On any winter weekend in Lake Country, there will be a showdown to see who's the fastest. You call out your neighbor to have at it. You line up. You look across at each other. You nod. And hit the throttle. All at once.
Every showdown is different. And every showdown is the same. We had ours on Long Lake, just west of St. Paul, Minnesota, on a lake surface that was wet and slushy with melting snow. The temperature was hitting 44 degrees Fahrenheit by the time the battle was over.
And it had been a battle. Just like the ones many of you TRACKS readers have been having all winter long. But we did ours a little differently than most. We kept score. We used a handheld stop watch and a radar gun. We found four "I swear it's stock" top of the line models and faced them off. The results you'll see are the best of the timed and radar readings. We sent each sled through the course at least two times. Each sled was timed the same way and ran the same course within minutes of each other.
Ours was a battle just like yours. And just like you we'd been very curious about who was fast, who was blowing smoke and who wasn't.
If you're looking to buy a sled based on this battle at Long Lake, our advice is don't. We stand by the results- because this is what happened on Long Lake. But, as you'll see, the results of this battle were close enough for us to call it a draw. Yes, one sled was faster than another. There was a surprise or two. But, no, the differences- except in one case- were not major and can be easily explained away by a lack of tuning or a knowledge of tuning. None of the sleds except one, got blown away.
When we, with the ardent help of Dale Pfeilsticker and his staff at Dale's Performance, searched for a few examples of the hottest of the hot sleds, we discovered two things.
One, on a Friday at the end of the season, it's nearly impossible to find snowmobilers who are planning to be home. Just about everyone who was
contacted was planning to head north where there was more snow and better
riding. We understand.
Two of the sleds on loan for our shoot-out were anxiously watched over by owners who wanted us to hurry up with our darn foolishness because they
were heading north to snowmobile, too.
The second thing we discovered is something that the performance aftermarket
people have known all along. There's probably no such thing as a truly stock
high performance sled.
When we asked Kent Anderson at Tri-K Sports in Long Lake to help us locate
a stock Indy 650, well, he was able to find us a bunch of Indy 650s. Some had pipes, performance kits, overbores, etc. The Polaris is probably the single most popular sled to modify that we have run across in recent years. No matter how big Polaris makes 'em, you big-bore Indy 600 and 650 owners demand more. But, we did come up with one stocker. We also found that the Wildcat has gotten popular for modifying, too. But, we did find one of them, too. Of course, with the sled engine being totally new, parts for a Wildcat 650 are a little harder to come by. This year.
Ski-Doo's competition red Formula Plus has a real low profile around Long Lake. Based on the results of the battle of Long Lake, you might expect better word to get around these Bombers.
That leaves us with Yammie's Exciter. This was an easy sled to track down. We had one in our back yard. And we know it was stock. It was also outclassed. Our Deluxe version had the disadvantage of extra weight from the starter motor and battery and probably a certain amount of non-essential drag. But, this was what we wanted. We wanted four samples of today's top of the line sleds to face-off in a no-holds barred end of the season battle royal.
We wanted to know if all the hedging we've heard all season long about no sled being significantly faster than the others was true or just so much drivel.
On Friday, February 26, 1988, we found out. It was real close. Give or take an hour of demon tweaking with clutches and carbs the results could have been reversed. It was that close.
The Wildcat was fastest on the sloppy track. But the Plus and Indy 650 were in the ball park, too.
The Exciter Deluxe, giving away displacement and power, was expectedly off the pace in a class by itself. One which will be inhabited by at least two new entries next season.
We've seen a new Indy 500. In fact we had the liquid-cooled 488cc twin on the Long Lake radar and it ran stronger than the Exciter Deluxe in the short run and about the same in the long run. This was a pre-production prototype being used for field testing, so you can fully expect that this new Polaris will be quicker and faster come next season. That's usually the way the boys in Roseau work.
The boys in Thief River Falls have already announced a new El Tigre EXT which combines the best features of the El Tigre 6000. Both of the new Indy
6000 and EXT are designed to compete with the Exciter. Cross country events
like the Jeep 500 may be the face-off for these trail-quick big bore specials.
Of all the surprises in the past two seasons, the biggest has come from Bombardier. You expect Polaris to be in the hunt with power and handling.
The Indy 650 is. You also expect Arctco to push the outer limits of performance,
too. The Cat always has. But, in recent years, the folks from Valcourt have left a lot to be desired. The old Blizzard 9500s and 9700s were powerful enough, but, good gawd, were they ever a handful to ride fast. Friends, that has changed. These Formula Ski-Doos are exceptional sleds. They go fast. They steer well. They ride well. And the advent of the TRAC clutch, which we think is an exceptional clutch, makes darn certain that most of that rotary-valved power gets right to the track. We got quite a bit of ride time in on Formula MXs and Pluses this year and we've come away impressed.
The Plus that showed up at the Battle of Long Lake was well-tuned and well-maintained by its owner, Herb Powers of Anoka, Minnesota.
