Yamaha’s Sport UTV to Be Powered by Three-Cylinder Engine + Video

Yamaha has released a third teaser video for its upcoming pure Sport UTV, which proves our theory that it will be powered by a three-cylinder engine. Yamaha also gave a firm date for the official unveiling of the YXZ SS – September 1, 2015. It’s also interesting the Yamaha chose to release its latest teaser on the same day Polaris unveiled its new 144-horsepower RZR XP Turbo EPS.

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The previous two teaser videos (Part 1 and Part 2) offered little in the way of giveaways, but in this one Yamaha includes a couple of frames that caught our attention. The big reveal is a glimpse of an inline three-cylinder engine, as one of the frames clearly shows three header pipes coming out of the engine (see the lead image in this post).  This would be the first of its kind in a Sport Side-by-Side. Yamaha has a rich history of three-cylinder power in its motorcycle and snowmobile lineups and we were expecting (or at least hoping) this machine would get the same treatment. The new Sport UTV could well be powered by the same 847cc engine as the FZ-09 motorcycle or the 1049cc engine as the Viper line of snowmobiles.

Beyond the engine, the video also reveals quick glimpses of headlights, leather-looking seat, single exhaust canister (perhaps a 3-into-1 setup), and a fairly aggressive-looking tire. What we can see of the tire tread looks very much like a Maxxis Birhorn 2.0.

Finally, the video lets us hear a little of the engine’s noise. Unfortunately, accompanying sound effects make it difficult to get much information from the noise, but it was enough to get the hairs standing up on the back of our necks.

With little over a month to go until we get to lay eyes on the most highly anticipated Yamaha four-wheeler in years, we won’t have to wait long. However, we expect Yamaha to release at least one more teaser video before September 1. Stay tuned.