The Polaris Slingshot has always been a loud vehicle. It’s loud to look at, it’s loud to drive, and it’s loud for bystanders to hear. The Slingshot is for the kind of person who thinks a Miata doesn’t go to 11 hard enough. The latest iteration of America’s craziest three-wheeler takes a different tack. The 2026 Slingshot Signature Edition takes the familiar Slingshot formula, drapes it in a somewhat subdued color-shifting pearl paint, and adds some classy touches. Dare I say, the Polaris Slingshot looks sort of pretty like this?
Spring is coming, which means many of us in the central and eastern portions of America will start seeing vehicles with fewer than four wheels again. In between the lumpy V-twin Harleys and the screaming inline-four sportbikes, you’ll find the trike. Some folks enjoy their three-wheelers in Can-Am flavor, others take in open-air fun in Vanderhalls, Morgans, or other car-like three-wheelers. For plenty of Americans, the answer to summertime fun is Slingshot. Drive around for long enough on any warm day, and you’re bound to spot one or a few Slingshots.
These Slingshots are often just as unique as their owners, too. I’ve seen people give their Slingshots gorgeous paint, big wheels, custom seats, and even surfaces that look like leather. Yet, I’ve sort of been surprised by the lack of a fancy Slingshot right from the factory. It seemed like Polaris was sort of missing out there. Well, the 2026 Slingshot Signature Edition seems to move the Slingshot in a slightly more dignified direction, and it seems to work.
The Looks Are The Point
Polaris says that the Slingshot Signature Edition is a premium addition to the Slingshot lineup and a showcase of Polaris’ commitment to putting styling first.
A lot of folks have long wondered why the Polaris Slingshot remains so popular, even after 11 years of production. On paper, a Slingshot is illogical. The cheapest Slingshot is only five grand cheaper than a new Mazda MX-5 Miata, but has about half the practicality (and 25 percent fewer wheels). Can it protect you from inclement weather? Not really. Can you carry a thrift store haul in it? Eh. Any convertible on the market, new or used, works better as a car. At the same time, while the Slingshot may or may not be legally a motorcycle, depending on which federal lawmaker you ask, a Slingshot doesn’t really feel like a motorcycle.
And yet, I’ve found the Polaris Slingshot to be one of the most fun vehicles on the road. There’s something so hilariously fun about clicking the Slingshot’s truck transmission into a gear and then converting the rear tire into smoke. I’ve gotten Slingshots sideways and in circles more often than any other vehicle, and I find myself crying laughing every single time. The level of fun is just insane.
There’s something else, too. Polaris says that a top priority of Slingshot buyers is styling. Do you think the Slingshot looks like a Transformer that got stuck halfway to its robot form? Yep, that’s the point. The Slingshot is supposed to get your attention. It’s supposed to get a reaction out of you.
How this works in the flesh is fascinating. I’ve tested two Slingshots. One was a darker green with neon highlights, and the other was completely blacked out, like something Batman would drive. Both turned heads wherever they went. People asked to sit in it to get a picture in it. European tourists stopped taking photos of vistas to snap a picture of the black roofless thing that parked next to them. Kids wanted to pretend to be their favorite superhero in it. I even saw some guys motion with that thumb-and-pinkie-held-to-the-ear-like-a-phone “call me” sign.
The only convertible I’ve ever driven that ever generated similar attention was my old banana-yellow Honda Beat. You cannot be an introvert and buy a Polaris Slingshot. It’s just not possible because everyone’s going to want to say something.
When you think of the Slingshot as styling first, everything makes sense, including why Polaris would want to make a fancier version of the Slingshot.
The Slingshot Puts On A Sparkly Business Suit
The highlight of the 2026 Slingshot Signature Edition is its paint. Polaris says that this version of the Slingshot has an exclusive Golden Steel and Black Crystal two-tone, color-shifting paint. Now, not to pick on Polaris here because it’s even something the car industry does, but the name of this paint scheme doesn’t describe what you’re looking at. The paint is a pearl blue that color shifts to gold iridescent depending on lighting conditions.
