Introduced for the 1997 season was the Rotax 494 engine. Rotax builds racing and industrial engines for a wide variety of applications, including aircraft, motorcycles, go-karts, snowmobiles and watercraft, The Rotax 494 engine is a 499cc rotary-valve engine. Like the AMW, the Rotax utilizes a 2 into 1 "Y" exhaust manifold and a single tuned expansion chamber exhaust. The Rotax engine utilizes the same 38 mm Mikuni VM carburetors as the Kawasaki. The Rotax engine has become, by far, the most popular engine in F500 road racing. The Rotax 494 went out of production for Ski-Doo following the 2000 model year. Ski-Doo/Rotax ended support for it shortly thereafter. Some parts however, are still available through dealers and online outlets.
