Two-Stroke..... Said I'd never buy another but.....

[KnappAttack]

Technically, "I" didn't buy it, and technically what I said was "I'd never buy another for TRAIL RIDING", but my sweet WIFE actually bought it for me and surprised me with it! Its not a "trail sled" but my old 91 Improved stock Wildcat 700 "Race Sled" that I built and won so many races with. This thing brings back so many memories, I used to let off the throttle mid-track so I didn't absolutely drive the competition away. I found it quite funny that people would come up to us and say "I was catching you" or "I just ran out of room to catch you".... Some people or racers knew what I was doing, some didn't. Fun stuff! It all started with racing this thing to build up my engine building business, and this is the sled that really kicked off my professional drag racing career.

Long story, but my good buddy wanted to run some vintage and classic races. He wanted me to build him a old 700 Cat. Instead, I called the guy in Maine (another good friend) that I sold my 91 Wildcat 700 to. He still had it and it had been sitting for a while. I got my local buddy hooked up with him and they made a deal. He had it shipped back here and brought it to me so I could go thru it and get it back in shape and ready to win again. We spent a couple days tearing it down and ready to rip again. He swapped a 129" track into it after it left here and changed the looks of it, when it went our East, It got a paint job and ended up with a bit more purple on it than he wanted. So he slowly got back to the green and more of the original look put back into it. Still not there yet, or perfect by any means. We fired it up in the garage I kicked myself for not buying it myself. It sounded just like I remembered. It was a sled that was so fast and unbeatable it was uncanny. Brought back so many good memories!

Not a sled in the day could run with this Cat 700 in the Improved class, not even the 800's triples or 880 V-Max's. I say 880's because Hauck had built his Open Improved 880 V-Max-4 before I had my 1000 Thundercat Open Improver done for the 93 season, I had to race this 700 against him the for the first race of that 93 season. Hauck beat me the first race with that 880 V-Max on Saturday by a ski length is all. I didnt have time to get the 700 ready for the first race so I let my crew chief ready the sled for the season. My Wife was pregnant and on bed rest, so I had to take care of her before the sled, I had no choice but to let him ready it. Well after we were done racing that Saturday night I figured we had better do something to come back on Sunday to make an attempt to beat him, I elected to gear down and give that a try, I went to tip the sled on it side to make the gear change and save the chaincase oil, but before tipping it on the side, we have to pull the belt to prevent gas spillage from getting on the belt and ruining it. Low and behold I found the wrong belt on the it. My crew chief had put a belt on that we knew to be a slower belt from testing earlier on. So I geared it down and installed the known faster belt for Sunday. We came back for Sundays race and into the final we go, right alongside Hauck and that 880 Open Improved V-Max again. The light went green and we both came out side by side, my little 700 that could pulled away for the win and put a solid length on him. I had won that Sunday race by more than he beat me on Saturday! Couldn't have scripted it any better!

One week later Yamaha Corporate put a two page centerfold add in SnowWeek that read "V-Max-4 Wins Mid-America". I was so absolutly pissed off that I vowed I'd never let off the gas again the whole season. The next race we went to, Hauck was taunting me in the pits, "here kitty kitty" he say every time he saw me in the pits. I'd laugh to myself as he didnt even know I had my Thundercat in the trailer ready to race. It was comical because we had just fired it up for the first time the day before out in testing on the ice. We had it absolutely flying and running the numbers before I broke something very critical, I had to get some parts welded up and was up till 3AM putting it all back together. I knew the competition was in for a world of hurt! When I pulled that T-Cat out of the trailer and fired it up it was unreal, know one knew I had it or what it was capable of! It was all over but the crying for Hauck, he never won another race or even came close in open improved if I was at the racetrack. That 700 Wildcat and 1000 T-Cat I had was an unbeatable combination for many years, but that 700, that was the little "underdog". I won the World Series of Ice in 93 that season with it by an actual 2-3 bus lengths in the final. People were stunned at how incredibly fast it really was when I stayed on the gas. I had vowed to never let off again after Yamaha pissed me off with that SnowWeek add, if I remember correctly there were 42 or 43 sleds in AA Improved stock. A few weeks latter we went back to Cedarville MI and went on the timing lights at that Cedarvile race in back in 93 for the first time, (it was the first time races had been run on timing lights, prior to this it was just a camera used to call the winners at the finish line). I won that race by over a half a second with that 700! It ran equal number to the winner of the 650 Pro-Stock class and thats when I realized it was a mistake to run it full out on the timers or at the World Series. The next season the AA Improved class had dwindled to just 20 entrants. I had driven literally half of the competition away with this little 91 700 Wildcat. I even took it speed running and set a record with it in 50 Degree weather and slushy conditions before I had sold it, it drove the competition nuts!