I’m a huge fan of color-shifting paint, with Ford Mystichrome being my all-time favorite paint scheme. So I adore this. People already do custom color-shifting paints and wraps on their Slingshots, so getting this straight from the factory is smart.
The contrasting color in the Signature Edition is black with lots of sparkles in it, like you might find on a bass boat. Whatever isn’t the color-shifting blue is that sparkly black. For a final touch, the body also has gold pinstriping.
The theming continues inside, where you sit in sport seats and take command of what I can only describe as your own personal concert stage. The interior sports two 8-inch Rockford Fosgate speakers in the interior side panels and two 6.5-inch speakers right behind your head, adding up to 700 watts of power. Polaris adds to this with an app-controlled interior lighting kit, so your lights can be as loud as your music is.
There’s no understating just how loud the Slingshot is, too. The Polaris ProStar engine under the hood dumps out under the vehicle, ahead of your passenger’s position in the cockpit. Having the exhaust ahead of you means you’re always hearing it. It’s loud in pretty much every scenario other than sitting at idle. At the very least, the engine sounds like what you get in a high-powered sportbike, so that’s nice, if you’re into that sort of thing.
If hearing a snarling inline four isn’t your jam, don’t worry, because the music goes up to 11, literally. In 2024, I tested a Slingshot that had 200 watts of audio power, and the darn thing was so ear-piercing that it could have been used as a boombox for an entire block party. I think I’ve heard quieter live concerts than the Polaris Slingshot. The system in the Slingshot Signature Edition is bigger and more powerful. I wonder what it sounds like when you crank the volume bar up to 11, the sounds of the eruption of Krakatoa? I swear, it’s almost as if Polaris makes the stereo first and then builds the Slingshot around it.
All of this is fed through a seven-inch infotainment display running Polaris Ride Command. This system gives you live traffic data, weather data, Apple CarPlay, a vehicle health screen, and also functions as the backup camera screen.
The Signature Edition sports the same gear as a Slingshot R. That means a Polaris Prostar 2.0-liter four pumping out 204 HP and 149.8 lb-ft of torque. That’s backed by an Aisin AR5 five-speed manual transmission, which, I have to remind you, used to spend time in the Chevrolet Colorado. There’s also an automated-manual transmission option, which is just the AR5 shifted by a computer. Other Slingshot R components include the sport seats, Brembo brakes, Sparco pedals, and 305-section width rubbers.
As I noted in previous reviews, the Slingshot is part sports car, part pickup truck, and totally ridiculous. The transmission sounds like a bucket of bolts, and the shift feel is downright agricultural in nature, but that all adds to the fun drama.
Still Expensive, Still Silly
Polaris is positioning the 2026 Slingshot Signature Edition as a sort of premium “elevated” halo model for the Slingshot lineup. Basically, it’s the closest thing you’ll get to a luxury Slingshot from the factory. The price for all of this will be $36,999 before fees. The base Slingshot S, which has less power and fewer features, is $24,999 before fees, for comparison.
Apparently, the Signature Edition will be made in limited numbers, but Polaris doesn’t say how many. Polaris does say that they’re being shipped to dealers right now, so definitely expect to see at least some of these buzzing around this spring.
I will be able to take a spin in one of these soon, and I’m excited. If you’ve read my work for long enough, you know that I love a fun convertible. My fleet has a Saturn Sky Red Line, a MGF, a Smart Fortwo Passion Cabriolet, and a Mazda MX-5 Miata ND1 in it right now! But the Slingshot has always tickled something within me. The Slingshot has never cared about practicality, doesn’t really take itself seriously, and almost taunts you to let your inner hooligan out.
