Jalopnik is not just a car blog, we cover and review all kinds of transportation. boat To train To motorcycleBut this review is about something much more vague. Polaris SlingshotAs you know, it is a three-wheeled two-seater. roofless tricycle It has a single belt-driven rear wheel. Before driving this Volt Orange 2024, I had a lot of concerns. Polaris Slingshot After living with the SL and then the Slingshot for a week, those concerns were substantiated. Slingshot It really isn’t for me.
Full disclosure: I’ve seen Polaris Slingshot inspire fear. Street corner of LA I’ve been riding motorcycles for years now, but I honestly never thought I’d end up driving. But the generous people at Polaris changed my mind. They loaned me a 2024 Polaris Slingshot SL in Bolt Orange with a 5-speed manual transmission and two helmets. And here’s how it happened.
![A side view of the Slingshot, showing how low the side sills are.](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/be0561b22fb19158e6056ef19ad1c15c.jpg)
To hop onto the Slingshot, you must straddle the tube frame structure on the side of the vehicle. No doorOnce in the seat, there’s surprisingly good legroom, enough to fit me, at 6’8″, comfortably. Almost. Of course, with no roof over my head, headroom isn’t an issue, but Polaris requires everyone in the press car to wear a helmet, which didn’t give me the wind in my hair sensation I was hoping for as a convertible lover. Oddly, both of the Slingshot’s seat belts are fastened to the center of the vehicle, forcing the driver to reach over his right shoulder to grab his belt and buckle on the left. This decision, combined with the lack of doors and inadequate seat bolsters, amplifies the already dangerous feeling of piloting a Polaris.
![A screenshot of the stress monitor on a fitness tracker showing increased stress levels while driving a Slingshot.](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/fc1ddd3ef98b15d2651c087242191d80.jpg)
Riding around LA on a Slingshot Stressful experienceThis is evidenced by my Whoop fitness watch, which records my drives as stressful moments. There are no airbags, no doors, no roof, and I sit very low to the ground. The engine thumps about as hard as words can describe, but it doesn’t have any power until the 8,500-rpm redline, where it finally delivers its peak horsepower. The clutch is stiff and heavy, the transmission tunnel gets annoyingly hot to the touch while driving, the ride is uncomfortable, and the Slingshot is a very odd shape that makes it hard to judge where the vehicle starts and ends. All of these factors contributed to my increasing stress levels behind the Slingshot’s tiny steering wheel, combined with the knowledge that any one of the three-row mamachari bikes on Los Angeles roads could run me over without me even realizing it.
of PolarisThe Slingshot SL’s inline-four 2.0-liter engine is rated at 178 horsepower and just 120 pound-feet of torque, the latter peaking at 5,500 rpm. The Slingshot’s overall weight is just 1,633 pounds, nearly 1,000 pounds lighter than a Mazda Miata. This should make it a lot of fun to drive, but as soon as the power builds up, the only rear wheel you’re driving will spin, which is laughable if you don’t have to hook it up. It’s also nowhere near fast, and the engine’s behavior is inconsistent. You have to rev it up to the redline to get power, but the engine is very clunky and sounds like it’s about to explode. I also didn’t like the exhaust sound, because it sounded more like a leaf blower than a car. That might be forgivable in a side-by-side, but not as a machine for on-road fun.
![Photo of center seat belt](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/9197880a1f24e8b0df00e7f072780545.jpg)
Driving the Slingshot on winding roads Horrible experience. The canyon road I chose occasionally had debris that caused the Slingshot to lose traction no matter how slowly I was going. At one point, there was a small stripe of dirt in the center of the lane around a curve, and I slowed to 10 mph, but my rear wheel hit the dirt and lost so much traction that it nearly slid off a cliff. Thankfully, the Slingshot has traction control and ABS, but with only one rear wheel, it’s far too unstable to push on twisty mountain roads. It’s also abnormally wide in the front and abnormally narrow in the back, making it unreasonably difficult to judge the width of the car, making threading the eye of a pin an exercise in faith and raising cortisol levels.
My tester came with it for free. 5-speed manual transmission, This made the driving experience more engaging, but there were still drawbacks: The transmission was notchy, and while shifting felt fine, the high-revving nature of the Polaris engine didn’t match up well with the gear ratios: 1st to 2nd gear was fine, but shifting into 3rd gear meant the RPMs dropped so much that it took the car out of the power band and it didn’t move.
![Photo showing the Slingshot driver's field of view](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/f67d78effa6bf1b32972e88cc0c72aa7.jpg)
“So, the world famous Pacific Coast Highway“Maybe it’s not good for twisty roads, but surely it’s good for cruising?” you might think. No, it’s not. There’s no time to relax behind the wheel of a Slingshot. The rear wheel feels like it’s constantly bouncing around, and you have to make multiple steering inputs to stay centered in your lane. Putting on a helmet makes the cruising experience even less relaxing. Stuck in traffic, the sun starts to burn, the smelly exhaust wears you down, and the heavy clutch starts to give your left leg cramps.
My test car’s seats were heated and cooled, which is a nice option. Seat belt It’s fixed in the center of the car, not on the passenger’s outside shoulder like in other cars, so I nearly slipped out of the Slingshot every time I went around a corner. Other comfort features include Apple CarPlay, which requires a Bluetooth headset to be plugged in to operate, but I never tried it.
![Slingshot rear 3/4 view](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/49dc7dc0bf908d379141f49aa5eae843.jpg)
My test vehicle came with heated and cooled seats for $1,629.99, a phone mount for $100, navigation for $549.99 and CarPlay The package adds up to a total MSRP of $30,428.97. The cheapest new Slingshot S sells for $21,999 without options, while the most expensive Slingshot Roush Edition starts at $38,149 without options. In my opinion, there are a ton of better ways to spend $30,000, like buying hair plugs or a facelift to prove to the world that you still have it in you, buying a used sports car, or buying $30,000 worth of lottery tickets.
Overall, I’m not a fan of the Polaris Slingshot, but I don’t think I’m the target user. Who is the target user? I have no idea, but people buy Slingshots and seem to love them. So, if the sight of a Slingshot driving makes you swoon, then you should definitely take one for a test drive. For better or worse, nothing beats the experience of driving a Polaris Slingshot.
![Bird's-eye view of a slingshot](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/536cfccccb365fb352599f2c575b9576.jpg)
![Rear wheel close-up](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/62c6a14feedce5f55a9e7d29898ae2b6.jpg)
![A shot from behind a slingshot](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/35d130f1e6a2478fd1ee94fe59c43678.jpg)