There’s no argument here that the Ski-Doo XS is one of the lightest, if not THE lightest sled offered for sale in today’s marketplace.

The Polaris Indy and AXYS are other examples of very light production sleds. However, even the extremely light XS and the bonded-with-glue AXYS have room to shed more weight.

The question is this, though: Would you pay extra to buy a sled that was all-out light? What if you could shave an extra 40 pounds out of the dry weight?

Weight savings of this magnitude don’t come cheap. You’d likely be paying well over $2,000.00 to get a factory-build, exclusive model of what you’re riding now with this much weight peeled off.

What would you be getting? Likely, carbon fiber would be used for all body panels and perhaps even the tunnel and bulkhead. The seat would be a hollow core design, shortened and with minimal padding.

A-arms would be made of either chromoly, aluminum or even titanium – same with skidframe suspension arms and support structures for the steering such as tie rods, pitman arms and steering racks (if applicable).

A lightened up exhaust system may have thinner walled metal in the expansion chamber, less packing in the muffler and depending on the sled’s design, be shorter and more compact. Extras like electric start, reverse and anything more than minimalist gauges would be purely optional. Fasteners would be made of precious metals.

Since engines, clutches and drive parts require extreme durability, beyond using hollow or stamped drives, these would not likely get much weight reduction. Gears could be hogged out and heat-treated but most are already built to their minimum weight/maximum strength quotient on production sleds.

Want lighter? Get out your wallet!

Arctic Cat has been making noises it wants to compete more in markets where small 4-strokes rule.

This is primarily the utility market and if you look at what Polaris has done the last two years with its very successful utility-targeted Indy line-up you can see how much potential there is. However, there’s also a decent market for lower-cost entry-level trail-focused iron with short-tracks and conservative weight.

True, since Polaris doesn’t offer any 4-stroke engines in its snowmobiles, nearly all those utility and entry-level Polarii are powered by the company’s fan-cooled 550cc 2-stroke.

Meanwhile, Ski-Doo sells a ton of utility sleds powered by its 600cc ACE twin. That small-displacement 4-stroke’s selling points are ease-of-use, fuel economy and rock-solid reliability. Interestingly, consumers are willing to pay considerably more for those benefits.

So where does this leave Arctic Cat? The company’s Lynx 2000 series, using the elderly Twin Spar platform is a stop-gap answer to this market but probably isn’t the kind of sled Cat would like to invest zillions into basing a bunch of new models on in the above categories going forward. Weight and manufacturing complexity are definitely issues and a successful offering here would pretty much need to be a fresh sheet of paper.

It seems pretty clear an entry level trail model would need to have a lighter 120-inch skidframe and track, the utility sleds a 141 or 144-incher. Cat already has good technology with its Sliding Front Arm suspension and its super-light XF skidframe. Both would certainly be adaptable to a new chassis.

Cat could bypass a lot of start-up and tooling costs by just building a simplified version of the ProCross using a shorter 120-inch version with a lightweight, small displacement Yamaha mill under the hood.

If you’re thinking the current Phazer 500 4-stroke, it probably wouldn’t be a choice for a low cost substitute because it’s extreme performance level (80-hp from a 500cc twin) makes it a very pricey engine to build and would make the concept of a cheap 4-stroke difficult to deliver on.

To our knowledge, Yamaha doesn’t have a lower cost substitute engine on its menu right now. We’d be willing to bet both Cat and Yamaha are working on one, though.

It’s been over a decade since Yamaha promised it was getting out of the 2-stroke snowmobile business and by MY 2004 nearly every sled it built featured 4-stroke power.

It’s been an unprecedented undertaking considering the higher manufacturing costs and the weight penalty 4-strokes carry – particularly in an era when snowmobile weight has been front and center with consumers.

This year, Yamaha has opened doors into markets it has not held much court in for the last ten years. Case in point: The company is offering a pretty cool mountain Viper this year with 153 or 162-inch track choices.

The 162-incher is the one we think has the potential to convert a few 4-stroke-doubting mountaineers over to Yamaha turf and we’re anxious to see if it will be a sell-out success for the company.

All indications are it’s doing well and just as the marketing team felt, there is in fact, a group of altitude riders who find the prospect of a vertical 4-stroke appealing.

It doesn’t hurt that Yamaha has made a really good turbocharger add-on kit available and hasn’t reneged on its OEM warranty if you do the upgrade.

Here’s where our speculation-meter starts to warm up. What if the new Mountain Viper does really well and Yamaha sees potential for bigger things in the vertical biz?

You probably already know Yamaha owns patented super-clean direct injection 2-stroke technology and has offered it in its marine division.

It’s no secret the cost to get a sophisticated 2-stroke mill EPA approved, tooled and down the assembly lines is much less involved and expensive than doing the same with a high performing 4-stroke.

We think, despite the fact it runs counter to what identity Yamaha has gained with 4-strokes, there’s real potential for this to happen.

Building a Yamaha-reliable DI 2-stroke would put the company right in the wheelhouse of its competitors and it would mean its future high performance sleds could compete head-to-head for weight, handling and floatation in markets it has vacated because of its 4-stroke-only mantra.

Hey, never forget this: To a snowmobile manufacturer, it’s all about making money. The way for Yamaha to make money is to compete in ALL markets.

Have you ever looked under the hood of a Ski-Doo XS with a 900 ACE? Surprisingly, there’s a ridiculous amount of room for either a) a bigger 4-stroke or b) a turbocharger and all its plumbing.

Here’s where it gets interesting. If Ski-Doo is in fact serious about getting into the ulta-high performance 4-stroke turf owned currently by Arctic Cat (177-hp-Turbo) or even offering a 160-hp 4-stroke, why would it invest in the costly tooling to start over again with an all new engine?

Let’s look at some turbo-history. Years ago Polaris began offering a 750cc Weber 4-stroke twin with a turbo. This engine made a reliable 140-hp with an “overboost” feature that took it to 160-hp for a few seconds when the turbo first cut in.

This extremely strong performing mill was a Supertrax favorite and the level of torque delivered by this combo was legendary. Fun to drive? You bet!

Even before this, Arctic Cat offered a 110-hp turbo package using a tiny 660cc Suzuki triple. It was all packaged in the original ZR sit-down platform and although it lacked a lot of sophistication, was a great sled that inspired a ton of enthusiasm. We still see these sleds on the trails today and some of them have enormous odometer readings.

What we’re saying is this: If you can get the kind of reliable power we’ve already seen in the industry from much smaller displacement 4-strokes, why wouldn’t a 900cc ACE triple make the same kind of power in the ranges we mentioned above?

Ski-Doo already has the weight thing dialed-in with one of the lightest platforms in the business. A torque-laden 160-170-hp turbocharged 900 would be killer in the XS.

Sure, we know Ski-Doo has not offered a supercharged or turbocharged engine in the past. Get this, though: Parent company, BRP, just introduced a turbocharged V-twin in its off-road Maverick side by side. BRP’s Sea-Doo division has been building durable supercharged engines for years now.

We think a 900 ACE with a turbo is a real possibility and Ski-Doo could get it on the market at warp speed.