As I dashed between the trees and through the sandy ruts of Elk Ridge, Minnesota’s ERX Motor Park, I tried my best to locate my rally racer mindset: looking far ahead, trying to find a flow through an unfamiliar set of trails. The harder I pushed the Polaris RZR, the happier it seemed to be.
Over the course of two days at ERX I got behind the wheel of a few new 2022 off-road products from Polaris, everything from the entry-level Ranger utility side-by-sides to the top-level RZR performance models and even its absurd 1000-CC ATVs. As someone deeply passionate about high-speed off-roading who also adores throwing things sideways, I felt the most at home in the RZR.
Polaris has a wide range of models within the RZR family. By my count, there are more than 10 different RZR models, all with different seating, power, and body options. I won’t even get started on the Ranger and General families. From the outside, it’s a bit confusing.
I spent the most time hopping between the 181-horsepower RZR Pro XP and the XP1000. Both are wildly capable, but the Pro XP–with its turbocharged 925cc motor and optional active suspension–is the hottest of the two.
On the trails I did my best to imagine I was hustling through a tight rally stage, though things were a bit different. I didn’t have a co-driver, I was much closer than usual to the other, uh, rally cars, and, well, the Polaris RZR is worlds away from my hastily thrown-together 1995 BMW M3 coupe. Yet, somehow, the experience was just as enjoyable, if not more so.
No matter which RZR I was in—it was honestly hard to keep track due to all the switching we did—I felt confident I could toss the UTV over and almost into anything in its path. Ruts, rocks, dunes, streams, mud, broken trees? Whatever. It ate all of it up. Unlike driving my E36, I didn’t have to worry about clearance issues, car preservation, or whether my car could really make it over that upcoming jump flat. The RZR did it. It was built for it. And I didn’t even need to show my competition license.
With a RZR, or any kind of side-by-side or off-roader, you show up to some legal trails and have at it. Aside from the occasional fear of being impaled on a tree branch, I felt secure. The side-by-side wasn't loaded with safety equipment beyond a cage and a basic safety harness, and it didn't have automotive grade sheetmetal to protect me from hittable hazards on the trail. But that was fine. I knew I was driving well within the limits. The only thing that worried me, a worry magnified by the knobby performance all-terrain tires Polaris had equipped, was the rollover risk. Let’s just say the physics—notably the center of gravity and height—of a side-by-side are quite different from those of a BMW M3. Throwing high-grip knobby tires into the mix doesn’t help my addiction for sideways driving. If those tires hook up a little too well, it could mean the RZR and I sliding sideways uncontrolled. That is not something I enjoy.
In the handful of rallies I’ve done with my M3, I’ve been out there just to build experience going fast on loose surfaces. I’m not out there winning events (yet), collecting contingency prizes, or setting the fastest stage times. On top of that, rally entry fees generally range from $400 to $1000 for regional-level events. Those costs, the price of everything that breaks or falls off during competition, and other associated expenses take a massive toll on my wallet. For the kind of experience I’m looking for, at least for now, I might as well just side-by-side my way through some public off-road trails or low-cost, privately maintained systems.
On top of the seemingly unlimited off-road trail access that comes with side-by-side ownership, the American Rally Association itself has allowed UTV classes to compete alongside rally cars at some events. According to the safety regulations, Polaris’ products would require some minor safety upgrades to be competition-legal. But hell. That could be a blast.
I bet if I were out on the stages with a RZR, I wouldn’t find myself pulling multiple broken shocks off my vehicle in one day of off-roading. Well, I’d hope not, anyway.
A native of the famously car-loving city of New York, Road & Track’s digital director is constantly surrounded by beat-up old project cars. His fleet currently consists of a problematic manual-swapped 1991 BMW 325i sedan, an E34 M5 of the same vintage, an M2, and a Lexus GX470. Before R&T, Brown worked at Jalopnik, The Drive, and Business Insider.
