Arctic Cat

Arctic Cat
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Arctic_Cat".

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Arctic Cat Inc.
Type	Public
Headquarters	Thief River Falls, MN, USA
Key people	Christopher A. Twomey
Industry	Recreational Vehicles
Market cap	74 million USD¹
Employees	1,630¹
Website	www.arctic-cat.com

Arctic Cat (NASDAQ: ACAT) is a North American manufacturer of snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles. The company is based in Thief River Falls, MN.

1 History
2 Snowmobiles
- 2.1 2009 models
- 2.2 2008 models
3 All Terrain vehicles
- 3.1 2007 models
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

History

David Johnson, Edgar Hetteen, and Allan Hetteen were partners in Hetteen Hoist and Derrick Shop in Roseau, Minnesota. They designed and built a machine in 1954 to travel over snow. This company eventually became known as Polaris Industries. Edgar left the company in June 1960 and started Polar Manufacturing in Thief River Falls. The company name later changed to Arctic Enterprises.

Arctic Enterprises began producing Arctic Cat snowmobiles in 1960. They later expanded to purchase boat manufacturers such as Spirit Marine, Silver Line, Larson, and Lund. Spirit Marine produced the first Wetbike in 1978.

A snowless winter in 1980 and over-production forced Arctic Enterprises to scale back operations and close their boat manufacturing subsidiaries. Arctic Enterprises went bankrupt in 1981 and ceased production in 1982. In 1984, a new startup company was formed, called Arctco, to continue production of the Arctic Cat snowmobile line. In 1996, the company officially changed its name to Arctic Cat.

In 2003, ATV sales surpassed those of snowmobiles due to years of lighter snowfall.^{citation needed}

Snowmobiles

Arctic Cat is best known for their series of ZR snowmobile models: the 440, 500, 580, 600, 700, 800 and 900. Arctic Cat is also known for the lake racer Thundercat snowmobile, which was the most powerful stock snowmobile available in the 1990's. Most ZR's and ZL's were replaced in 2003 by FireCat (F-Series) and in 2004 by the SaberCat, both featuring the cutting edge laydown engine. Big changes were made to the lineup for the 2007 model year; the new twin-spar chassis replaces all the F-chassis models and added the new Z1 Jaguar, which features a 1100cc 4-stroke parallel twin. In 2009 the Z1 will be turbocharged to produce 177 horsepower (132 kW), 20 horsepower (15 kW) more than any other production snowmobile.² The SaberCat is due out with available electric start and reverse and diamond direct drive. The Crossfire and M-series remain on the same M-series chassis as last year, however, the liquid-cooled two-stroke engine packages have changed from 500, 600, and 700 laydowns to the all new 500, 600, 800 and 1000 cc models.

2009 models

Snowmobiles: Two Stroke Performance

F1000
F8
F6
F5
F570

Four Stroke Performance

Z1 Turbo
Z1

2008 models

Snowmobiles:

F 120 (youth)
F 570
F5 EFI
F5 EFI LXR
F6 EFI
F6 EFI LXR
F6 EFI Sno Pro
F8 EFI
F8 EFI LXR
F8 EFI Sno Prf**k 700
F1000 EFI (4x4)
F1000 EFI LXR
F1000 EFI Sno Pro
Jaguar Z1 (4x4)
CrossFire 5
CrossFire 6
CrossFire 8
CrossFire 8 Sno Pro
CrossFire 1000
CrossFire 1000 Sno Pro
Panther 370
Panther 660 Touring
Bearcat 570
Bearcat 660 WideTrack
Bearcat 660 Turbo WideTrack Turbo
Bearcat 660 Turbo WideTrack Turbo Articulating Rail
T 570
T 500
TZ1 1100 LXR
M6 EFI 141
M6 EFI 153
M8 EFI 141
M8 EFI 153
M8 EFI 153 Sno Pro
M8 EFI 162
M1000 EFI 153
M1000 EFI 153 Sno Pro
M1000 EFI 162
M1000 EFI 162 Sno Pro@
Z 370
Z 570
Jag 3000

All Terrain vehicles

Arctic Cat also manufactures a wide range of sport and utility ATVs (all terrain vehicles). The engines range in size from 90 cc to 950 cc, with 650 cc H1, 700 cc H1, and 951 cc H2 engines being produced in Arctic's own facility. The 951 cc engine makes it the biggest ATV yet. Arctic Cat has also introduced a new 686 cc two-cylinder, the SOHC 4-stroke diesel engine. All other current gasoline engines are supplied by Suzuki and diesel engines by Lombardini. Arctic Cat ATVs all feature four stroke engines and full independent suspension without a sway bar - excluding DVX, youth and 250 cc models, which have a rear swing arm.