Polaris has made some of the baddest sport UTVs on the market for years now, but they're history in the sport segment goes deep. How deep? Well, in 2007 they invented the segment with the Polaris Ranger RZR. That deep enough? Since then, almost every leap forward for sport UTVs has been led by Polaris, and they haven't let up. This year, they dropped the world's first factory-built race UTV. Ride along with us as we take you from the dawn of sport UTVs to the birth of the Polaris RZR Pro R Factory!
Looking to buy? Get prequalifed
https://octane.co/vehicle-selection/?partner=A8PrQQB&a=298&flow=long-prequal&appTheme=3a49337c5724d18079602a4ca5a91626
Favorite Gear:
Packtalk Edge ORV: Code 'octane' for 10% off https://cardosystems.rfrl.co/z8qy5
For more stories, reviews, and first-looks check out https://www.utvdriver.com/
Want to see even more shenanigans from the UTV Driver team? Give us a like and follow:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UTVdriver/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/utvdrivermagazine/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/utvdriver/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@utvdriver
Looking to buy? Get prequalifed
https://octane.co/vehicle-selection/?partner=A8PrQQB&a=298&flow=long-prequal&appTheme=3a49337c5724d18079602a4ca5a91626
Favorite Gear:
Packtalk Edge ORV: Code 'octane' for 10% off https://cardosystems.rfrl.co/z8qy5
For more stories, reviews, and first-looks check out https://www.utvdriver.com/
Want to see even more shenanigans from the UTV Driver team? Give us a like and follow:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UTVdriver/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/utvdrivermagazine/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/utvdriver/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@utvdriver
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00The 2025 Polaris Razor Pro S is the second gnarliest side-by-side in Polaris' sport lineup.
00:06It's a 181-horsepower turbocharged beast that is aimed at the high deserts of the western United States.
00:14It's available with electronic suspension, fantastic infotainment, and it rolls on 32-inch tires right out of the factory.
00:21It's also a nepo baby.
00:23That's right, just like Jack Quaid, Dakota Johnson, Robert Downey Jr., and George Clooney,
00:28the Polaris Razor Pro S would be nowhere without its famous parents.
00:32The Polaris Ranger Razor invented the sport side-by-side segment when it debuted in 2007 as a 2008 model.
00:39Magazines were immediately smitten with the new Polaris with its heady 10 inches of ground clearance,
00:4555 horsepower from an 800cc parallel twin, and a $10,000 sticker price.
00:52Off-roaders had been taking the likes of the Yamaha Viking and the Kawasaki Mule out to Glamis for years and ripping around,
00:59but in one fell swoop, Polaris put all those tottering utility machines out to pasture.
01:04We all knew from bombing around in our dad's John Deere gator or our uncle's Yamaha rhino that side-by-sides were hilarious fun,
01:11but Polaris took that fun and crystallized it into a new market segment.
01:15And the Ranger Razor spawned copycats from Can-Am, from Yamaha, from Kawasaki, and eventually Honda,
01:22but Polaris will always have been the first.
01:25In 2011, Polaris upped the sport side-by-side ante again, adding an 88 horsepower, 900cc parallel twin to the Razor.
01:33By this time, the Razor had dropped the Ranger moniker and was its own model entirely,
01:39and the new mill meant that it was now capable of north of 70 miles an hour.
01:43And to match the increase in horsepower and top speed, Polaris had added a multi-link rear suspension.
01:49If the 07 Ranger Razor was just a sped-up version of the Ranger, the 2011 Polaris Razor was something else entirely,
01:57but the best was yet to arrive, as you all know.
02:00In 2014, Polaris released the Razor XP-1000, which was the first Razor to surpass the 100 horsepower mark.
02:09That power came from a 1 liter version of the parallel twin, and for us, the 2014 Razor XP-1000 is where sport side-by-sides really got going in earnest.
02:20Because with 100 horsepower out of the Razor, actual suspension, and the beginnings of real racing prowess,
02:27side-by-sides weren't just roid rage golf carts anymore.
02:30In the history of UTVs up to that point, there had only been a few real watershed moments,
02:35and now Polaris owned two of them.
02:37Arguably, those were two of the biggest changes in the industry.
02:41Polaris wasn't done. Not by a long shot.
02:44Because by 2016, the Razor needed a little bit of a boost, and Polaris found that by strapping a turbo to it.
02:51This created the Polaris Razor XP-1000 Turbo.
