Under the hood, each model features a four-stroke engine displacing about one liter. The Ski-Doo MXZ TNT’s Rotax-built triple is the largest at 1171cc. Cat’s Suzuki sourced four-stroke twin at 1056cc is only seven cubic centimeters larger than the Yamaha Vector’s. In terms of on-trail performance, the Yamaha and Ski-Doo triples seem more powerful than the large bore Suzuki twin.

Over the years, we’ve thought the 1056cc Suzuki felt just a bit sluggish, especially when it was all that Arctic Cat had to compete against everyone’s 600cc two-strokes. But whenever we rode the Suzuki-powered Cat we found it did well in getting out of corners and accelerating to top end. Perhaps it was too quiet and simply lulled us into a false sense of its being lazy.