There's no gust of illusion; nothing supernatural, unexplained or mysterious. In fact, Puff the Magic Dragon, this past season's SnoWest project sled, didn't resort to any cloud of trickery. It was a straight-forward, what-you-see-is-what-you-got snowmobile that featured great power, superb handling and an incredible ride.
Starting with a pre-production Polaris 700 Dragon and with outstanding support from Gary Neely and his crew at Bucky's Outdoors in Pinedale, WY, we created a reliable snowmobile that never missed a beat during the entire winter.
Project Puff may have started from a humble beginning, being just your basic 140 hp 700cc sled trying to compete in the world of 150-plus horsepower sleds. In fact, going into the season, we fully anticipated punching out the 700cc Polaris Liberty engine to at least an 800. After all, some engine work was certainly expected to make this snowmobile worthy of SnoWest's standard of excellence in project sleds.
But it wasn't needed.
The 700, with just a little added performance boost from Starting Line Products and Boondocker, never lacked for horsepower. With SLP lightweight pipes and a programmable Boondocker Control Box with "happy juice," Puff maintained a solid heartbeat, whether it is twisting through the trees, mashing over moguls or soaring up the slopes.