Last Friday I joined two friends in a day of work, er, adventure to see a vintage 1970 Arctic Cat Panther being sold by some scammer on craigslist.
In addition to the vintage sled scam, we were also celebrating the 40th birthday of the ringleader, Kale Wainer. In the midst of the spiraling mid-life crisis that occurs with this milestone and that could have seen Kale buying a new Harley, new Mustang, new boat or new wardrobe, he opted for the more sensible solution: a new vintage sled.
I piled into the Frontier (short guy gets the back seat) with Kale and Pat Bourgeois (right, editor of OSM magazine and press-release-writer-magnificent) as we headed north out of the Twin Cities towards Alexandria, Minn., where Kale had arranged with the craigslist scammer, er, wheeler-dealer, to see the 1970 Panther.
I’m not sure if it was a blessing or an omen that, 20 minutes into the drive, the sky started dumping snow?!?
The cruel irony of snow in mid-April (after the wimpiest winter in recent memory) brought laughter and excitement to the three amigos. Springtime snows are Mother Nature’s way joking on winter lovers.
This particular snow was no joke to the guy towing this skid loader. In a 30-mile stretch of freeway, we saw no less than eight vehicles that suffered from “holy-crapeth!” spin outs.
Kale responded by standing on the gas to get out of the snow zone as quickly as he could.
When we arrived at the seller’s house near Alexandria, he launched his sales pitch with, “Have I got a deal for YOU,” while pointing at an old Polaris Indy. He followed up that line with, “What’s it gonna take to get you into this Yamaha SS 440, or a rare Polaris twin-pipe TX?”
Having been soaked with sales-spooge just two minutes into the meeting, we MIGHT have walked away in frustration. But the problem was that the seller was Jeff Oberg, who just so happened to be a friend of ours. In addition to hocking all kinds of vintage snowmobile stuff to unsuspecting buyers, Oberg is a part-time rider/writer for Snow Goer magazine, as well as a good guy.
I wasn’t interested in the old Polaris stuff, but this cool old Arctic Cat sign grabbed my attention. Unfortunately, it wasn’t for sale, even though Oberg did say, “Everything is for sale.”
Of course, he broke out into a maniacal laugh after he muttered that well-worn cliche.
After spraying ourselves clean of the used car sales pitches with a can of carb cleaner, we moseyed to another of Oberg’s garages containing the stash of options that were the object of Kale’s desire: old 1970 Arctic Cat Panthers.
Pat (left) and Kale checked out the two options. I’ll refer to the one on the left as Hoover, because it sucked in Kale with a cleaning force that I’ve never seen before. He was practically powerless to its gravity.
Sensing Kale’s complete lack of restraint, Oberg moved in with some craigslist classics, beginning with, “It runs on spray” and followed by “I just needs a carb cleaning.”
Pat desperately tried to throw bucket of reality on Kale’s burning desire, pointing out various problems with the Panther, but I’m not sure Kale heard anything other than siren of a Panther humming along a trail, whisking him along in harmonious bliss.
Even though no deal had yet been agreed to, Oberg was clearly in the driver’s seat of this situation, and suggested that we load the sled into Kale’s truck “just to see if it fits.”
It wasn’t until the sled was loaded that Kale noticed what 45 years of rust does to a skidframe.
But Oberg quickly shifted his attention by proclaiming that a full-cleated track is great for fast cornering on icy trails and accelerating on glare ice.
So smitten by the old Cat, Kale actually believed him.
And when Kale saw the “Arctic Cat” branded tail light lens, he relinquished any remaining doubts about buying the sled.
Aware that Kale was a lost cause, Pat tested out the Panther’s cornering prowess and proclaimed, “It’s not just good…it’s good enough!”
Kale: “What do you want for it.”
Oberg: “How much you got?”
Kale: “This is everything in my wallet.”
Oberg: “This is a good start, and I know where there’s a cash machine.”
Done-deal!
And as Kale drove away, Oberg’s maniacal laugh echoed throughout Alexandria.