Anyway, I had asked my buddy to give me first dibs on this sled when it was time for him to sell it, and he did, he ultimately just wanted to trail ride and not race anymore, but I elected to pass on it not wanting to race anymore either. I thought about just putting it up on the shelf to to look at to bring back those awesome memories. My wife heard me turn him down on the sled that night on the phone, she then secretly bought it for me the next evening when I saw it up for sale online, I was already kicking myself. She knew it was an opportunity I'd never get back, she knew I would kick myself forever.... I saw it for sale for only one day and then the add was taken down. Sure enough, I kicked myself for days, unbeknownst to me my wife had secretly purchased it for me to put on the shelf. I was ranting around and pouting that weekend, she was forced to tell me she had secretly bought it for me. I didn't believe her until she showed me the texts between her and my friend. I couldn't believe it....

What a wife!

Anyway after all that rambling and reminiscing, here's my old 700 the way it is now.

This is what it looked like back in the day. Front cover of 94 PSI catalog.

 

[fxnytrortxkid]

Loved those things! A awesome wife! She give classes?

 

[justinator]

Awesome story and even more awesome wife!! So cool!

 

[Doc Harley]

Great reflections of great times. Those are the best. Congratulations, Mike.

 

[MyOutdoors]

Awesome read! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Vmax4creed]

Excellent read super interesting, Did you ever compete with the 1000cc vmax 4 you had built?? your 800 v4 was an amazing machine & still is.

 

[KnappAttack]

Excellent read super interesting, Did you ever compete with the 1000cc vmax 4 you had built?? your 800 v4 was an amazing machine & still is.

I made 8 or 9 passes with the 1000 V-Max engine I built on the asphalt. The 800 was a 1000 killer already, and my competition hated it. It drove a lot of people out of racing also! To this day, my buddy Ed Ensor tells me the story of how how he beat me off the line in 1000 Pro-Stock when he thought he had it in the bag until my little 800 V-Max came storming around him for the win. My good friend Bill Cudney threw his helmet off onto the ice in disgust, he said the day I can't outrun a 800 with a 1000 that he was done, he never raced again and gave it up. Marchbank never come back to the ice again when my 800 outran his 1000 at the Series. My 800 won the 1000 class at least 4 years at the World Series of Ice Drags as I recall. Hauck never stood a chance with any of his Yamahas. That 800 was just the finest Pro-Stock package and machine ever built even to this day.

I didn't need to build the 1000 V-Max engine, I just built it to drive a point home and because I could, just as an exclamation point. I took me 3 months to build that 1000 engine. When I ran it at Brainerd in the 800's short chassis, I didn't even bother building a set of dedicated 1000 pipes for it, I just used my existing 800 pipes. It was such an animal and upset that short chassis so bad. I ran worse 60 foot times by a bunch as it wanted to lift to much on the back wheels and spin, but it made up for it down track, it ran big speed out the backdoor! I never dynode it but knew it made 50-60 more HP than my 800 did that would already beat the 1000's.

Years after I sold the 1000 engine, Olaf Aaen told me he dynoed it at well over 305 HP with it using the 800 pipes the way I ran it. When they dynode it with pipes designed for the 1000 it made 320 HP! Keep in mind, a lot of people claim big power with their race engines, I see it all the time, but there's a difference between the power I have vs. what other claim. My 800 was smoking others claimed 300 HP 1000's already. My little 700 my wife just bought me back was smoking others claimed 200 horsepower three cylinder machines. How does that happen? They are either getting a bill of goods, or somehow messing up when they dyno. I know the answer as to why, but tend to keep it to myself as I've seen a lot in my years on the dyno and racing on the track. Peak power is also not so important, I'll just say that.

