Kermit the frog sled.

 

shes a beaut. and pretty different for back then.admittidly kinda played out by 04 and 05 but that original all green really showed up on the snow

 

First gen ZRs, cornered like on rails! This one is "slightly" modified ;-)

 

I bought one of those new in nov 1993...I drag raced it and did some speedruns with it...Actually got it running extremely good in 1320' speedruns...I got the sled to within 1.5 mph of the NSSR record speed for 700 stock class back then...Same sled won the 1994 World Series on Ice in 700 stock...Driven by a woman named Katie ?...I think she weighed maybe 100#...She had a full BLACK MAGIC sponsorship back then...I remember talking Tim Berg into letting me have the same clutching setup she had that year so I could run it during the 1995 season...Matter of fact I still have the secondary helix he sent me with NO numbers on it...

 

Earlier 90's zrt's performed better also. Seemed cat messed with the air box robbing hp. It helped big time on those later sleds by gutting the air box.

 

they excelled on smooth STRAIGHT trails. Period!

got to try a 98 Mach1 and a 96 670 F-chassis - they were both very reluctant to changing directions, lol! The CK3 not nearly as bad as the F

 

ck3 wasn't bad for what it was and when it came out. my s chassis 440 didnt ride much better if at all.

one thing the ck3 mach zs /mach 1s/formula 3s did well was look fast sitting still.

dont care what anyone says, those were mean looking sleds. arguably the best looking doos ever imo.

F chassis, eh , not so much. only beauty contest that dont place last is if its only competitions the formula plus chassis, whatever that was called.looked like a big dildo.lol.

back in those days, i think the indys had the best looks by far(1990ISH)

my bros old indy 650 black and decked out in red looked sick for a 91'.much better then my vmax did of the same era. the doos never started having lookers till the 95 s chassis sleds and later ck3s. cats never really looked that great till about 95 also with the zrt and zr's

the 98 ' all green zrs looked wicked.

 

That will be a sight considering you're talking about a 100% increase in power!

 

If everything else is right, a 100% increase in hp is at a boost level of twice atmospheric pressure with a turbo. Thus, 15 psi boost would almost do it. DTR measured a 2000 XCR 800 at 325hp at 16 psi I believe. A 1000 T-Cat was 350 hp. A 165 hp 850 Indy should do it also.

 

My 2000 XCR is expected to deliver around 350 hp on race fuel. Once my 4 year warranty is up on my 2019 850 Indy, I plan to turbo it as well. It will probably also produce 350 + hp on race fuel. I predict that these two sleds will be some of the most influential sleds of the future.

 

Hey Phil did you ever hang with Midwest Dyno out of Crest Hill, Illinois? They used to build all kinds of cool sleds back in the day. They claim to have had one of the first 1050cc cat triples made from two wildcat 700 engines. They had a turbo VMAX 4 and a turbo VMAX 600. They also helped my dad dial in his Indy 500 on N20.

 

Both the 975 and 1050 Cat triples they tested were ours built by John Noard in Mn...between 1989 -1995...Both turbo yammies were owned and built by G. Santry...GNS Performance...I remember being there testing with my buddy and his Poo 650 Pro stocker. It was a FUEL ONLY test session. We went there with 4 differant fuel brands/octanes to run thru the motor to see what it liked the best...We found 2.9 hp additional in the motor that day...That was an expensive 3 hp...lol

 

From Google:
Under ideal conditions most police radars are accurate to about ±1 mph. Microwave moving mode radar also measures patrol vehicle speed to an accuracy of about ±1 mph. Moving mode target vehicle accuracy is ±2 mph. Some microwave and laser radars specify accuracy based on a percentage of vehicle speed.

