2014 Polaris RZR XP 1000 Review
- Updated: August 29, 2013
I was recently invited to ride test the new 2014 Polaris RZR XP 1000 on the Parker 250 Best in the Desert race course in Parker, Arizona and dune-test it at the Glamis sand dunes in Imperial, CA.
The excitement only started there as I would not only get to ride the new XP in the desert, but the machine I would be riding would be mine for the upcoming race season. The only catch, I would need to haul the machine 2000 miles from the West Coast to the Southeast to my home in Alabama. This long road trip gave me plenty of time to gather my thoughts and provide you with a precise opinion of Polaris’ newest and mightiest UTV to date.
Comparing Two Similar Yet Very Different Machines
There’s no mistaking a 1000 from a 900. I was immediately aware of that as we approached the new machines. It’s bigger, longer, taller and looks very aggressive. After Polaris gave me an in depth walk-around tour of the vehicle, which you can see in our in-depth walkthrough video, it was time to suit up and try to determine if the new 1000 is enough better than the 900 to justify spending $20,000.
As I got in and adjusted my seat, got acquainted with the controls, gauges and ergonomics, it was evident that the interior of the vehicle was carefully planned, quite impressive and much better than the 900.
Interior Hits:
* Steering wheel – it has a new design and a very solid feel. It should be much more durable than the previous steering wheels.
* Blue lights – the instrument cluster, light and 4WD buttons, as well as the floorboard are all lit in blue.
*Shifter – the shifter handle is a new design and has a very solid feel when shifting.
* Seats – these seats are very nice and feature much more of a containment design (larger side bolsters) than previous seats. They’re very plush on the track and trail.
*Seat sliders – it’s about time.
* Cell phone holder – the dry, weather proof compartment fits my Samsung Galaxy S3 phone perfectly.
*Removable floor drains – these were great when I was washing out the floor boards.
Interior Misses:
* The glove box door is absolute junk. I’m very surprised this waste of good plastic made it through the Polaris quality assurance process. If you buy a new XP1K, never open the glove box. You’ll be much happier with your machine.
* The amount of adjustment in the seat slider is great, but I’m not satisfied with how loose the seats feel. They seem very unstable when you are not seated in the vehicle.
* Need more leg room – if you look immediately behind the seats, there is a good 10” of distance between the back of the seats and the engine. I would like to have had another 4” of leg room in this vehicle. There is definitely room to make that happen.
* Removable floor drains – when hitting some larger water puddles at high speed, we were always splashed with mud, up through the drain holes. I would like to see these plugs either be solid or at least have the drain holes pointing to the rear of the vehicle as to prevent water from coming through them during the ride.
I like the fact that Polaris delivered a much better power center, which is now located in a much better area under the driver’s seat. All wiring is sealed and neatly secured and the vehicle offers the most thought-out placement for customization that I’ve seen from an ATV or UTV manufacturer. Polaris already has 75 accessories available for the 1000! There’s also a larger battery to power all of those accessories and a larger, 9.5 gallon gas tank (7.25 gallon tank on the 900). That extra capacity carries the new XP 1000 17% further than the XP 900.
Crank It Up!
A turn of the key and the 999cc ProStar engine fires instantly. It sounds deeper and more aggressive than the 900. I shifted into reverse and lightly pressed the throttle. To my surprise the vehicle smoothly moved backwards, same as forward, unlike the 900’s jerky throttle response. The 1000 uses an electronic throttle instead of a cable. Polaris did quite well in making the new electronic pedal feel precise and sturdy. The new throttle pedal is made out of a composite material to ensure rigidity, rust prevention, and light weight.
After maneuvering my way out of the pits and getting a feel for the machine it was time to see what all the 1000-fuss was about as I made my way onto the Parker 250 race course. The 1000 makes a distinctive growl as you accelerate, due to the large capacity automotive-style muffler. Flooring the machine is downright addictive. The engine is only 124cc bigger than the 900 yet churns out a healthy 107 HP to its rear wheels, while the 900 makes 88. Those extra horses do some serious work. It didn’t take long to determine that the 1000 is quicker off the line than its younger brother. And I’m happy to report that its longer trailing arms, new front suspension geometry and enormous Walker Evans needle shocks offer a much better and plusher ride than the 900. Whoops and big hits didn’t seem to even phase the plush, long travel suspension on this machine. Combining the instant power with the superb bottomless suspension of a four wheel drive system that pulls as strong as it pushes the vehicle made the ride effortless and extremely fun. After only a few miles tested, it was obvious Polaris did their homework and released the most advanced, high performance UTV in the industry. It’s safe to say that with its all-new tubular chassis and better chromoly components the RZR XP 1000 will be a more durable, longer lasting machine than the RZR XP 900.
Turning the machine is equally as impressive. The 1000’s wheels are stiffer, have a tighter offset (aiding in steering precision and turning effort), and have a 14” radius to keep sidewall height to a minimum on the large 29” Maxxis Bighorn tires. In addition the 1000 uses a larger steering rack and the joint where the tie rods connect to the rack is also bigger and stronger.
Braking is outstanding! Braking is outstanding! Braking is outstanding! The bigger vehicle utilizes larger 248mm ventilated discs and Polaris packed two pistons per caliper. Each corner hosts the same two piston calipers from the rear of the RZR XP 900 4 seater. The vehicle stops in a well-behaved balanced manner like no other, even with the extra inertia of the large 29” tires. I was able to charge harder than I could and brake later, a great combination for winning races. The improvements for the braking system are among my favorite changes to the new machine.
