" You're crazy! My new Tecate-4 will walk all over your
Banshee! I read somewhere that the Kawasaki does 88.649 mph right off the show
room floor"
"You're
nuts!" My cousin caught his Tecate-4 with a radar gun at 66 mph max and
stopped my Banshee at 78!"
"That's
nuthin! I rode my quad 500 from my grandpas farm down to the river, witch is
exactly 2.46 miles. I timed it with a stop watch, and according to my
calculations I average 96.34 mph. Taking head winds, ruts, occasional tree
stumps into consideration, I figured my Suzuki has a top speed somewhere around
120, give or take a few miles per hour."
SOUND FAMILAR?
For some reason,
there are a lot of misconceptions in the ATV world when it comes to top speeds.
The manufactures don't state an all-out top speed with each model (would you
believe them, anyway?), so we don't have a lot to go on. Occasionally we'll
bust out the radar and check a machine, but its rarely on the same stretch of
land in a exactly the same weather and wind conditions.
What we need is a
totally controlled evaluation with each machine in tip-top stock condition. A
smooth, flat stretch of land complete with timing lights will be the ultimate.
Sound likes its time to hit the drag strip!
WATCH THE
CHRISTMAS TREE
To find out witch stock ATV has the most powerful motor, best
gearing for top end and best arrow dynamics, we ran each bike through its paces
at L.A. County Raceway Drag Strip. The official list of contestants included
each high-performance model available in 1988. Lined up and ready to do battle
on the quarter mile were the Yamaha Banshee 350, Suzuki Quadracer 250 and
500, Honda four tracks 250 and the
Kawasaki took the Tecate-4 250. For comparisons sake, we threw in the Kawasaki
Mojave 250, the fastest stock 4-stroke 250 available
RULES AND REGULATIONS
Each machine was bone stock (with the acceptation of a set of nerfs
and bumpers on the quad 500), the tire pressure was kept at eight psi and the
rear and six in the front. The day was clear and sunny with a high temp. of 73
degrees and a slight cross wind measuring 3-5 mph.
Two test riders
would make 4 official time runs on each machine, giving us a total of 48 time
slips ( including the Mojave) to base our evaluations. The test riders weighed
in at 145 pounds and 190 pounds. ATVs can actually be bracketed-race (a form on
a drag racing in which consistency wins) on a weekly bases LACR. The rules
require that the riders were a helmet, boots and a jacket or jersey, and that
the ATV be equipped with a kill switch. Since we made our runs on a practice
day , the kill switch rule was waived .
SPEED TRAPS
For each run we
would get a computer time slip and with three readings. One would record a
totally laps time( the time it took to get to the finish line), another would
give us a top end in ph reading (as ATV cross the finish line), and the final
time would be the amount of time it took to travel the first 60 feet of the
course.
For the
accompanying bar graph, we decided to choose the best single top speed and the
E.T.( elapse time), in sixty foot time, witch was registered during the eight
official runs on each machine.
WHATS THE FASTEST?
The over all top speed in
elapsed time award goes to the Suzuki 500. Quadzilla turned in the best elapsed
time of 15.09 seconds of the top speed of 79.22 mph. However, it wasn't the
clean sweep for the big suzuki. Out of the 6 machines evaluated, the Banshee
was the quickest in the 60 foot drag race at 1. 902 seconds compared with the
500's 1.938. The Kawasaki Tecate-4 was toped in the 250 division by recording a
15.81-sencond elapse time and top speed of the 74.75 mph.
The test riders
reported that each machine topped out in high gear before the top-speed timing
lights, giving us true top speeds for the fleet of hyper fourwheelers.
Complaints included snivels about the notchy shifting under speed on the Quad
500. The Honda FourTrax also had trouble shifting into 6th under
power. All the machines worked best by taking off in second gear, except for the
Tecate-4, which launched best from first. We also heard some grumbling about a
squeaky, grabby, but otherwise functual clutch on the Tecate.
The rev limiter on
the four-stoke Mojave was put to use as it blubbered and sputtered across the
finish line. (Rev Laminators are built into the ignition of some ATVs to keep
them from over revving impossibly damaging the motor) We also found that the FourTrax was the most Susceptible to
wondering at high speeds, though it was never unnerving to the point of backing
off.
THAT SETTLES IT!
There should be no
more problems with the top speeds of the high-performance ATVs right? For the
first time ever, we gathered the fastest shockers and ran them though the electronic
timing lights under the ideal and identical conditions. In the end a machine
named Quadzilla prevailed and nearly hit 80 mph in the quarter mile making it
the quickest stocker that you can buy.
or
call 1-800-767-0345