02:55The Razor XP-1000 Turbo got 144 horsepower in its first guise,
03:01thanks to some boost pushed into that famous parallel twin.
03:04And the best part was that weight was more or less the same as the naturally aspirated version,
03:10meaning that this new Razor was something of an animal.
03:13And it was to put Polaris on top of its nearest competitor, the Canadian competition at Can-Am.
03:19You see, Can-Am had beaten Polaris to the turbo game in 2014,
03:24when they released the Maverick XDS Turbo, which put out 121 horsepower.
03:29And by 2016, Can-Am had bumped the XDS up to 131 ponies.
03:34That was starting to make the Razor, with roundabout 100 horsepower,
03:38look a little old and a little anemic.
03:40So something had to be done.
03:41And what Polaris did with the Razor XP-1000 Turbo, for us,
03:45is the beginning of the horsepower arms race between the two cross-border competitors.
03:49And even though Polaris owned maybe the single biggest accomplishment in the industry to date,
03:55by founding the sports side-by-side movement,
03:58Can-Am now was bound and determined to knock Polaris off the top of the mountain.
04:03And with the introduction in 2017 of the lower, sleeker, wider Maverick X3,
04:09Can-Am showed that they really weren't going to let Polaris rest.
04:12The new Can-Am was more purposeful and racy,
04:15and it looked more intense than side-by-sides had up to that point,
04:19and it demanded a big response.
04:21That response took a little while to get going.
04:24You see, in 2018 and 2019, the Razors stayed more or less the same,
04:29but the biggest change came in 2020,
04:31when Polaris shocked the world again,
04:34releasing the 2020 Polaris Razor Pro XP.
04:37The Pro XP was an all-new machine with new bodywork,
04:41aggressive new styling, and riding on an entirely new platform,
04:45and it also carried the most horsepower Polaris had ever stuffed into a side-by-side.
04:50This was the introduction of Polaris' 925cc turbocharged Pro Star Parallel Twin
04:57that pumped out 181 horsepower.
05:00This is the same mill we get today in the Pro S and current Pro XP.
05:04Now, even with all those ponies,
05:06it wasn't quite a match for the Can-Am X3's horsepower,
05:09but the 2020 Pro XP was just the beginning.
05:12By 2020, when the Pro XP debuted,
05:15the Razor XP Turbo lineup was starting to get really long in the tooth.
05:19It was high time for something new and even higher performance to take its place.
05:24And with the Pro XP in the lineup,
05:25we all knew that this new platform wasn't where Polaris was going to start,
05:30and we knew something huge was coming,
05:32something that was going to once and for all put Can-Am in its place.
05:35But what we didn't know was that Polaris was about to reset the industry yet again.
05:40By late 2021, we had heard plenty of rumblings that something big was coming from Polaris.
05:46We didn't have to wait long to find out.
05:48In May of 2022, Polaris dropped a bomb when it released the Polaris Razor Pro R,
05:55a four-cylinder, two-liter, 225 horsepower,
06:00halo side-by-side that was something unlike anything the market had ever seen.
06:05With all that power, the first ever four-cylinder in a side-by-side,
06:09and by far the biggest engine a side-by-side had ever had,
06:13the Pro R hit the market like a bullet into a bowl of jello.
06:17Before May of 2022, side-by-sides were one-liter, two- or three-cylinder,
06:22sometimes turbocharged with big suspension.
06:25But at the end of the day, they still kind of felt like toys.
06:28But the 2022 Polaris Razor Pro R and its little brother, the Polaris Razor Turbo R,
06:33felt like an entirely new class of vehicle.
06:37Even though they shared the platform with the Razor Pro XP,
06:40they were longer, they were wider, they had more sophisticated suspension,
06:45and they felt like you could go out and win a score race right off the showroom floor.
06:49They were faster, they were more capable,
06:51they had sharper handling than anything you could buy,
06:54and the Pro R had nigh on 50 more horsepower than the Pro XP or the Turbo R.
06:59It was insane. At the time, it was mind-blowing, and it's still impressive today.
07:05The Pro R was a new class of expensive, too.
07:08With options that could push the MSRP well past the $40,000 mark,
07:13we were no longer mistaking side-by-sides for cheap alternatives to trucks.
07:17But even at $44,999 for a top-spec 2022 Pro R,
07:23you still got a raft of features that you couldn't get on any street vehicle.
07:27To start with, the Pro R was and still is available with Polaris' then-new Dynamics DV electronic suspension.
