Hopefully this doesn't belong in the lounge.... AND sorry about the ensuing novel... if you're one that doesn't like to read, I did include colourful pictures for you! lmao.

Since it seems I'm one of the few snowmobilers on the forum, because Curtis isn't fully trail worthy yet lol, I thought I'd post up some pictures from a little shoot my dad and I did in the front lawn... still not enough snow to go riding yet but we got the itch!

My 03 Arctic Cat Firecat F5. "F5" was the designation for 500CC 2 stroke liquid cooled twin with ~100hp, one of the only stock 500's built to be able to break the 100mph mark, I can beat some 600's in fact.
Rumour has it only 9 of the red Canadian Edition 500's were built during the limited time ordering period (It is a limited edition, that was special order, aka "Spring Choice" because ordering was done in April 2002). I've owned her since new and my add ons are all cosmetic, like a custom cut windshield (by me) and some Acerbis handguards, along with a matching red handlebar pad and snowflap.




My dad's brand spanking new 2010 Crossfire R 800H.O. with ~160 hp from a liquid cooled 2 stroke twin. Both sled weigh below the 500lbs mark, so you can imagine how 160hp in that light of a thing will go. It should be good for between 116mph-120mph... with some work it could probably pull more, but since it'll be a trail ride queen things will probably stay stock lol.



And the 2 together: It's funny, because the platform of my sled was the "lead-in" for the Crossfires... Sort of like the 1st Gen S-series was the lead in to the 2nd-gen.




That sort of "bridge" on the hood of my sled is actually the air intake... The firecats came up with a revolutionary design... in order to lower the centre of gravity, the mounted the engine closer to the centre of the sled. What they also did was come up with a "Laydown" engine design, where the cylinders were angled back, the intake and exhaust are also on the same side of the engine, allowing the engine to sit where a traditional airbox would be. This was an industry first and was later copied by *cough*Polaris*cough*. The Crossfire and all of Cat's sleds have retained this engine design, and the Crossfire's air intake (because it was originally designed as a "crossover" meaning trail and powder riding) moved up just behind the headlights... Arctic Cat stopped building Firecats in 2006, and after that really didn't have sleds that were as fast... the new "F-series" (Which I nicknamed my father's "Pig" because of how heavy it is) was a great TRAIL sled, you'd get back home after riding 200miles and you'd be good to keep going. So with the consumer market bickering "We want our firecats and speed back" They took the Crossfire Crossover, (Which remember, shares a similar platform with the firecat) and slapped a shorter and narrower track on it. The Firecat ran with a 13.5" wide track, the crossfire crossover version had a 15" to be better in snow, as well as a longer track... more surface area= more flotation in powder snow. They went to a 128" x 14" wide track, similar to the 128"x13.5" track of the firecats and designated it the Crossfire R... sure enough, only available with the new 800 and 1000CC, Cat had a new force to be reckoned with on the lake. The 800CC had 140-148hp, while the 1000 had ~160hp... the new 800HO has 160hp as well, catch is, you have to run high OKTAIN fuel. (lol, sorry I had to, 91 octane minimum)

Arctic Cat was also the first to perfect the "wishbone" style suspension, actually based off of F1 cars. The release of the first sled with A arms in 1994 (known as the ZR) dominated the competition in oval, sno-cross, and long distance cross county racing.

Cat also was the first to perfect the Batteryless EFI system... the original system used a battery, if that puppy died you were SOL. There's so much more that's improved with the EFI system but I could go on for a while lol... the adjustment points have gone from every 500 RPM to every 0.something of an RPM in today's systems... they run much cleaner and much more efficient.

Cat laydown engine: Note the cables gunning up into those "cones" those are the exhaust valves, they vary the size of the exhaust port during different RPM bands... improves power delivery
Note the "weird looking carburetors", I'm sure a few of you will notice the EFI style fuel injectors... this is a shot of the 700CC laydown, an engine which put out 140ish hp which was just as much as some 800s from the time... translates to 1 FAST lake rocket lol. My 2nd cousin had an F7 running 127mph in a little over 660ft.

 

Very nice sleds. I love the firecats. I used to have the fastest 500. A 95 Formula 500. It beat some 600s as well. But my dad sold it and now hes got an 04 RX-1, 998cc 4 stroke liquid cooled. 145+ horsies. Its quick. He is also one out of his friends that still ride, which may itself pursued him to buy me one so we can go together lol.

 

Cool, yeah I was never really a fan of the RX-1's, I found them a little heavy, fit and finish is unmatched IMO though and they are nice... Yammi's having some handling issues too, guys are putting BRP pilot skis on them so they turn lol.

Those new Apex's have long legs on the lake though.

Funny story: Some tool was wanting me to race him on his ~95 Formula III, 600 triple, well needless to say I schooled him and the next day on the same lake, I found what looked to be a burnt Formula III lol. Even he said "****! That's fast!"

 

Haha, yea the RX-1 are heavy but they do have a lot of power. And yes, thats the one upgrade my dad has made, the BRP skis. They also hate warm weather. But all-in-all nicely put together.

IMO Firecats are way nicer tho. always loved how aggressive they look and that air intake is just gnarly lookin! I've see a few Black Canadian ones down this way but red is hard to find.

 

Trail worthy? Nay sir. Trail ready? Ish at best....
Both of them are up and running. We will be pulling apart the suspension and inspecting the bearings hopefully this weekend. Was looking at the '89 an its a 2 shock suspension... omg not only is it a dinosaur, and not only is it 7.4 zillion pounds, it's gonna have a rougher ride than most pissed off horses! I CANT WAIT FOR

 

lol, yeah, if you go riding with guys on newer sleds, I'd advise slowing down for the big bumps lol. If not, about 40 years from now you'll be doing the "when I was your age, I had a backbone!"

 

Damn those are some sweet rides!!

 

Thanks! Hopefully I can get some decent digital shots of our oldies lol... 1972 Puma 340 and a 1978 Snowbug (Built in Sudbury!)

I'm curious if anyone actually took the time to read my history lesson lol.

 

fear not! the reason i olnly commented on the text and have not drolled over the sleds is due to my work picture filters. I did, in fact, read through. My favorite part was when Polaris stole Arctic Cat's new design leading to the only 2 Arctic Cat shops near my home town going out of business! Thanks Polaris!!1

 

It's okay, Polaris' new sled don't go very far without catching fire! They're called Dragons, because they're always getting dragged back home.