Glamis Bound!
After testing in the desert, we loaded up and took our machine to Glamis, where you’ll undoubtedly soon see the most XP 1000’s in one place on Earth. I was very impressed at how well the machine jumped straight and true through the air. It also felt right at home gobbling up whoop after whoop on Sand Highway. The wheelbase is ten inches longer than the 900 and this really helps the vehicle float through rather than kick over the whoops.
As the Glamis ride drew to an end, there were about a dozen lucky magazine guys that left Glamis with the industry’s most potent side-by-side proudly secured onto their trailers. As I continued to log miles further and further east I estimated my XP 1000’s new home would be much different than its 11 cousins. Of all the future XP 1000 magazine features, mine will read more like a foreign exchange student describing his new way of life in a home away from home. The tight, wooded terrain of the East Coast will surely present some drastically different obstacles than we have previously faced in the desert and dunes. Would the new XP rise up to the challenge?
East Coast Test – Stoney Lonesome Off Road Park
Home of the UTV Rally Raid race series, Cullman County, Alabama’s Stoney Lonesome and I have spent quite a bit of time together. I wanted to log some seat time at this park because I am familiar with how the XP900 handles this terrain.
We literally didn’t turn a screw on the machine as we rolled it out of my box van. With Glamis sand still in its floorboards from our dune ride 38 hours earlier, we transported the machine all the way to the East Coast where we would continue our very diversified ride review this time roosting Alabama red clay instead of west coast dust and sand.
My first task was to take it for a lap around the UTV Rally Raid course and get a feel for how it handled the fast paced road sections that Rally Raid is famous for. Being that the park is open to the public during the day, we had to be extra cautious and abide by the speed limit, but it was quickly evident that this machine feels very solid and comfortable at high speed on this type of course. Seeing that we didn’t adjust the suspension or ride height, I did experience quite a bit more body roll in the high speed corners than I would have liked, but we will adjust all of that out by dropping the center of gravity and increasing the compression of the huge needle shocks. Having such a high end shock on a stock UTV is a game-changer. The ability to match your vehicle setup to the terrain is something that was only previously achievable by purchasing a high dollar aftermarket shock package. I expect the new XP 1000 to be much better at handling the high speed curves once the setup has been further dialed in.
After I got my feel for the race course, we refocused our attention to what most East Coasters will do with their machines – trail riding and hill climbing. Just off to the side of the race loop, I noticed a trail marker sign saying, “Jeeps Only”. Well, what better place could there be to test a machine such as this? None, right? If we’re going to test it, let’s do it on the gnarliest trails out there. As soon as I turned the corner on this trail to hit the hill, it was evident why this trail was marked Jeeps only. The pitch was very steep and there were huge ruts, rocks, and drop offs. Nonetheless, I was going to give it a shot. After my first attempt failed and placed me deep into the large vehicle ruts, I had to rethink my approach to the hill. It was then that I absolutely appreciated the extra 10” of chassis length and super high ground clearance. I am 100% confident that an XP 900 two seater would have been too short to conquer that hill, it may have even flipped over backwards in the attempt. With the front end already very light due to the angle of the hill, I could feel the balance shifting on the XP 1000. If it were much shorter, I think we would have been rolling this new machine back onto its tires at the bottom of the hill. As it stands, the extra length, extra ground clearance, large 29” tires, and extreme articulation of the longer arms turned out to be the perfect equation to get up the hill and over big square-faced rocks near the top. It was at that point that I realized Polaris truly hit a homerun with this machine. Yes, it’s a purpose built desert car, but that just so happens to be a nearly perfect combination of performance characteristics to make it a top performer on the East Coast as well, but for completely different reasons.
No, it isn’t a 50” wide RZR and no, it isn’t going to fit through tight wooded trails, but most of the time you know what trails you’re going on and you just simply won’t put yourself in situations where the larger vehicles will not fit. I don’t see it being an insurmountable issue. I also see the other benefits of this machine vastly outweighing any negative traits like the extra length.
My Uses and Yours
In closing, I’m once again impressed with Polaris’ aggressive commitment to maintain it’s place as the performance side-by-side leader. They very well could have put their new ProStar 1000 engine in a 900 chassis and called it the class-leading big bore UTV, but instead they’ve created an entirely new machine that will undoubtedly rule the desert and dunes and could quite possibly rule the East Coast as well. Whether you plan on racing on the West Coast, trail riding the East Coast, or just want the coolest side-by-side money can buy to cruise around with, the 1000 is for you. It’s bigger and better than anything in the industry bar-none. I believe the added size will make the 1000 less ideal for tight trails, but if you’re not racing through the woods the many advantages of the 1000 exceed it’s inability to squeeze through tight sections of the trail as well as a smaller 800 or 900.
My intentions for the new biggest and baddest UTV in the land are very much different than the typical buyer’s. I plan to tweak this vehicle into a competitive racing machine. I will be be doing some experimenting to see if I can shed weight, lower the ride height and reduce body roll, so keep an eye on ATV Scene for future not-so-ordinary articles on the extremely impressive 2014 Polaris RZR XP 1000.
