Folks, I have a very specific gripe about the current crop of go-fast side-by-sides. See, I love to go fast over all sorts of terrain, getting dirty, covered in mud and dust and dirt, and absolutely sending it whenever given the space to do so. But I also love sharing those psychotic moments with my children, who've all grown up with me seeing their faces light up whenever I do something worthy of Pastranaland.
But the go-fast UTVs of today, the Polaris RZR Pro Rs and Can-Am Maverick Rs, well, they just don't fit my entire brood of children without aftermarket modification. Case in point, I have three children and had to add a fifth jumpseat in our family's Can-Am Maverick X3 Max. It's not a terrible thing, but it also isn't factory.
And lately, as my children have grown, we've got to thinking about trading in our Maverick X3 Max for a more plain-Jane Defender, as it has seating for six and much more space for them to stretch out. Fast, however, it ain't, and I'd have to do a whole lot of modifications to even start to get to the Maverick X3's speed.
Kawasaki, however, might've just thrown that into disarray as, through its teaser campaign for the upcoming supercharged, fire-breathing go-fast H2 side-by-side, it's stated something incredible: It'll have an option to seat five! Holy sand-kicking superchargers, Batman!
There's little to go on in the teaser Kawasaki sent over and, ironically, the main thing that I'm sure Kawasaki wanted folks to get hyped on about the upcoming side-by-side is that it'll feature Fox Shocks' new 3.0 Live Valve setup, which features internal bypasses and Kawasaki's electronic control system. I'm guessing it'll work similarly to Polaris or Can-Am's electronic shock setups that also use Fox Shocks.
I mean, more people want to know about a go-fast UTV's suspension compared to its seating arrangement. But I ain't most people, so what caught my eye was the line stating, "Up to 5-passenger seating."
Now, I have nothing else to go on as Kawasaki also states, "All other records of Project H2 remain sealed." But what I can tell you is that you'll have up to five seats in the H2, and that's one more seat than what you can get in both the Polaris RZR Pro R and Can-Am Maverick R Max. And this five-seater H2 side-by-side is from the factory, no aftermarket installation required.
For the life of me, however, I can't figure out how the setup will work. Will it be a jumpseat like in my Maverick X3, or will it be some sort of middle seat arrangement that goes ahead or behind the other two? Are we looking at a McLaren F1 situation, but with a back seat? I've got no answers and oh so many questions and while I was looking forward to the H2's debut already, I'm hella stoked for it now.
