I Was Introduced to Glamis in a Polaris RZR Pro R

The rising sun has Oldsmobile Hill bathed in an overexposed yellow glow, the shifting spine of sand rising from the desert floor like a wall. A 100-yard section of whoops makes the run-up to the hill’s legendary face look tricky. Beyond that, Oldsmobile Hill’s steep ascent looms, looking decidedly unconquerable.

And, in any other vehicle, it probably is. But I’m in a brand-new 2023 Polaris RZR Pro R 4 Ultimate. This might as well be a trip to the mailbox for the 225-horsepower RZR, which wears active suspension with nearly 30 inches of travel.

Following a Polaris engineer in a short-wheelbase Pro R, I pin it. The rig squats, the nose lifts, and sand explodes into the air like gun smoke. Before I can pull myself out of the seat back and get my bearings I’m passing 40 mph and the whoops have all but passed. I’m fully into the climb, named for an early Model T–based sand car with hand-carved tires powered by Oldsmobile’s venerated Rocket V-8. I have almost 100 horsepower on the big Olds, and eons of suspension development underneath me.

The big RZR has cruised to 60 mph halfway up the hill, and I back off to maintenance throttle. That’s properly quick in anything, and the top of the hill is blind. There’s no longer any question that I’ll make it safely over the crest. Beyond Oldsmobile Hill sit “the big dunes,” the soft sand mountains that have drawn off-road pilgrims for better than half a century.

In Glamis’ big dunes, the 2023 Polaris RZR Pro R starts to make sense. Its power, proportions, ridiculous suspension setup, and throttle modes hit their rhythm when you’re flowing from high mark to high mark, with the vehicle seamlessly following your eyes and pivoting around your hips. On other terrains, however, you’re constantly reminded that the Pro R is a big, heavy machine.

At 74 inches wide, it makes generous two-tracks feel narrow, and can make passing another rig on our home trails in Tennessee a little nerve-racking. And, when the woods are tight and strewn with rocky climbs, you never need 225 horsepower, let alone the instant, aggressive throttle response you get in Race mode. You wind up turning everything down, asking the Pro R to censor itself and be civil. It’s easy to tell that you’re sitting on a deep well of performance, but there’s just no way to use it all without ending up in the hospital.

But in the dunes, exactly none of that is true. Polaris engineers suggested putting the Dynamix DV active suspension into Baja Mode, selecting 4WD and locking the front axle, and using Race mode, which is the most aggressive throttle setting. Back home in Tennessee, that is asking for it. In Glamis, it sets you up for a flow state.

In sand, you want wheel speed to keep the car more or less floating over the sugary surface. Let your momentum drop, and you’re all but guaranteed to bury your rig to its axles. Race mode is perfect for this, as it lets all the horses out of the barn pretty much at once, keeping the 32-inch tires churning.

With sustained throttle and momentum come quick changes of direction, which is Baja Mode’s time to shine. As the rig turns and goes off-camber, the outside two shocks stiffen up to minimize body roll and keep all four wheels glued to the dunes. Somehow, even with 29 inches of rear suspension travel and shocks as long as a grown man’s leg, the Pro R never feels unstable or tippy. There are a couple of things at play here, including the vehicle’s massive width and relatively low center of mass, but the Dynamix DV is huge.

Then there’s the big RZR’s near-perfect 50/50 weight distribution, which makes the Pro R pivot around your sit bones smoothly and predictably. Driving in the dunes is akin to whitewater rafting, surfing, or boogie boarding: Look where you want to go, focus on being smooth, and let the flow come to you. When the tracks are quiet and you’ve found a rhythm, there is a calm precision to it among the chaos and chop of piled sand.

The Pro R loves it. It’s daunting at first to think about flooring a rig this powerful, especially with all the settings in hero mode, but Polaris has built a massively capable machine that feels calm, collected, and powerful in its element. There is chaos beneath the tube chassis, but it has been tamed and honed to a fine, precise edge.

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