07:35The system has four built-in compression and rebound settings
07:39that control a set of Fox Live Valve 3.0 internal bypass shocks.
07:44And there's a little red button on the steering wheel to set the whole system to full stiff for 10 seconds
07:49if you get into a nasty whoop section or find an unexpected G-out.
07:53That's all super impressive to this day, but three years ago, it was nothing short of revolutionary.
07:59Then, there was the handling itself.
08:01The Pro R was extremely stable, neutral, and linear.
08:05That's thanks to two things.
08:07One, it's perfect 50-50 weight distribution.
08:10And two, it's wheelbase, which is stretched a little bit longer than the Turbo R and the Pro XP
08:15to give it stable desert handling.
08:17It's stable, it's sharp, it's predictable, it will let you slide the thing everywhere.
08:22But what's even more surprising than that is just how approachable the Pro R is.
08:26While a lot of super high-performance machines demand laser focus and a skilled hand,
08:31the Pro R is incredibly easy to drive fast.
08:34You see, Polaris chose to use a CVT in the Pro R,
08:38which means that anyone from a desert racing professional
08:41to a first-time UTV driver can jump in and feel comfortable right away.
08:45And even though the Pro R is effectively a desert racer you can buy at your local power sports dealer,
08:51Polaris elected to sell a four-seat version right from the get-go.
08:54You know, so you can take grandma and the kids on your next pre-run.
08:57But of course, the Canadian competition was hot on Polaris' heels,
09:01and in 2023, they released the Can-Am Maverick R,
09:05complete with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission as its party piece.
09:09The big 240-horsepower Can-Am is a much sharper tool than the Pro R,
09:14but it is not really as approachable.
09:17So with two weapons-grade sports side-by-sides on the market
09:20that commanded north of $40,000 and carried more speed off the showroom floor
09:25than any mortal person could possibly use,
09:28was that it for sports side-by-sides?
09:30I mean, were we done?
09:31Is that the top of the market?
09:33Not hardly.
09:34In 2023, Polaris showed off the Razer Pro R Factory,
09:39concurrent with the announcement of its in-house racing team, Polaris Factory Racing.
09:43In 2023 and 2024, Polaris Factory Racing went out and ran roughshod over the competition.
09:50They won two score championships, two Baja 1000s,
09:54and then they went to this little race in Saudi Arabia called the Dakar Rally,
09:58and they won that two years in a row.
09:59But apparently, even with all those victories, it wasn't enough and Polaris wasn't done.
10:04Earlier this year, Polaris dropped yet another bombshell
10:08when they announced that the Polaris Razer Pro R Factory will be available for sale to the public.
10:15I'll say that again.
10:17The 2025 Polaris Razer Pro R Factory is available for sale to the general public.
10:24You can go to Polaris, and if you've got enough money and you're patient enough,
10:28they will sell you a score desert racing ready rig right out of the factory.
10:34Not only was Polaris Factory Racing the first ever in-house racing effort in the side-by-side market,
10:40Polaris just became the first ever side-by-side manufacturer to offer for sale an honest-to-goodness race car.
10:47There are a couple of catches.
10:49One, they're only going to build 30 this year,
10:51and from next year on, they will all be made to order.
10:54And two, they start at $140,000.
10:57So if you want a factory racing rig, you had better have deep pockets and be really serious.
11:03But for that $140,000, you get a 255 horsepower rig
11:09that you can go out and compete in a score championship in without making any changes.
11:13The rig comes with helmet pumpers, communication systems, navigation,
11:17and if you open your wallet a little wider, Polaris will sell you a set of spares to go with it.
11:23So here we are.
11:2418 years after the debut of the Polaris Ranger Razor,
11:28Polaris has reset the category yet again with the introduction of the Pro-R Factory for sale to the general public.
11:35Listen, there are a ton of sports side-by-sides out there,
11:38and there are a bunch of sports side-by-sides that will go faster than a stock Razor.
11:42But there is no debate. Polaris was, and always will be, first to the party,
11:48and they're almost always the first to innovate.
11:52Thank you all so much for watching.
11:53If you want to learn more about Polaris, head to utvdriver.com
11:57where we've got news, reviews, and buyer's guides five days a week.
12:02And then check us out on social media.
12:03We're on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
12:05Don't forget to hit that like button, subscribe to our channel, and leave us a comment.
12:10We want to hear from you.
12:11We will see you later.