A sled modification shootout – December 25, 2006

Three snowmobile dealers went head to head on Dec. 8 to determine who could do the best setup on a box-stock snowmobile.
The dealers were competing in the Snow Week/DynoTech Research Shootout, an annual competition that pits snowmobiles in various stages of setup and modification against the clock. The competition took place in Old Forge, N.Y.
One dealership — and its setup — stood above the others at the event’s end. Old Forge Powersports, a Ski-Doo dealership based in Old Forge, found the most hidden power in the Ski-Doo Mach Z. This is the third year in a row that the dealership has won the competition.
Doug Smith of Old Forge Powersports and two other employees were the brains and wrenches behind the winning machine.
Smith said they did a slight airbox mod, some clutch adjustments to the primary and secondary and some more center shock to its Mach Z. They also removed the clutch cover to keep the belt cooler in the quarter mile. From the box-stock machine to its setup form, it improved its run by more than a second, pulling 1.145 seconds out of the elapsed time to a 11.528 at 108.95 mph.
The other dealerships in the competition were Big Moose Arctic Cat/Yamaha and White Lake Polaris.
Performance shops who participated in the modified part of the event included: D&D Racing, Bikeman Performance, Hot To Go, Chuckaroo Motorsports, The Outdoor Toy Store, Dynoport, CT Performance, Team Howard, Top Gun Auto & Marine and Sherlock Performance. These shops ran 18 of their top-speed and top-mod machines. There was no official competition associated with this part of the event.
Why The Shootout?
This was the 16th year for the shootout, and the third year that Snow Week magazine (owned by the same publishing company as Powersports Business) helped to organize the event.
“The event is basically a lot about bragging rights,” said Tim Erickson, Snow Week’s senior editor and event organizer. “But more than anything, this is the first opportunity to put the new model snowmobiles together in real conditions. It’s the first opportunity to measure the performance of genuine production snowmobiles.”
Seven production snowmobiles were featured in two classes: 600 and 1000 stock. The 600 class featured the 2007 models of the Arctic Cat F6, the Ski-Doo MX Z 600 H.O. SDI Adrenaline, the Polaris 600 IQ and a Yamaha Nytro. The 1000 class had three machines: the Ski-Doo Mach Z, the Yamaha Apex RTX ER and an Arctic Cat F1000 Sno Pro.
The Polaris Dragon 700 would have been allowed to run as an exhibition machine, but White Lake Polaris had not received its units in time for the shootout.
Erickson said he was surprised at the strength of the 600 class machines.
“Out of the box we had two 600s run 96 mph and one run 98 mph in a quarter mile,” he said. “With a a little more room, those should hit 100. That’s impressive for a 600 machine. Because of the strength of that class, the manufacturers have been paying attention to it and there’s a lot of performance in what we’d call the middle of the market.”
The Results
Both the 600 and 1000 stock classes ran a similar format. Each machine, which was new in a crate, was assembled by a third party and run on a dyno for base numbers. Jim Czekalia at DynoTech Research ran the diagnostics.
Then, at the shootout, the stock machines made two passes on a quarter-mile drag strip — each with the same driver. The best of the two passes was recorded.
The participating dealers then had one hour to do any setup changes. The parameters were with clutching, airbox and suspension. The machines then made two more passes. The best-combined improvement in elapsed time (ET) between the two classes was awarded the Snow Week Golden Cup.
No teams were able to improve on the 600-class box stock setup, which Erickson blamed on rising temperatures that caused the snow-packed track to soften.
In the Open class, Arctic Cat’s new big bore F1000 Sno Pro posted 166.7 HP at 7200 rpm on the DynoTech dyno. The Ski-Doo Mach Z was 173.8 HP at 7800 rpm, and the Yamaha Apex RTX ER was 147.7 HP at 10,700 rpm.
In the stock runs, the F1000 posted the fastest time (105.38 mph) and the fastest elapsed time with a 11.772-second pass. It was the Mach Z, however, that made the biggest gains, going from a top speed of 95.54 mph to 108.95 mph.
The shootout, which takes place on a Friday, is the kick-off event for Old Forge’s winter celebration called Snodeo. It’s also the area’s kickoff to the snowmobile season. It’s also a chance for dealerships, especially the ones involved with the shootout, to show off their wares. psb