Not only is the machine at the highest point of Yamaha’s snowmobile development, but the Apex GT is also at the highest point of interest in the market.
The 2006 Yamaha Apex GT embodies our criteria: “The Snowmobile Of The Year is about innovation and technology. This machine breaks new ground. It’s a trendsetter. It represents the future of snowmobiling. It offers a unique and positive impact on the sport.”
With the 2006 Yamaha Apex GT, Yamaha has reinvented high-performance four-stroke snowmobiles — the category it created for snowmobiling just three short years ago with its revolutionary RX-1. The Apex series is that machine’s successor, and it’s the new benchmark in four-stroke performance.
The 2006 Yamaha Apex GT legitimizes four-stroke snowmobiles more than ever. The machine started with a reworked engine. The new Genesis 150 FI engine hosts fuel injection, port timing revisions, a new cam and a lighter crank for more horsepower and quicker revs. Yamaha engineers then wrapped it in a revised chassis that positions the driver forward, embracing the modern concept of centralized mass. The goal to keep weight modest is evident through its aluminum Deltabox II construction as well as use of titanium and magnesium.
Technology abounds in the 2006 Yamaha Apex GT. Premium front shocks allow riders to custom-tune ride quality. The Apex GT’s Mono Shock EC rear suspension has only one shock — an Ohlins Electric with remote electronic compression adjustment. The rider can adjust the performance and characteristics of the entire suspension at the touch of a button.
Despite the latest four-stroke engine, trick suspension components, state-of-the-art instrumentation, exceptional ergonomics and radical styling, the Apex is not a complete reinvention of a snowmobile, not even of a four-stroke snowmobile. The combination is a machine rife with Yamaha’s latest technology, certainly, but the best fit to our criteria is its unique, positive impact, the trend it’s setting and its representation of the future of snowmobiling.
