• 3 months ago
The Polaris RZR Pro R was the baddest SXS on the market when it was released in 2022, but last year it got upstaged by the Can-Am Maverick R. This year Polaris set out to make the Pro R the king of the side-by-side mountain again.

Did they succeed? We went to Oregon to drive the new Pro R and find out !

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Transcript
00:00I came here to talk about horsepower, and there's lots of it!
00:04So, did they fix it? Polaris flew me out to Coos Bay, Oregon,
00:08to spend a few hours with the redesigned Pro-R and find out.
00:11Okay, good morning everyone. We are in Coos Bay, Oregon,
00:14about to drive the new Polaris RZR Pro-R.
00:18I don't have to tell you that the Polaris RZR Pro-R
00:20upended the side-by-side world when it debuted back in 2022.
00:24By now, you know the highlights. 225 horsepower.
00:28Ha ha ha!
00:30Better than 2 feet of suspension travel, a 74-inch track width,
00:34and the best brakes Polaris had put on any side-by-side up to that point.
00:38Woo!
00:39This thing is fast, ladies and gentlemen. It is quick.
00:43The Pro-R is so good that Polaris built its entire factory racing team around it.
00:49It's got a stack of wins that score in North America,
00:51and this year it won the Dakar Rally.
00:54It works extremely quickly, and it makes a distinct change
00:58in the way that the machine behaves, which that's what you want out of suspension.
01:02Dynamics is excellent. It's really, really good.
01:06The suspension was so revolutionary that before Polaris factory racing was a thing,
01:11people were running the stock Dynamics DV on their race rigs.
01:15Now the new thing is the Dynamics button. You double tap it, it will go full stiff,
01:19and it will stay full stiff until you double tap it again.
01:22That was something that the race drivers asked for before.
01:24You would just punch it, and it would go full stiff for a minute,
01:26and then would relax after a certain amount of time.
01:30Double tap for stiffness.
01:32And then there's that engine.
01:33As cool as turbo mills are for their compactness,
01:36and the fact that you can get just an absolute ton of horsepower out of a tiny package,
01:41there's nothing like throttle response and torque from a naturally aspirated mill.
01:47It sounds so good.
01:49Polaris ProStar Fury is a naturally aspirated inline four that puts out 225 horsepower
01:56and has all the glorious throttle response you could want.
01:59I think the ProR 4-cylinder might be one of the best,
02:02if not the best sounding engines in the business.
02:04It's not muted by a turbo.
02:07It's just a big horsepower maker, and that's...
02:12I love that.
02:12And the throttle response is crisp.
02:15It's immediate. You don't have to wait for anything to spool up.
02:18Added to that, the ProR debuted with a four-seat option,
02:21acres of storage space, Polaris ride command, and excellent stereos.
02:25All right, so the stereo in here rips.
02:27I can't play more than like 15 seconds of a song, but I've got one of my favorite bands playing.
02:40And it absolutely thumps.
02:42It's got speed-sensitive volume control.
02:44You can turn that on or off, so when you're ripping,
02:46the rig gets louder, your music will automatically get louder.
02:49I can keep my tunes going while I've got my map on.
02:53If I want it, you just switch back to it, hit play.
02:55It also has a CVT, which means it's easy to drive,
02:59so it's as adept at family outings as it is at smashing whoops.
03:02Now, that's all great, but there's always a bigger fish.
03:06And in the world of open-class side-by-sides,
03:08the bigger fish is the all-conquering Can-Am Maverick R.
03:12All that stuff is great, but the ProR wasn't perfect.
03:14So for 2025, Polaris has done a mid-cycle refresh.
03:18They restyled all the bodywork,
03:20and the interior is supposed to be a lot nicer than the outgoing model.
03:23So yesterday, Polaris very proudly told us that they have put the seats
03:27from the Expedition in this machine, so they're still sports seats.
03:30They still hug you really tightly.
03:32You've still got a lot of good bolstering.
03:33In order to make the ProR a little bit more comfortable,
03:35a little bit more all-day friendly, they stuck them in here.
03:38It makes a huge difference.
03:39These seats are fantastic.
03:41I'm going to mend that a little bit because these are phenomenal.
03:45I am super comfortable.
03:48And they're generous, but they're nicely bolstered.
03:50They're not too tight.
03:51You don't feel loose in here.
03:53A seat that's going to keep you where you want to be for aggressive sport driving,
03:57but not wear you out, not make your lower back sore, not beat you around.
04:02So, good work, Polaris.
04:03Polaris changed every plastic body panel on the ProR except for the rear valance,
04:09and they brought back something that they're really proud of, the iconic fang lights.
04:14So, let's check the in-car footage and find out if they fixed it.
04:17One of the biggest ones right off the rip, factory beadlocks.
04:20Those are Polaris-branded beadlock wheels.
04:23Those aren't Pro Armors or some other brand.
04:25Polaris makes those.
04:27They're 15 inches.
04:28They're honest-to-goodness beadlocks.
04:30They're only available on the Ultimate model of the ProR,
04:32but it is nice to see that option from the factory.
04:34They restyled the front fascia a little bit.
04:36They brought back the fang lights.
04:38Very exciting.
04:39They also put these cool vents in the hood here,
04:42and what that does is just put positive pressure air going into the cabin.
04:45So, it doesn't have HVAC, but it does have ventilation that goes right in at the driver's feet.
04:50You got these little vents right here that let you adjust that air,
04:53point it at yourself, point it away from yourself, whatever you need to do.
04:56Got full doors now.
04:59I don't even remember if that's new, but I do like it.
05:02Look how little sand there is in here.
05:05We are throwing some sand up, and there's very little in the cabin.
05:08I think some of that has to do with these vents,
05:11which really work pretty well to keep air moving.
05:14And Polaris knew it.
05:15The design language had gotten away from what made Razors Razors,
05:19and the interior wasn't really up to snuff with the competition.
05:23Now, it did have ride command, but everything else felt a little slapped together.
05:27And then there was the shifter.
05:28You've heard us complain about it a million times,
05:31and in a rig that cost $45,000, Polaris knew that they had to step their game up.
05:36Well, they adjusted the shift cables.
05:38So, honestly, it did make that noise, but the shifter feels a bunch smoother than it used to.
05:44They strengthened the shift cables exclusively on the Pro-R.
05:46Nothing else got that treatment, and it does shift a little bit more smoothly.
05:50It's just nicer to use.
05:51So, did Polaris fix the Pro-R?
05:54Frankly, no.
05:55Now, there are highlights.
05:57The new seats are fantastic,
05:59and I can't say enough good things about the redesigned dynamics button,
06:02but it's still not a real match for the Maverick-R.
06:04It's a step in the right direction, for sure, but we wanted more.
06:07All that being said, we'll sign off with this.
06:10The Pro-R is still a really good machine.
06:13Anywhere short of a Can-Am Maverick-R,
06:15you cannot get that level of performance for the price.
06:18It's also a lot more approachable than the Can-Am, thanks mostly to the CVT,
06:22but also that big four-pot is super responsive.
06:25And if you're still not convinced,
06:27remember it has a nearly flawless competition record.
06:30So the Polaris Razor Pro-R isn't a Can-Am Maverick-R.
06:34Yet.
06:35But Polaris is always working, they never rest,
06:38and there's a new Pro-R right around the corner.
06:40We can't wait to see what they come up with.
06:43Thank you so much for watching,
06:44and let us know in the comments what you think of Polaris' redesign.
06:47Then head over to UTVDriver.com,
06:49where we've got news, reviews, and buyer's guides five days a week.
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