I'm going to take a guess that Polaris took the Safe/Smart/KISS(Keep It Simple Stupid) approach with the ACE. Reinventing a currently unused offroad sport segment they needed to come out of the whole with a fairly generic solution. Keep costs down as low as possible while still offering a good, safe product. Okay, so it seams that they haven't yet played upon the hardcore gearhead crowd. But when you look at the reality of it, the power hungry of us are the overall minority. For the first offering, it makes total sense to me with rolling out and marketing the ACE as a beginner segment. I'm guessing Polaris has many other tricks up their sleeve and will probably have something with a little more kick available with the 2015 introductions.
I have been riding/driving offroad vehicles since the early 70's. So I guess I've got a fair amount of experience under my kidney belt. IMHO this is a smart way to get new riders who always wanted to go offroad but where intimidated by the thought of riding on top of a bike or atv. I personally know many folks who are scared to death of engine size when it comes to atv's or sleds. Anyone who knows anything about riding offroad or sleds knows that you can get just as hurt or worse on the small cc'd machines as fast as you can on a big bore monster. But where Polaris is getting this first run out the door geared at the casual or novice participant, does anyone really want to see these in the hands of the same novice driver with twice or 3x the HP? Not me.
We who follow forums are generally more than just 'enthusiasts'. We are the hardcore in the grand scheme of things. Then there is the other 99.89 % that Polaris built this for.
Anyway, I for one am happy to see it as it is now. I will be more than happy to see it with more HP eventually. But either way, its all good and I like that Popo is leading the way...someone had to do it.
