It's been a long time since we had a 700 Arctic Cat. Three model years,to be exact. A lot has changed in the class since then. Polaris has an extremely potent homemade twin and Ski-Doo took a grinder to its 670 mill. Both sledsare expected to dyno in the lower- to mid- 120 hp range. At the low endof the 700 single pipe class is Yamaha's Vmax 700 SX. That sled's triplecylinder mill has dynoed at 111. That puts Cat's claimed power, 115 factoryponies, in the middle.
As always, we feel it's our sworn duty to find a new motor and put it to the test as soon as it's available in production trim. We have been eagerly awaiting dealer delivery of the ZR 700 for some time. When they hit the street, we were first in line to put it on the bench of truth.
The 700cc Suzuki actually isn't a new motor to snowmobilers. It's been in Cat's lineup before, and we'd venture to guess a fair number of the mare still shredding trails across the snowbelt. The differences between the two generations' drive trains are few, but significant. For starters,the older version incorporated twin pipes. That made the sled heavier, but also gave it more power.
Cat designers make up for the lower hp output on the '99 model by improving tranny efficiency and shaving pounds. The current Arctic roller secondary gobbles up less power than its slider button predecessor.
Another change on the power package is Cat's digital CD ignition. The new setup allows the factory to change the timing at 200 rpm increments.It also incorporates a throttle position sensor.
A pair of 40mm Mikuni TM flat slide carburetors maintains the same size as its round-slided predecessor, but pulls lighter on your thumb.
The '99 ZR package comes in 30 factory pounds lighter than the older sled. Credit that to a single pipe and increased usage of aluminum on the front suspension and chassis.
By Cat's figures, the 1995 ZR 700 power to weight ratio was 4.6 lbs/hp.The '99 machine scales up at 499 factory pounds and we hit 113 hp on ou rdyno test. That figures out to 4.4 pounds per pony, a slightly better figure.
We dug up an old Dynotech report on a '94 ZR 700 to compare with our '99 data. The twin-piped '94 pulled 119.7 horsepower and 78.6 pounds of torque at 8000 rpm. The current, single-piped ZR maxed out at 112.9 hp at 8000, with the peak torque, 74.3 foot-pounds, hitting slightly earlier at7800.
The power band on the '99 ZR is only 300 rpm wide. From 7900 up to 8100,the engine is pulling over 111 ponies. This means that the clutching needs to be close to spot-on for maximum effect.
"We took the stock jetting way down to find the power," noted Dynoman Rich Daly. "We had pretty decent fall air for testing, so this should be very indicative of what the consumers will find on the snow.
"The old ZR was hitting around 120 horsepower when Cat pulled itoff the line. I would imagine with a set of twin pipes and possibly someporting, this sled might get back up around there."
When the Cat faithful take delivery of their '99 ZR 700s, our guess is that it won't be long before the aftermarket has hop-ups available, sincethe major engine components remain nearly the same as the old 700 Suzukitwin.
Daly noted that break-in will be a major part of this particular motor's performance. "We pulled our test runs the same way we have done all the other sleds- right out of the box," he said. "But as we were testing some new pipe designs, we took another baseline of the stock sled and found another horsepower after it was broken in."
Thanks to D&D Powersports for providing our test sled. 1999 ZR 700
Air Density: 101.7
Fuel: 94 Octane Pump Gas
| RPM | CBT | CBHP | BSFC | FUEL | H2O |
| 6500 | 62.1 | 77.1 | .740 | 57.8 | 89.0 |
| 6600 | 63.3 | 79.6 | .718 | 58.0 | 89.5 |
| 6700 | 65.1 | 83.1 | .692 | 58.3 | 89.5 |
| 6800 | 67.7 | 87.7 | .664 | 59.0 | 90.0 |
| 6900 | 70.6 | 92.7 | .643 | 60.5 | 89.5 |
| 7000 | 72.2 | 96.2 | .623 | 60.9 | 90.0 |
| 7100 | 72.8 | 98.5 | .645 | 64.5 | 89.5 |
| 7200 | 73.2 | 100.4 | .668 | 68.1 | 90.0 |
| 7300 | 73.1 | 101.6 | .636 | 65.5 | 90.5 |
| 7400 | 72.9 | 102.8 | .632 | 65.9 | 90.5 |
| 7500 | 72.7 | 103.7 | .630 | 66.4 | 90.0 |
| 7600 | 72.9 | 105.5 | .630 | 67.5 | 90.0 |
| 7700 | 73.3 | 107.5 | .634 | 69.2 | 91.0 |
| 7800 | 74.3 | 110.3 | .618 | 69.2 | 91.0 |
| 7900 | 74.0 | 111.4 | .610 | 69.3 | 91.0 |
| 8000 | 74.1 | 112.9 | .609 | 69.8 | 91.5 |
| 8100 | 72.8 | 112.3 | .607 | 69.2 | 91.5 |
| 8200 | 70.3 | 109.8 | .611 | 68.1 | 91.5 |
| 8300 | 66.9 | 105.8 | .627 | 67.3 | 91.5 |
| 8400 | 60.2 | 96.3 | .680 | 66.5 | 91.5 |
RPM: Engine crankshaft speed.
CBT: Corrected Brake Torque.
CBHP: Corrected Brake Horsepower.
BSFC: Brake Specific Fuel Consumption.
FUEL: Actual fuel flow pounds per hour.
H2O: Water temperature in degrees F.