Police Radar Operational Problems

Dense traffic problems, acceleration limits, start up time, strong signals, scanning error, panning error and multi path can introduce speed errors.

copradar.com

If speed is changing quickly, radar is useless.
When we tested the world's first turbocharged 92 Vmax4 I built on our local lake, our snowmobile club used a Stalker Radar Gun to measure top speed in 1/4 mile. I had the fastest measured speed up to that point with my turboed 91 Polaris 650 at 106 mph. The VM4 reached 105 at the 1/8 mile mark then ran out of fuel pump capacity and slowed down. They stated that the Radar speed was jumping by 20 mph increments till then. LOL!

 

From Google:
Under ideal conditions most police radars are accurate to about ±1 mph. Microwave moving mode radar also measures patrol vehicle speed to an accuracy of about ±1 mph. Moving mode target vehicle accuracy is ±2 mph. Some microwave and laser radars specify accuracy based on a percentage of vehicle speed.

Police Radar Operational Problems

Dense traffic problems, acceleration limits, start up time, strong signals, scanning error, panning error and multi path can introduce speed errors.

copradar.com

If speed is changing quickly, radar is useless.
When we tested the world's first turbocharged 92 Vmax4 I built on our local lake, our snowmobile club used a Stalker Radar Gun to measure top speed in 1/4 mile. I had the fastest measured speed up to that point with my turboed 91 Polaris 650 at 106 mph. The VM4 reached 105 at the 1/8 mile mark then ran out of fuel pump capacity and slowed down. They stated that the Radar speed was jumping by 20 mph increments till then. LOL!

I can tell you its very important to be in the direct line when measuring a vehicles speed with a radar gun. Off to one side too much will skew your reading.

 

Im going with some different sleds for different reasons of influence.
#1 obviously we'd have no sleds without the first mass produced sled, so the early Bombardiers get that nod
#2 I believe it was Cat that introduced the slide rail suspension, definitely a game changer
#3 Chapparel was the first with a trailing arm IFS , Cat had it in 78 or 79 on the Trail Cat, Polaris made it famous
#4 Elan/Bravo as lightweight go anywhere sleds
#5 Phazer/ Ext as lightweight more comfortable sleds with different steering/headlight
#6 Indy XCR as a racer wannabe
#7 Alpine as twin track work sled
#8 Raider/manta as twin track trail sled
#9 Elite as the most unique
#10 The Rev as probably the biggest game changer in snowmobile history beside the snowmobile itself.
Granted all these may not be influential as far as being copied by other manufacturers, but I looked at it from as standpoint of being different.

 

1980 Jag 3000. Between this and my 1979 Enticer 300, I was hooked. Started riding at 7 years old and have ALWAYS had at least one sled since!

This sled was influential in that it helped introduce A LOT of people into the sport...

 

also mean as shit awesome sleds 03 xcr'. 01 srx and i think this is the 96' zrt.

 

and these look good enough to eat.that 01 mach z in yellow gets alot of hate.i think its the sickest one imo.99' hogue is sweet too.


say what ya want, nobody looks at these and thinks 'that must be for hauling wood ' lol

 

I could remember racing a load of the purple ski-doo's...6 and 700's. Not very many that were stock were fast.

 

Seemed all those ski doo triples of that era were made to ride table top groomed wide trails at high speeds, but boy did they suck on moguled up tight trails.

 

they excelled on smooth STRAIGHT trails. Period!

 

One snowmobile that was very influentical in scandinavia was the Lynx GLS3300R, first apperance in snocross in 1984 and was sold to consumers in 1985. The Lynxes dominated the snocross tracks, they could be jumped higher and longer than the other sleds without breaking. These machines lay the ground for the Lynx success on the snocross scene in scandinavia!
Rotax 503 engine with twin carbs and twin pipes. 330cm track (app. 130 inches). Then there were other engines used also, Totaltek 747 that was developed from the Rotax 670.

But for modern machines it was the ReV that completly changed how we sit on a snowmobile, all other brands had to follow this trend. But they were not first... My Terhi 10 had the same forward seating position, it even had kneepads. But it was definatly not a racemachine!

