzle of the Japanese quartet. In fact, many of
the ATV print magazines are finally publishing
the results of their 450 shootouts. I know I’ve
been reading them with great interest and not
even so much to find out which quad comes out on
top. Rather, I’m just thrilled to witness the
return of the race-intended ATV market. Long
have quads been sold as recreational toys while
their two-wheeled and ski- & track-equipped
cousins enjoyed closed competition status (and
with the title, technology handed down from
factory race team efforts). In addition to
dropping a performance oriented ATV on the scene
this year, Kawasaki has backed up their lavish
marketing campaign with cold hard cash in the
form of their now legendary Team Green
contingency program (which just so happens to
turn 25 years-old this year).
As if the Asian attention to the 450 class
hasn’t been exciting enough, it is finally
beginning to look like Austria has grown tired
of sitting on the sidelines. Off-road juggernaut
KTM has recently made their presence known at
the opening round of the Extreme Dirt Track
series. Tim Farr did for KTM what Farmer had
done for Kawasaki--He Logged KTM’s first ATV
victory in its first time out (in the ProAm
Unlimited class). It is hard to imagine a more
effective marketing campaign for the
soon-to-be-released 450XC & 525XC than a handful
of race wins aboard them.
Can-Am DS450 |
Can-Am, who has been quite tight-lipped about
their upcoming 450, finally let the cat out of
the bag with their upcoming DS450 EFI. As the
EFI in the name suggests, this steed, like the
Suzuki LT450R and Kawasaki KFX450R, will be
electronically fuel injected. Aside from that
fact, Can Am boasts that their model will offer
the lowest weight in its class, lowest unsprung
weight, most centralized mass, and the highest
horsepower numbers. Such claims have yet to be
proven, but their online video does a
commendable job of displaying the DS450’s
manners on a well-groomed motocross track:
http://www.Can-AmDS450.com/en/
The past few seasons have witnessed a
worldwide shift in attention. It has been
interesting as an enthusiast to watch as this
latest batch of high-performance quads has gone
from concept sketch, to prototype, to
race-winning hardware. Even more impressive is
that manufacturer claims of race-ready stock
ATVs have finally become a recent reality as
evidenced by the results page rather than
advertising slogans. Expect to witness a surge
of interest and participation on down to the
amateur ranks and growth of the ATV class at
local MX tracks across the nation. These are
great times to be a manufacturer of high
performance ATVs, even better times for the
enthusiasts who have been waiting patiently . .
. some more patiently than others.
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