Jalopnik is more than just a car blog. We cover and review all types of transport, from boats to trains to motorcyclesbut this review is about something much more obscure: The Polaris Slingshot. You know, that three-wheeled, two-seater, something with an open tricycle with one belt driven rear wheel. My fears were high before driving this Volt Orange 2024 Polaris Slingshot SL, and after a week of living with the sling, those concerns were confirmed. The Slingshot it’s really not for me.
Full disclosure: I’ve seen Polaris Slingshots terrorize the streets of LA for years and I can honestly say I never thought I’d be riding one, but the generous folks at Polaris changed that. They loaned me a Volt Orange 2024 Polaris Slingshot SL with a five-speed manual transmission and two helmets and that’s it.
Jumping into the Slingshot requires you to step over the tubular frame structure on the side of the vehicle, as there are no doors. Once you’re in the seat, there’s surprisingly plenty of legroom, almost enough for my 6’8″ frame to fit comfortably. almost. Of course, headroom isn’t an issue since there’s no roof over the head, but since Polaris requires everyone riding in one of their press cars to wear a helmet, I didn’t get the wind-in-the-hair feeling I was hoping for as a convertible lover. Oddly, both of the Slingshot’s seat belts are anchored in the center of the vehicle, so as the driver you have to reach over your right shoulder to grab the belt and fasten it on your left side. This decision, combined with the lack of doors and lack of adequate seat bolsters, heightens the already dangerous feeling of piloting the Polaris.
Riding the Slingshot through LA is stressful experience, as evidenced by my Whoop fitness watch, which tracks all my driving as moments of increased stress. You sit very low to the ground, no airbags, no doors and no roof. The engine is thrash in the truest sense of the word, but heartless until the 8,500-rpm redline, where it finally reaches peak horsepower. The clutch is stiff and heavy, the transmission tunnel gets alarmingly hot to the touch as you drive, the ride is rough, and because the Slingshot is so oddly shaped, it’s hard to tell where the vehicle begins and ends. All of these factors contributed to my elevated stress levels behind the little wheel of the Slingshot, combined with the knowledge that any one of Mom’s three-row cell phones on the roads of Los Angeles could run me over without me even noticing.
The Polaris-the inline 2.0-liter inline-4 in the Slingshot SL makes 178 horsepower and just 120 lb-ft of torque, the latter of which peaks at 5,500 rpm, and the Slingshot weighs just 1,633 pounds overall, nearly 1,000 pounds less than the Mazda Miata. That should make it a lot of fun to drive, but as soon as the power builds it just spins one driven rear wheel, which might make you smile if you don’t have to hook it up. And it is far from fast, and the behavior of the engine is contradictory. You have to rev it up to redline to get power, but the engine is so rattling it sounds like it’s going to blow up. I wasn’t a fan of the exhaust either, as it sounded more like a leaf blower than a car, which might be excusable in a side-by-side, but not in something that’s meant to be an on-road fun machine.
Driving the Slingshot on twisty roads was, too a harrowing experience. The canyon road I chose had random debris that would cause the Slingshot to lose traction no matter how slowly I moved. In one situation there was a small streak of dirt in the center of my cornering lane; I slowed down to 10 mph and still almost skidded off the cliff because the back wheel hit the dirt and lost a lot of traction. Fortunately, the Slingshot has traction control and ABS, but the single rear wheel makes it too shifty to be reliable enough to push around twisty mountain roads. It’s also unreasonably difficult to gauge the width of the thing because the front end is oddly wide and the back is oddly narrow, so threading the needle becomes an exercise in faith and elevated cortisol levels.
My tester came at no cost 5-speed manual transmission, which made driving more attractive, but still had its drawbacks. The transmission is gritty and feels good to shift, but the high-revving nature of the Polaris engine doesn’t mesh well with the gear ratios. First to second gear is fine, but when you shift into third gear, the revs drop so drastically that it throws you right out of the power band and the car stalls.
“So how about the world famous cruise Pacific Coast Highway”, you might ask, “if it’s not good at cornering, maybe it’s at least a good cruiser?” no There’s never a time when you can relax behind the wheel of the Slingshot. It feels like the rear wheel is constantly bouncing around, requiring endless pushes on the steering wheel to keep it in the center of the lane. Wearing a helmet makes the ride even less relaxing. If you get stuck in traffic, you’ll start cooking in the sun, choke on the smelly exhaust, and your left leg will start to seize from the heavy clutch.
My tester’s seats were heated and cooled, which is a welcome option. Unfortunately, when combined with seat belts which are strapped in the middle of the vehicle instead of over the passenger’s outer shoulder like in every other car, I felt like I was going to yank out of the Slingshot around every corner. Other conveniences include Apple CarPlay, which requires a Bluetooth headset to be connected to allow operation, so I’ve never tried it.
My test car came with minimal options, including heated and cooled seats for $1,629.99, a $100 phone holder, and navigation for $549.99, and CarPlay package, bringing the total MSRP to $30,428.97. The cheapest new Slingshot S sells for $21,999 without any options, and the most expensive Slingshot Roush Edition starts at $38,149 without options. In my opinion, there are a number of better ways to spend $30,000, like buying hairpins and a facelift as an alternative way to prove to the world that you’ve still got it, or buying a used sports car, or $30,000 from lottery tickets.
I’m not a fan of the Polaris Slingshot in general, but I don’t think I’m the target audience. What is the target audience, you may ask? It blows my mind, but people buy them and seem to like them, so if you pass out when you see a Slingshot go by, try one. There’s certainly nothing quite like the experience of driving a Polaris Slingshot, for better or for worse.