 

I submit the '90 EXT Special (first sled with factory Fox gas shocks)

 

Except Fox shocks were absolute garbage back then...

 

also like to throw in the formula 3 600 and zrt 600. the triple triple 600s were everywhere here back in the day and both sounded and looked terrific.

and the early zr 440's were one of the ones that we drooled over as kids too.

 

F3 had a better engine but the chassis on the ZRT was light years ahead and more than made up for the engine's shortcomings (I had an 96 F3, handled like a lumber wagon)

 

Has anyone mentioned the '93 Thundercat in that awesome "salmon" color?

 

Do you know why it was that color? Because it dominated!

 

I always thought the XC 500 around the turn on the century was under rated. Seemed to be an excellent all around sled. When we would show up at radar runs with a stock 440 (87-88 mph) there was always a polaris that beat us in the 500 class.

 

Cat ZR500 and F5s were giant-killers too

 

Arctic Cat Kitty Cat and any of the 120 kids sized snowmobiles.

The 120’s bringing more value today than some of the same year full sized sleds

 

PRS chassis:

F2000 chassis

 

I had a 87' Formula Plus. It was a tank you didn't take in deep snow. I put quite a few fun miles on that sled but did put two tracks on it. The SD tracks were junk and the 2nd one was a Kimpex Aggressor track .75 lugs! It still got stuck but not as much with that track. I once rode it in 3' snowfall here. It was everything it had to make one pass out in that deep snow and to get back to the road that was plowed. I was full throttle the whole time. Never did that again as if it got stuck It was a tank to dig out!

 

1999 Mach Z Killer looks and muscle to back it up. That chassis still shows to this day.

 

Except the CK3 ("competition killer") chassis never lived up to its promise and was eaten alive by the Yamaha and Cat chassis' of the day

 

1993 ZR. Enough said!

 

1980 TXL Indy 340
Yamaha Enticer 250
1989 Indy 500
1997 Yamaha 700SX
1997 Polaris 700XC
2003 Ski-Doo Rev
2015 Polaris Axys Rush 800HO

I added the 250 Enticer after seeing the post below. I have one, still runs great. Fun kid sled.

 

I was talking to a guy over the weekend about how I got into snowmobiling and how it became almost an obsession at certain points in my life. My first year riding was 1992. I distinctly remember the fall Race & Rally magazine with V-Max 4 on the cover. Four sleds came out that year that branded me for life. Two of them I think were industry influencers and changed the sport in the XCR and the Vmax. The other two were just a huge influence on me. Below is my list of influential sleds that got me hooked. I'm curious what others consider influential either to the sport or to them personally. Maybe they got you hooked on snowmobiling or they were always a dream sled, etc. No wrong answers here, that's for sure.

1992 XCR440 – Was the first readily available to the consumer full blown race sled that was debuted at a key time. Heavy emphasis was being placed on winning cross country races the XCR swept the top 10 spots in the I-500. This sled started the suspension craze and led to the ZR 440 and the race was on. Pun intended.

1992 Vmax4 – The whole triple triple craze was actually started with a 4 cylinder. In 1993 the other three OEM’s had hastily prepared triple triples with varying degrees of success. However this sled lit the fire and again, the race was on. Literally… I saw Bender race it in Antigo and it was the most beautiful thing I ever heard.

1992 EXT Special 580 – The flames on the hood had me from hello. Still just a gorgeous sled in my mind.

1992 Indy 500 SP – The “fuelie” was much the same. Bright pink graphics on the blacker than black hood and it just looked like the pinnacle of what a sled should look like, especially with a low tinted windshield.

Polaris sold a triple long before the 4 cylinder V-Max, The 1979 Centurion.

 

A number of years ago this guy showed up on vintage day with this air cooled triple. He swept the drags that day. That sled was a runner!

Maybe one of the Polaris guys can tell what year the sled is.