2016 Arctic Cat M8000 Ltd. Review

[Jorli]

I had a chance to ride 2016 Arctic Cat M8000 for several days and I must say that is so impressive that it's almost unrecognizable in comparison with the 2015. It's hard to believe they've been able to make that many improvements without changing the platform.

Here is my review on the sled, Cheers-J

 

[d1100t]

Awesome video

Thanks Jorli
Looks like an awesome place to ride.
Looks like the sled handled very easy for you.

 

[Jorli]

Thanks Jorli
Looks like an awesome place to ride.
Looks like the sled handled very easy for you.

Thanks!!!! The coast does have some amazing terrain, although this has been a winter I would rather forget. The 2016 Cat is pretty awesome, pretty stoked to see them as a front runner again. I'm sure all the 2016s will be great, but I think Cat probably has the best well rounded machine of the bunch, good in the tech, good in big mountain. Cheers!-J

 

[polaris dude]

I suppose I am curious for the good or the bad do you receive any $$ from cat or is this an independent review?

Regardless it looks like the new cat does well in the conditions you rode in(not to mention great riding as well). I hope cat does have a bit of a revival year this year cuz options are always nice and it gets old seeing the same sleds over and over.

Also if someone doesn't mind chiming in what changes cat made this year aside from the track and shocks? From the bit I saw in the cat section it looked like guys were disappointed at the reveal for 2016 stuff.

 

[Jorli]

I suppose I am curious for the good or the bad do you receive any $$ from cat or is this an independent review?

Regardless it looks like the new cat does well in the conditions you rode in(not to mention great riding as well). I hope cat does have a bit of a revival year this year cuz options are always nice and it gets old seeing the same sleds over and over.

Also if someone doesn't mind chiming in what changes cat made this year aside from the track and shocks? From the bit I saw in the cat section it looked like guys were disappointed at the reveal for 2016 stuff.

Thank you, It cost me money to produce the review, fair enough question though. I said I would only do a review this year if the changes warranted it, well the changes are huge for AC.

The biggest changes are with the geometry in the front a-arms and spindles as well as the rear skid. The sled holds an edge far better- literally effortless and transfers edge-to-edge much better than the 15- the first snowmobile with vertical steering I've liked for descents. The clutching is also different, snappy and clean right off the bottom. I think people will be very surprised by the performance of the 16, barely recognizable compared to its predecessors. If Polaris is "flickable" the 16 AC is "whipable". Cheers!-J

 

[polaris dude]

Thank you, It cost me money to produce the review, fair enough question though. I said I would only do a review this year if the changes warranted it, well the changes are huge for AC.

The biggest changes are with the geometry in the front a-arms and spindles as well as the rear skid. The sled holds an edge far better- literally effortless and transfers edge-to-edge much better than the 15- the first snowmobile with vertical steering I've liked for descents. The clutching is also different, snappy and clean right off the bottom. I think people will be very surprised by the performance of the 16, barely recognizable compared to its predecessors. If Polaris is "flickable" the 16 AC is "whipable". Cheers!-J

Thanks for the response! I think after the yammi thread in the mountain section it just needed to be clarified that you weren't paid for it as it does hurt credibility.

But I sure thought you held your lines pretty dang well and it didn't seem like you had to put a huge amount of effort into doing it either. Crazy how a couple changes to skid/spindles can make that much of an impact! Glad to hear all 3 have a quality product coming out next year.

 

[Jorli]

Thanks for the response! I think after the yammi thread in the mountain section it just needed to be clarified that you weren't paid for it as it does hurt credibility.

But I sure thought you held your lines pretty dang well and it didn't seem like you had to put a huge amount of effort into doing it either. Crazy how a couple changes to skid/spindles can make that much of an impact! Glad to hear all 3 have a quality product coming out next year.

Like I said, I rode it back-to-back with the competition and the sled is legit. All 3 brands have their strengths and I'm not taking anything away from the others, but there is no issue of credibility because I genuinely really like the 2016 A-Cat, it's a really good all round mountain sled. Much of the conditions the video was shot in were pretty tricky, a lot of dust on crust and certainly not optimum riding conditions, yet I still was having fun and enjoying the sport. If the sleds have gotten to a level where what you ride was previously considered unrideable or too unenjoyable to ride, then I think that marks a pretty big step forward. Anything that increases accessibility is a good thing.