While this might be the last time Oberg* saw the sled, if all things go according to plan it won’t be the last time you see it. Kale has some great ideas for it that I’ll highlight here in the coming months.
Stay tuned.
And thanks for reading!
*Despite my gentle, ever-so-slight teasing in this story, Jeff Oberg is actually not a scammer, but someone I would gladly buy vintage stuff from now and in the future. Truth!
Thank you Jeff for the Panther and you three for the fun day! I believe I got the last laugh as noted by my gesture out the window in the last photo. Little did Jeff know, the Panthers glovebox was loaded with $100 bills! Sucker.
Kale…I have a clean gas tank and nice straight front bumper for that Panther. Call me.
Pluedy – The gas tank is clean…Jeff was nice enough to fill it up for me with 45yr old gas siphoned from the tanks of his other barn finds. 🙂
Let me know if you want a bumper. Or maybe that fence-post bend in the original is part of the sled’s history you’ll want to preserve.
A full tank of gas should last three seasons in that Panther…
I can see why Kale was drawn to the old Panther…It looks like it ran good when parked, might have been a wife’s sled, has only been ridden in the U.P., was only being sold because Oberg is getting a new one in the fall, is a lightweight 2 stroke, and the steel traction devices are grandfathered in so it can still be ridden on the paved Paul Bunyan trail. And, finally…it is getting more difficult to find anything whatsoever that is older than Kale, having the Panther will make him feel young.
You guy’s crack me up….still wiping the tears from laughing and the 1 finger solute is the best. Reminds me of a little prank I pulled on my buddy who owns an exhaust shop in the cities, had new mufflers put on my 48 Ford F1 streetrod and when it was done I told my buddy I was going to take it around the block to see how it sounded….15 minutes later he called to see if I was having trouble and I said nope no trouble at all and almost home, I guess he was waiting to be paid hahaha. I have set up enough of his new machines and have not charged him a nickel.
Kale, I have a dash for that if you need one.
John, are going to be up to the factory at all next week, going up to pick up some new iron later in the week ??
I have to ask… Where are those guys getting those Arctic Cat hats from that Kale is wearing??
Looks like a good way to celebrate 40 years to me! I’m a little surprised you opted for the sled without the extra hood scoop mounted above the headlight… that thing probably had an extra large mod motor in it that wouldn’t fit under the stock hood!.. but then, I suppose you just wanted to give the competition a chance to keep up to you on the straight-aways, only to break their hearts again with your superior cornering skills in the woods… you old sandbagger! Happy belated birthday Kale!
Eric – Those were some one-off hats that marketing made for David McClure and Rob Kincaid to give-away at the Western Shows this past year.
Scott Watters – Thank you for the offer on the dash. I appreciate it. I picked up one from Tom at Thomas Sno Sports.
Bergstrom – Im shocked, but not surprised you picked out the custom hood scoop on the other Panther. When seeing “mods” like that air scoop, Ive always wanted to be able to go back to the original owner and ask why they did what they did…I think youd get some interesting and varied answers.
Did he at least throw in a can of compression?
Thanks for the reply Kale. Wish they would sell them! I know I would at least but one.
Fun story. Ive met Kale a couple times at vintage shows. Hes def passionate about old stuff, and has a couple really cool vintage mod sleds.
Pinky’s Celebrity Club is a very easy-to-use and powerful desktop software that will allow you to gain Instagram post likes, followers and comments completely organically! The way it works is you login via your Instagram account, set hashtags and enter your comments. The software will then search for all posts that have your hashtags and then like them, comment on them and follow the users (you can tell what the software should do: follow, comment or/and like posts). This is a great way to organically grow your Instagram followers. The software simply does what you would otherwise do manually, but on a complete autopilot (24/7). The software also has some delay settings to make sure that all of your activity looks natural.
Try PINKY’S CELEBRITY CLUB INSTAGRAM BOT FOR REAL FOLLOWERS AND LIKES for free and see for yourself just how powerful and easy to use the Instagram software is!
To learn more head to https://wowitloveithaveit.com/products/pinkys-celebrity-club-instagram-management-software