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Cat sent a plane to pick up the other engine. After mounting it, they were off to Yellowstone. The front engine had three throttle cables, but the rear engine had only one cable with the HD carburetors turned on their sides. There was a right throttle lever for the front engine; the left side of handlebar sported a rear engine throttle and a brake lever. Other sled makers with twin engines had the rear engine running backwards, with clutches on the right side and cylinders turned around.
With twin 1188cc engines, the sled had a displacement of 2376cc! Clutching was provided by Salsbury 1190s, both on the left side of the Panther. Wayne’s custom hood simply read, “Do Your Thing!”
At the speed run, Ski-Doo’s double-engine Eagle hit 95.30 mph. Wayne’s first run was 95.03 mph, just 0.27 mph slower. While getting ready for the second run, the team noticed the rear idler wheel had lost rubber, so they just trimmed off the other wheel’s rubber to make it even.
Unfortunately, when the Arctic Cat crew started the rear engine with starting fluid, the crank failed. With more time, they would have made plastic wheels and a carburetor shield so Wayne could have leaned forward out of the wind and not have his suit sucked into the intake to make up that little bit of speed.
Sadly, this sled was in a display building that caught fire on May 6, 1973, and was completely destroyed. To this day, Wayne still wishes he could have made another run.
Schellbach and his son, Rick, made two more Cats with these types of engines. In 1971, they had a Panther that was longer and wider that used tuned pipes, and they called it Watashi The Cat. Unluckily, that one was also destroyed in a fire. They also built a Puma with direct chain drive and no clutches, and that one might still be around out west somewhere.
Minnesotan Les Pinz is a vintage sled expert with an extensive collection of historic and other antique sleds, and is a former snowmobile racer. He is a member of the International Snowmobile Hall of Fame and one of AmSnow’s
regular test riders.