Once we partook in the quarterly barbecue that Arctic Cat throws for its employees, it was time to journey out into the chilly Minnesota air and across the street to the company's proving grounds and simulated QTC course.
Although the weather left something to be desired and was another reminder why housing costs are so high in Southern California, the clean ATVs parked by the support rig were begging to be abused. The dark ribbon of earth connecting each obstacle was the stuff that makes farmers salivate and ATV mechanics cringe. It was loamy and sticky, and test monkey Mike Newsom and I couldn't wait to dirty up the team's rides. We first headed out aboard Jesse West's #888 and soon discovered the biggest advantage of black plastic-it hides the dark Minnesota mud pretty well. Of course, trying to get good photos of this dark mass under gray skies was challenging, but I kept Newsom repeating his passes through the rock bed until we got it right. Fortunately, this is an area the Arctic Cat models excel in thanks to their big ground clearance. Climbing logs is another forte-as long as you get a good run and don't let up on the throttle too much. The set of timber arranged in three pairs with an odd one interspersed proved to be a formidable obstacle. But the long legs of the 650 H1 let us hop over it most of the time-when the slick mud didn't inhibit forward progress and we slid up and onto the logs.
These stock machines performed comparably to lightly modified units, thanks in part to their good, smooth and torquey power. The machines felt predictable and handled the whoops fairly well despite being big utilities, and they proved quite adept in the lumberyard when the wheels didn't spin excessively. The shifting gave us no problems and switching between 2WD and 4WD was a button away. Riding with the differential locked did make the steering effort high, but we did not need to lock the differential to negotiate the rocks or logs on the course. However, when it came to coercing the big girl to turn, we discovered a chink in the AC armor. The front outside wheel just pushed and felt like it was trying to tuck under the ATV. The racers told us to do the opposite of what feels natural and lean out-like on a dirt bike-or lay over the front to get the wheel to bite. One other weakness was water. The liquid was like kryptonite, causing the engines to sputter-even at a fairly meek pace and through low waves. And too much time in the water pits had the belts slipping, which, combined with the spitting and steaming engine, wasn't quite what we expected from a utility.
Arctic Cat also broke out a few Prowler side-by-sides. We never got a chance to ride them, but some of our colleagues and the racers on hand tackled the course in them. And things were looking mighty good as the Prowler cruised through the mud and over the logs, handling the rocks just fine, at least until part-time rental-car racer and full-time utility racer Kevin Johnston was at the helm-racers are almost as bad as editors-and it wasn't too long before an A-arm was ripped apart in the rock bed. But minor oops aside, the performance was impressive and we made a mental note to organize a side-by-side comparo later.
Apart from a smattering of Rath Racing bumpers and grab bars, aftermarket bars and no racks, these are bona fide stockers complete with all the idiosyncrasies found on the ones you can buy. One thing we uncovered that we liked was how much better Rath's machine performed with speed-like that of a modified race quad; think Bill Ballance's machine. The harder and faster we rode, the better response we got from the machine.
Hopefully the lessons learned on the race track will influence the designers and make the final product you see even better. After all, that's the justification of racing-research. Oh and bragging rights, of course. With the company getting into racing and learning those ropes, who knows what we'll see in 2008. For now, we're going to marvel at the WPSA course and be amazed at how easy the pros make it look.