Welcome to Slingshot Under the Hood. I'm Jake Stock, the product guy for Slingshot, and this new series is going to be taking you under the hood and talking about the details of the Polaris Slingshot. The first episode: what is a Slingshot?
What is a Slingshot? I get that question all the time. Well, it's a three-wheeled motorcycle. You're sitting low to the ground, three wheels, side-by-side bucket seating, open air cockpit, steering wheel, gas pedal, brake pedal, seat belt, and a roll hoop, and it's all fun.
We designed Slingshot to deliver what customers want: the open air freedom, the performance and handling that delivers, the styling that grabs your attention.
It's not a sports car. It's not a typical motorcycle. It's a Slingshot.
Federally, a Slingshot is a motorcycle. So we meet all of the regulations and safety requirements of a three-wheeled motorcycle. At a state level, it's a three-wheel autocycle with a steering wheel, side-by-side bucket seats, pedals, and a seat belt.
Sorry, Massachusetts, but you still need a motorcycle endorsement to drive this. In every other state, you only need a valid driver's license.
Helmet laws vary by state, but Polaris recommends a full-face DOT helmet like this one and eye protection on every ride.
Why do people choose Slingshot? Well, it's a great balance between a sports car and a two-wheel motorcycle. You get the performance and the comfort of a sports car, but it's more approachable than a typical two-wheel motorcycle, but you still get the open air experience.
So let me tell you about the three-wheel architecture of a Polaris Slingshot. It's two wheels in front, one wheel in the back, but we make it low and wide. It's about as wide as a typical Corvette. It's five inches off the ground, and it weighs half as much as an average car. So this thing is light, it's low, and it's a ton of fun.
And what that means is you can pull over one G in the corners. When this thing came out, hardly any car could do that.
And so it's fun and it's fast in the twisties. We layer on top of that standard ABS, standard traction control, and standard stability control. And what this does is it keeps you planted, confident, and having fun. The Slingshot has no doors, no roof, unless you add an accessory top. You feel the wind. You feel connected to the road. You feel everything.
So now we're going to take you literally under the hood to talk about this ProStar 2 liter engine. It's Polaris-built. It's a four-cylinder. It revs over 8,000 RPM. It comes in two tunes, 180 horsepower and 204.
So what does that power mean? This thing will rocket you away from stoplights, but when you roll on, on the highway, it's awesome because this thing is light.
The 0 to 60 of a Slingshot is as fast as 4.9 seconds in this R model with the 204 horsepower. This thing has a top speed of 125 miles an hour.
Now I want to talk to you about the transmission. We have two options.
The first is a manual transmission, and people come up to me and say, "Well, what-- How do I operate this transmission?" It's a standard H gate manual. So if you know how to drive a manual car, you can drive the manual Slingshot.
We also have the option of our AutoDrive. This AutoDrive transmission is based off that manual transmission, and we do all the work for you. So all you have to do is get in, push a button, and go. With reverse, neutral, drive, and optional on R and LEs, you have a manual mode. And what that means is you can take full control with shift paddles on the steering wheel.
These are two great transmissions, and in a future episode, we're going to take a deeper dive into them.
The Slingshot has a 10-gallon fuel tank, and when you fill it up with 91 octane, it means about a range of 200 to 250 miles.And when you're out driving those 200 to 250 miles, we want to make sure there's enough storage on a Slingshot. So behind each seat, there's lockable storage, so you can place your helmet or bags. You have an awesome-sized glove box and a quick-access center console.
People also ask me, how's this thing to drive? Well, the wide stance, the low ground clearance, the open air, it means you're connected to the road. The side-by-side seating, sitting next to your partner, means it's unlike any two-wheeled motorcycle. And it's lightweight and rear-wheel drive,and so this thing is fast, it's responsive, and a blast to drive.
And that's it for our first episode of Slingshot Under the Hood. Don't forget to like, subscribe, or drop your questions or episode ideas in the comments. And in the future, we're going to be bringing you more episodes around the engine, the transmission, and the full Slingshot lineup.
