Polaris scoops the awards pool with Predator and Sportsman 800 Twin EFI ATVs

Polaris ATVs have been racking up the awards recently, with the Predator 500 Troy Lee Designs Edition recently picking up the 2005 Sport Quad of the Year from ATV Sport Magazine. Now it appears the company has scooped the pool, with the Sportsman 800 EFI winning the ATV of the Year Award unveiled in the August issue of ATV Rider Magazine. The latest award is further confirmation of Polaris’ dominance of the big bore market after the 2004 ATP and 2002 Sportsman 700 Twin took out the same award with rival publication ATV Magazine. In awarding the new 800 the biggest annual prize of the industry, ATV Rider summed it up thus: “As the biggest of the big boys, Polaris’ Sportsman 800 Twin EFI came, saw and conquered all in our Big-Bore Open 4x4 comparison,” said ATV Rider’s Todd Canavan. “Relishing the loamy dirt and rocky, rutted and root-filled trails of North Carolina, the Sportsman climbed and crawled over every obstacle thrown at it." While noting that bigger does not always mean better, Canavan said in the case of the Sportsman 800, it did.

“Polaris hit the mark with the Sportsman 800 Twin EFI,” he said. “The fuel-injected powerplant and revised suspension for 2005 allow the Sportsman to carry its heft well – well enough to earn it the title of ATV Rider magazine’s ATV of the Year!”

The Sportsman 800 EFI arrived on the scene this year with Field & Stream’s “Best of the Best” award, prompting the magazine to heap similar praise on the most powerful ATV on the market.

“This is the first ATV to hit the 800cc class and it possesses enough torque to pull your garage down,” stated Field & Stream.

“It will also attack a trail, clear deep snow off a driveway, till a food plot effortlessly and get your deer out of any thick and nasty bottom.”

Also impressed with the power and durability of the Sportsman 800, ATV Rider was generous in its praise of the 800’s huge engine.

“Ostensibly the most-obvious feature of the Sportsman 800, the gargantuan twin-cylinder engine is massively proportioned by today’s standards yet maintains one of the most-civil demeanours,” Canavan said. “Fitted with a responsive fuel-injection system, the Sportsman offers turnkey starting and no-hassle operation.”

“The powerplant that drives through it is much closer to the pinnacle of ATV performance.”

With the industry’s best-selling automatic transmission, engine braking, on-demand all-wheel drive and independent rear suspension with long-travel front, this new ATV provides more horsepower, more torque and more fun than any other recreation/utility model. And to match the new engine comes a Sportsman chassis platform that is totally new from the ground up.

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