Are you loving all the SHOOTOUTS this season?! This week we’re pitting three of the highest tech, 850-class, naturally aspirated snowmobiles offered this season against one another.

The fellas break things out into into several categories evaluating how our contenders perform in each and then select an overall winner, featuring the MXZ XRS 850 with SMART-SHOX, the Patriot 850 Indy VR1 with DYNAMIX and the ZR 858 CATALYST with ATAC!

It’s no secret Polaris has been working with semi-active suspension control in its off-road side-x-side vehicles for quite some time now. We’ve been driving DYNAMIX-equipped RZRs since about 2018 and after this much exposure to DYNAMIX and its benefits we have to say we have the highest respect for this technology and we suspect that after one ride, you will too.

You might be wondering if DYNAMIX is the same as SMART-SHOX and here’s the important detail that sets DYNAMIX apart. While SMART-SHOX gathers, processes and adjusts both compression and rebound damping using accelerometers on the front IFS and rear arm shocks, DYNAMIX is notably different as it gathers suspension inputs using a chassis-mounted Inertial Measurement Unit or IMU.

The shocks on the front IFS, front arm and rear arm do not assimilate information to the IMU. The IMU is constantly reading the movements of the sled’s chassis. Things like roll, pitch, accelerative G-forces and braking effects on the chassis. All this information is processed by the IMU, then communicated to all four shocks making necessary compression adjustments to all four to keep the chassis level fore, aft and side to side.

A simple example is what DYNAMIX does on a WOT (wide open throttle) take-off. As the sled’s track gets bite, the IMU senses the rear of the chassis squatting under accelerative forces and immediately stiffens the rear arm to control chassis pitch. You can actually feel this intervention.

The same situation occurs when the sled is pushed into a turn at speed. The chassis will start to roll to the outside causing the IMU to increase damping on the outside front IFS shock – effectively levelling the chassis side to side.

Catch a bit of air and the IMU makes adjustments to all four shocks to compensate for harsh landings based on speed and hang time.

This kinda stuff is happening hundreds of times a second. The good news? You can feel it and you’ll be a more confident rider because of it.

Making the system even more impressive is the rider’s ability to track what each shock is doing right on the 7S screen in each mode you select. Toggle between COMFORT, RALLY and EXTREME based on your riding style and you can actually see compensation levels rise and fall for each shock represented on screen.

That’s a brief and elementary run through DYNAMIX. What it is and does is overwhelmingly impressive and we’ll be sure to share more about this technology with you in the weeks ahead.

What About Dynamix? Clearly, Polaris and Ski-Doo are in an intense season of competitive product intros. There’s little doubt Polaris has evaluated Ski-Doo’s (and Can-Am’s) Smart-Shox semi-active suspension control system.

Dynamix is fully developed and, more importantly, highly effective on numerous RZR SxS off-road models in MY 2022. Sliding the entire system including myriad sensors, electronic controls and sophisticated switchgear onto the MATRYX platform should be – mostly – a no- brainer. Okay, it does take a lot of fertile brains to develop active suspension.

Ski-Doo has had ridiculous success with its Smart-Shox option. How successful? Smart-Shox availability was sold out before Spring Break concluded last April. Truth is, if you had the opportunity to try a Smart-Shox equipped MX-Z or Renegade you were likely overwhelmed by the tangible improvement the set-up delivers.

Frankly, we think Dynamix and Smart-Shox for dirt-destined off-road vehicles is impressive but Smart-Shox on a Ski-Doo is more impressive than on a Can-Am. We would expect the same degree of effectiveness from a Dynamix system tweaked for snowmobile use.

For those who may not be up to speed on exactly what semi-active suspension is about, let’s discuss it briefly. Ski-Doos with Smart-Shox have accelerometers on the front ski shocks. If you look closely at the front suspension of a G-5 Ski-Doo, you’ll see what looks like another sway bar drop link. It’s not. It’s a linkage connected to a sensor (accelerometer) that reads both velocity and the amount of movement of the right and left front suspension when encountering terrain. The info is passed to a Smart-Shox specific ECU which responds to suspension movement by stiffening or softening the front suspension shocks damping. It doesn’t end there. The ECU talks to the rear suspension front arm and rear arm shocks simultaneously and makes them ready for whatever terrain the front IFS just swallowed. Another accelerometer is attached to the rear shock for exactly the same purpose as the front suspension sensor.

All of this whiz-bang techno sophistication produces what we at SnowTrax and Supertrax have proclaimed is the hands down best ride quality of any snowmobile built today. Ski-Doo developed the Smart-Shox system and KYB produces it. Polaris Dynamix was developed in tandem with Fox.

With Polaris intent on continuing a market share battle with Ski-Doo, we have to think the next big thing for them is the adaptation of its SxS Dynamix suspension technology to its snowmobiles.

Stay tuned.