As for the 1000, I could see the handwriting on the wall, and knew it was going to get outlawed or penalized somehow. They were already upset about my 800 V-Max making the 1000's look bad and were changing the rules around me and that little 800 V-Max. The last season I ran the 800 on the ice, I had to weigh more than the 1000's! I decided to sell it all and get out of racing with the purse and factory money going away and the crazy politics. I got sick and tired of the ever changing rules, that and with the money going away, it was jut way less appealing to me. SnowCross was to blame and made ALL the factory money go away for the Drags, I had to chase and travel further to the big dollar races to make any kind of money any more.

I watched Ski-Doo and NSSR lawsuits happen, race directors get fired, and NSSR get kicked out of ISR, and rightfully so for the shenanigans going on behind the scenes. It was comical really, someone could actually make of movie of the corruption and the craziness my little Yamaha 800 V-Max created, but at the time it affected me personally a bit for a year or two. I built the V-Max and made the switch from Cat to Yamaha to get Yamaha involved with asphalt drag racing and NSSR. Long story short but Doo wanted the Yamaha GONE! There's MUCH more to the story but I can say, Karmas a bitch, and I can sit back and laugh about it now knowing how it all turned out for them.

I had had enough of the BS, so it was time for me to walk away. We worked extremely hard for so many years, but the time had come to hang it up.

 

[MyOutdoors]

You and spany great names!

 

[Fleecer]

Both posts are a great read, thanks for sharing.

 

[Upstater57]

Thanks for sharing! Not to sound like a fan boy, back in the day, I waited for Snow Week to show up to get the latest racing info looking to see how you did. I had the last 650 version of the Wildcat before buying a 92' 700 then a 93' Tcat. Your race wins sold lots of Arctic Cats! (and PSI Pipes)

 

[DooZ]

@KnappAttack with the #'s you ran back in the day with the 700, where does it compare today? Improved 600?
Your wife bought it for nostalgia, you have to get it back looking like the sled you raced. I remember that PSI catalog, and Snow Week was the best.

 

[rev them up]

Great story, enjoy.

 

[KnappAttack]

@KnappAttack with the #'s you ran back in the day with the 700, where does it compare today? Improved 600?
Your wife bought it for nostalgia, you have to get it back looking like the sled you raced. I remember that PSI catalog, and Snow Week was the best.

What are todays 600 Improvers running? Hard time believing they are any or much better than they've ever been in the past, which was quite a ways from where this 700 ran. I too ran a 600 triple ZRT improver and it made really good power on the dyno, even far exceeding my 700 for dyno numbers, but I surly couldn't run the numbers my 700 ever ran on the timers. I won with it in the 600 class and it did well, but was no underdog like my 700 was. My 700 ran numbers the 800 Mach Z improvers couldn't beat back in the day, not quite sure how, but I was outrunning the 800's Machs and V-Max's for quite some time and they were supposed to be over 200 HP.

 

[journeyman]

What are todays 600 Improvers running? Hard time believing they are any or much better than they've ever been in the past, which was quite a ways from where this 700 ran. I too ran a 600 triple ZRT improver and it made really good power on the dyno, even far exceeding my 700 for dyno numbers, but I surly couldn't run the numbers my 700 ever ran on the timers. I won with it in the 600 class and it did well, but was no underdog like my 700 was. My 700 ran numbers the 800 Mach Z improvers couldn't beat back in the day, not quite sure how, but I was outrunning the 800's Machs and V-Max's for quite some time and they were supposed to be over 200 HP.

Wonder how they compared on the torque curves?

 

[KnappAttack]

Wonder how they compared on the torque curves?

Well the 700 has a bunch more Tq. than the 600 ever did, but peak Tq does not win races. Poweband width on the other hand is what makes it easy to win races, the difference between peak Tq and peak HP is where it's at. The 600 had no band width to speak of, which doesn't make for a real good drag sled.