I’m also looking forward to seeing if Polaris has rectified any of the quirks I found last year. Namely, last year’s Slingshot R had a lot of squeaks and rattles, a one-off engine misfire event, an insanely buggy Ride Command system, and my wife sometimes mentioned smelling the exhaust when I really got on the gas (you can read last year’s review here). I also didn’t get to test a version of the Slingshot with the interior lighting system, and as someone who is a sucker for neon lights all over everything, this Signature Edition has me written all over it.
I know a lot of our readers scratch their heads at these things, and I get it. You can get some really excellent cars or a handful of awesome motorcycles for the price of a single Slingshot. Yet, I get why people buy Slingshots. These things are unapologetically silly, and they just want to have fun all the time. I’ve found it impossible to actually be unhappy while driving one. In a world that’s getting more serious by the day, in a vehicle market increasingly flooded by more crossovers, I’m happy that the Slingshot is out there, just doing its own thing. Now, it’s going to do it with maybe just a touch more class.
Top graphic image: Polaris
I love a good tadpole trike! Lighter, weirder, and more minimalist than a car, but you don’t have to wear a helmet and stupid amounts of uncomfortable protective clothing like a motorcycle demands.
That said, Slingshots are so tacky and ugly that they almost make me physically ill. It makes me sad that they have become the face of autocycles for the general public.
It’s items like this that make me wish there were more, and more stringent enforcement, of noise ordinances.
It’s the uncomfortably-named-hot-sauce of vehicles. I don’t know who’s buying and consuming Colon-Napalm-Strike or Large-Intestine-Nuclear-Reactor-Meltdown sauce, but they exist, and I have a feeling their idea of a culinary experience is as different from mine as the Slingshot is from my idea of a good sports car.
You shot yourself in the foot with the inclusion of the word “good.” It’s not supposed to be good.
What ever happened to just existing peacefully in melancholic solitude?
As someone who loves all manners of ridiculous vehicles, I’ll never understand why people buy these.
This feels like the kind of car Scott Adams would’ve driven to his Dilbert shaped house. Because it’s THAT kind of tackiness.
It’s the kind of car you drive to pick up your Prime energy drinks and Feastables lunches from the corner store.
FIFY
Hahahaha…..’Signature’. A fool and his money…..
Would I have fun driving one? Probably
Do I want to be seen driving one? Absolutely not
“The Loudest Thing In Your Town This Summer”
I live in Philadelphia, I sincerely doubt that.
Now I know what will be parked next to the metallic flake fiberglass fishing boat in the back driveway of the people who can write off their pick up trucks as business expenses.
The Polaris Slingshot has always been a loud vehicle. It’s loud to look at, it’s loud to drive, and it’s loud for bystanders to hear. The Slingshot is for the kind of person who thinks a Miata doesn’t go to 11 hard enough.
Anyone who drives an intentionally loud vehicle on public streets is someone who has main character syndrome, is desperate for any kind of attention and doesn’t care if they ruin someone else’s day to get it.
Are this similar to the riders that have to have an even louder stereo to hear it over the loud pipes? Playing NSFW rap music….So much for the peaceful hike in the Smoky Mtns. Amazing how far that and the unmuffled rental SXS’s carry.
Thankfully, the pipes on these things aren’t Harley loud…but the stereo could probably be heard for darn near a country mile at its max volume. It’s interesting that the riders near you play NSFW rap. I’m used to hearing non-stop bro country.
Downtown Chicago and the southwest suburbs definitely lean NSFW rap, in my experience.
That’s pretty much their target demographic, so yeah.
I’d much rather be seen in a Vanderhall – which are far more elegant and dignified.
and FWD.
If I was gonna have a ridiculous 3-wheeler that isn’t a Morgan, I’d be getting a Campagna T-Rex.
I think somewhere there is a law that ‘Dignified’ and ‘Slingshot’ cannot be used in the same article unless ther former us preceeded by ‘Un-‘.
That’s fair! LOL Look, it’s dignified for a Slingshot. 🙂
Ok but still, that’s setting the bar so low it’s a tripping hazard in hell.