Herb has been riding sleds since 1967 or thereabouts and is one of an old-fashioned breed- a loyal, died-in-the-wool Ski-Doo addict. He's proud of his Plus, but even more proud of an MX with Plus power. So, if you ride with Herb and get blown away by his MX, peek under the hood. It might be Plus-powered.
The Wildcat that Jerry Heines of Montrose, Minnesota, brought to Long Lake ran strong all day. It's hard to imagine this 60-plus year old snowmobiler holding the hammer down on his Wildcat, but he must. It had the fastest speed on the sloppy track and looked as though its overdrive clutching was opening up at the half mile.
At the eighth mile mark, you could put a blanket over the Cat, Plus and Indy. The Plus and Indy were virtually tied for elapsed times at the 660 foot mark and were tied in top speed. The Cat seemed a little slower out of the hole but had a best top end of 74 miles per hour.
In its two runs, the Plus ran a low of 70 and a high of 73. The Indy and Cat were the most consistent. The Indy had a run of 72 and another at 73, while the Cat hit 73 and 74 respectively.
At the eighth mile mark, the Cat was the leader if you went with speed. The Plus and Indy were virtually tied for first if you went for ETs. In many local and regionally sanctioned speed runs, a distance of 700 feet or so is the length of the official run. You tell us which sled is fastest or quickest! Tuning makes a world of difference when sleds are this closely competitive.
At the quarter the Wildcat was fastest again. From there on the Cat went on to edge out the others for fastest at the half mile, but the Polaris pulled close at 85, gaining up to five miles per hour as did the Plus in the final quarter.
Just as any snowmobiler, we will make excuses. First, the Plus and Wildcat seemed to be at the top of their game. The Exciter and Indy 650 seemed to
be off a bit. In the case of the Exciter, the margins for improvement were too great to make any difference. In the case of the Indy 650, a little tweaking of the clutching and carbs would make an immediate difference.
But, as we stated before, it's hard to find a stocker at the end of the season. And nearly impossible to find a stock Indy 650. Consider the following. Of all the sleds on the lake that day- whether participating or being used as couches by spectators, the vast majority were Polaris. And, except for ours, none were strictly stock. Even the other Wildcat that was on hand wasn't truly stock.
Now consider the difference that tuners and some basic modifications make on an Indy 650 and Indy 400 and you'll understand why the average guy who drops five grand on his sled is willing to drop another grand or so to make it go faster.
We clocked an Indy 650 with pipes at Long Lake. At the eighth it hit 78 miles per hour. It was going 91 at the quarter and topped out at 92 at the half. An Indy 400 with a 440 kit registered 69 at the eighth, 78 at the quarter and 81 at the half. Now do you understand why the aftermarket business is so strong? Why have a stocker like everyone else when, for a few dollars more, you can have a lake racer that beats all comers?
The Battle of Long Lake ended late in the afternoon. The temperature sign at the bank read "44F." We had our results. And were almost as confused as before.
At Eagle River's World Championships we watched as Pluses won in stock classes. On the National Snowmobile Speed Run circuit we know that Polaris
owns more world record speed titles than all the other manufacturers combined.
In sno-cross racing the Wildcat in the hands of Brian Sturgeon has been
tough to beat.
So, who is fastest?
Now we know that the hedging has been justified. The top line muscle sleds are close in performance. There isn't a clear cut victor this year. And there may not be one in '89 either. The Indy 650 and Wildcat will just get better with another year of development. There is rumored to be a new Plus- could it be called the Mach One? - with RAVE engine technology, a new suspension and some drive train tricks. And will Yammie totally sit out the muscle sled wars again next year? But, that's next year.
For this year we have some answers, but nothing conclusive. Because on another day the results could easily be different. But on February 26, 1988,
this is what we saw.
There were no real big winners at the Battle of Long Lake. Our re-enactment
of a typical snowmobiler's weekend proved to us that this year's crop of muscle machines is pretty equal. The Wildcat and Plus were at the top of their game. The Exciter and Indy were off theirs. Given some tweaking with carbs and clutches- all within legal stock limits, and the Indy could show entirely different results. It wouldn't really matter with the Exciter. It isn't a V-Max, and it showed. Otherwise it was too close for us to truly call. You be the judge.
The Battle of Long Lake
The results at 1/8, 1/4, and 1/2 mile based on elapsed time with handheld
stop watch and top speed observed on radar
Date: February 26, 1988
Temperature: 44 degrees F
Location: Long Lake, Minnesota
Track Conditions: Wet, lake surface of melting snow with some
surface water
| - | 1/8 Mile ET (in seconds) | 1/8 Mile MPH | 1/4 Mile ET (in seconds) | 1/4 MIle MPH | 1/2 MIle ET (in seconds) | 1/2 MIle MPH |
| Yamaha Exciter Deluxe | 11.60 | 64 | 17.58 | 75 | 28.50 | 77 |
| Ski-Doo Formula Plus | 10.35 | 73 | 15.19 | 83 | 24.24 | 87 |
| Polaris Indy 650 | 10.40 | 73 | 15.85 | 80 | 25.55 | 85 |
| Arctic Wildcat 650 | 11.03 | 74 | 15.75 | 84 | 24.53 | 88 |