There's been a two-way fight amongst the world's go-fast, send-it UTVs for the past half decade, and that's been one fought between Can-Am and Polaris. The two manufacturers have enjoyed their tit-for-tat gamesmanship, one-upping each other each year with more suspension travel, more beefy tires, more tech, and more speed thanks to their turbocharged mills.
To borrow a quote from the lead-up to the truly terrible Black Adam marketing campaign, the balance of power is about to change forever.
Kawasaki has been hinting at something for a while now, i.e. a go-fast UTV of its own. We've covered it extensively here at RideApart, even going so far as to search patents and trademarks to glean any information ahead of its reveal this year. But it's all coming to a head, as Kawasaki just teased that not only is it still on its way, but it'll be the most powerful UTV on the market.
How does a 250-horsepower supercharged four-cylinder sound? Well, it actually could be more powerful than that...
Project H2, which has the same nomenclature as Kawasaki's insane supercharged H2 motorcycle, has yet to be fully revealed. However, according to Kawasaki's latest teaser, the UTV will have a supercharged engine and produce "250 horsepower*." And if you caught that little asterisk ala Marvel's Thunderbolts*, we did too.
And yes, I'm mixing DC and Marvel properties. Sue me.
According to Kawasaki's press release, "*This vehicle's HP was measured according to ISO standard 4106. This ISO standard measures HP differently than the SAE standards by which the horsepower of many cars is measured, and as a result, the referenced HP measurement may be higher than if it were measured by an SAE standard." Basically, that means that while Polaris and Can-Am both measure their respective UTV power ratings with SAE standards, Kawasaki measured its slightly different and because of it, the H2 might actually have more than 250 horsepower.
"Specifications remain undisclosed," states Kawasaki's teaser site, adding, "What can be confirmed is this: It is the division’s mission to realize operational superiority and next-generation control to achieve performance beyond what is currently believed possible."
That means that not only is it already the most powerful UTV in production, but it may be by quite a lot whenever someone gets around to testing it to SAE standards. I'm calling it now, folks, we're maybe a year away from seeing a production 300-horsepower UTV. A real one. I don't count Segway's Super Villain hybrid as one as I don't know anyone who's ever even seen one in person.
All said, it's still unclear when Kawasaki is going to launch the H2, but depending on the suspension setup, this is going to be one mean-ass machine. I can't wait.
