Marcia Marcia Marcia! Well… in our case.. Yamaha Yamaha Yamaha! Jan Brady, we feel your pain!
Let’s not forget folks, Arctic Cat is having a dealer meeting THIS WEEKEND (Aug 21-Aug 23 2015) and they desperately need a Wildcat 1000 refresh! Sure, they added a “90+ hp” engine, new clutches, small part changes, etc etc. But this Wildcat is stale. It’s equivalent to the old graham crackers that were left out after a night around the fire. Sure someone wants them, but it ain’t me.
We here at SXSBlog have been so focused on the Yamaha YXZ that we MAY have missed a huge teaser from Arctic Cat.
As many of you may know, Arctic Cat recently teamed up with the offroad legend Robby Gordon. This is great for Cat, because obviously Robby loves the offroad and big horsepower! And my god does the Wildcat need more power..
Now what we found here is quite interesting… On August 11th Todd Romano (Tonka trophy truck driver) posted a video with the hashtag “#thenextwildcat.” You probably didn’t see the video, and if you did (like me) you probably dismissed it. What I missed initially was an AWFULLY INTERESTING REAR SUSPENSION DESIGN. Pics below:
You can view the video here: https://instagram.com/p/6OxhrqqnVp/?taken-by=tonkatodd
BUT WHAT THE HECK IS UP WITH THAT SUSPENSION? I have no shame to admit it, I’ve worked on a Wildcat 1000 A LOT because I own one. And it has some issues. That there is no typical Wildcat 1000 suspension.
Again, on August 13th Todd Romano posted ANOTHER video of the “#thenextwildcat” doing another 2-wheeler-feeler, but this time he did it in the daylight. Pics below:
Video can be seen here: https://instagram.com/p/6T1XRDKnQs/?taken-by=tonkatodd
So what do we see?
-Boxed lower trailing arms with multiple frame and knuckle attachment points that look BEEFY AS HELL. Very reminiscent of something you’d see on a trophy truck (hmm how convenient).
-Zero radius arms! That thing used to have 3! What in the world? The crazy trailing arm design obviously negates the need for radius arms. All we can see is an axle. How’s that going to be for bashing through the rocks?! Scrub will be minimal though, and that’s a big plus!
-A definite improvement! The rear knuckle appears to be super beefy along with the trailing arm itself. The upper trailing arms on the outgoing model were a known weak point, so we can only hope AC has stepped up their game. Maybe they also improved the wheel bearings. Please. Beef. Up. The. Wheel. Bearings.
What does it mean?
-This very well could be just a redesigned rear suspension on an older model Wildcat 1000. This isn’t NECESSARILY AC’s design. Sad but true.
–IF THIS IS ARCTIC CAT’S DESIGN hopefully they didn’t blow their wad on just the suspension. They already had the best suspended SXS on the market. Did it really need to be improved? They need horsepower and driveline reliability. No one’s going to argue that.
-Why would AC give away their suspension design so blatantly? Is this the big secret they’re trying to keep? Or are they waiting for pages like SXSBlog to make articles about this and drum up some excitement?
This all leaves us slightly confused if we’re being honest. We just want a Wildcat with 120hp+. Sure the crazy suspension design is a welcome feature, but just give us power damnit!
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We’re keeping our eyes and ears glued to the industry and will be bringing you everything we find as soon as possible.
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