Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, Polaris changed the
off-road world forever with the launch of the RZR 800.
It was in 2005 that Project ‘VISTA’ - the code name for the
development of the RZR - begun, but in the early days it was undecided whether
the SXS vehicle should lean more towards being a utility vehicle like the
existing Ranger or whether the company should explore a new avenue and break
into a new market - sports and recreational.
Greg Brew, Director of Industrial Design, explains: “We were told
that it needed to ‘accelerate like a snowmobile’ - which as you can imagine,
was difficult to do with a four-stroke engine and there was a lot of going back
and forth about what kind of vehicle it should be - utility or sports - we
found that customers responded better to the concept of a sporty vehicle.”
One thing was certain from the beginning, the new RZR should have
‘Polaris DNA’.
“It needed to be driven off what we were doing with our ATV line and
make sure it had the same design DNA as our other products. The development
process itself was quite easy once it was decided on the direction it would
take. It was very different to how we design a product now, as we research a
lot and produce hundreds of sketches before embarking on the design, but with
VISTA, we had a few things that we really liked and they hung in there.”
Other manufacturers had tried to enter the market place and had hit
a number of difficulties - but Polaris, who pride themselves on innovation,
believed they were up to the challenge and could succeed where others had
failed.
“There was the overwhelming feeling that although other
manufacturers had experienced problems - Polaris could do it. We knew that
there was a way into that big market for us and thought ‘we can do that’ and we
did - and we did it well. If you stayed within the boundaries of what people
and brands had always done, then you’d never try anything new - so we’re always
looking to push innovation.”
Developed from the ‘ground up’, it was almost a clean sheet for
designers when it came to the RZR, building a new machine around the parts,
which would form the base.
The hard work paid off, the success of the RZR has
been incredible - the early sales forecasts made by Polaris had to be changed
by over 200% from their initial plans - and ten years later, the RZR is still
going strong. Now, the iconic RZR is considered the ultimate combination of
power, suspension, agility
and comfort. Fueled by relentless innovation, the Polaris RZR range has been
designed to dominate every type of off-road terrain. From trail and desert
riding to duning, rock crawling and mudding, the RZR allows users to do it all
- including winning the SSV Class in the 2016 Dakar.
