L-to-R: Aaron Scheele, Mike Fanum & Jim Dimmerman.
Last month I went for a nice ride with Tom Rowland, Aaron Scheele and Mike Fanum.
We trailered some sleds up to Silver Bay, Minn., and rode to Finland and Isabella on the CJ/North Shore trail.
The loop was about 120 miles. I rode a 2015 Arctic Cat XF 6000 Sno Pro.
The ride for me was significant enough to compel me to write about it. The inspiration for my comments is the new 6000 C-TEC2 engine.
I have been anxious to drive one since the release of this new mill at Hay Days. There I talked at great length with my friends – Arctic Cat engineers Donn Eide and Greg Spalding, as well as their colleague Andy Olson – about this huge endeavor in designing it. So many clever details went into the package. But as they say “the proof is in the puddin’.”
Well, I was totally impressed on my ride.
The engine starts and runs smoothly. Engine sound is minimal, with quiet intake & exhaust notes. Clutch and throttle calibration are also very smooth.
But what really impressed me is something that it didn’t do: SMOKE!
I really didn’t notice this until we stopped to have a burger in the Trestle Inn. I was taking off my snowsuit and realized that I did NOT have that all-too-familiar smell of burnt 2-cycle oil permeated in my clothes.
I went to the table where the rest of the suits were and… nothing. No smell at all.
I thought about the days in snowmobiling’s past when a quart of oil mixed with 5 gallons of fuel was the norm
Now, on the new 6000, there’s no blue smoke!
Just in case you’re wondering, I’m NOT some kind of tree-hugger. I like the smell of two-stroke as much as anybody. I just want to give credit where credit is due. This is an impressive package…
I think the Arctic Cat Engine group did a fine job on the new 600 C-TEC2.
Now, if I could just convince them to build a 3-cylinder Dual-Stage Injection engine and put it in a chassis that’s about 5 inches lower with a…
There I go dreaming again.
-Jim