What’s it Like to Drive a 2015 Polaris Slingshot?

For Cars, Movies and Cool… it’s Fireball Tim!

So there I was, minding my own business at Wheels and Waves when I saw out of the corner of my eye this thing. Now, if you can visualize the corner of my eye, you’ll notice that it’s very small and this thing is very — shall we say — very large. But I sauntered up to it, pretending that I knew what it was — like a good car guy should — but the drool and googly eyes gave me away.

As I stared in awe for what seemed like an hour and wondered whether it would take off vertically at some point, I noticed a tall gent standing at its corner. This gent, I came to know as Mario Koger, and his thing was the 2015 Polaris Slingshot SL.

As a handyman and painter, Mario’s job is to make things look and work well, bringing coolness to the world by fixing stuff that’s broken. Thank God for people like that, otherwise, I’d be in serious trouble. 

But when it came time to buy a car, Mario must’ve gone off the deep end. His world was not going to be wrapped up in a sedan or sports car. He chose to go to the edge and live the extreme.

“I’ve had it for four weeks and got it from LA Cyclesports,” he said. Yes, you heard it right. He bought it from a motorcycle shop because, well, this thing is actually a motorcycle and not a car at all. 

“It’s, by law, a motorcycle. It looks and drives amazing and stands out from any other legal vehicle. I fell in love with the design and performance right away.”

Performance? How about a 2.4l Ecotec GM engine with a dry weight of 1684 pounds. That’s 173 horsepower at 6200 rpm. 9.77gl tank for 91 Octane or higher. It’s got coolness like HID lights and he’s probably going to install turbo kit to increase horsepower to 280. Whoops. Did I just see a red blur go by? I’d tell the cops, but red blurs could be anything since I’m only looking out of the corner of my eye.

Although Mario only uses this car to go to work and have fun, I think … Wait. Go to work and have fun? Isn’t that what life is supposed to be? Going to work to have fun? Man, if I had this thing, I’d bypass work so fast that my eye corners would spin. Can you see that? 

“I’ve had so many stories in just four weeks,” Mario said. “We drove Rodeo Drive and a $1 million Bugatti stopped next to me and told me that he loved my car and asked where he could get one.” 

I typically have that issue when I drive my truck, also, but let’s keep the focus on Mario. 

“Or, people stop their cars, get out and take pics of me. I feel like a movie star with it and pictures are taken wherever I go.” Again, I have the same problem. Had my picture taken at the police department just the other day. Two shots.

Mario says he also gets offers to rent it or drive people around in it and Malibu is the perfect place for that. If you’d like to rent it for a movie, he’s game: [email protected] 

Mario’s favorite car in a film? “Mad Max.” Typical, since he seems to be completely mad in driving such a thing as this. I wouldn’t dare drive …  Wait, hold on. Is that him calling? Sorry, folks, I gotta go and have some thing to do.

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