Based on what I’m hearing from people who are going to Arctic Cat’s 50th Anniversary party, there are going to be hundreds of drop-dead-gorgeous Arctic Cat machines on display, like this 1971 634 Puma Mod from the Ische family collection.
Tom Ische and his family will bring MANY extraordinary machines, perhaps like this 1970 793 Panther with the big triple.
I snapped this shot of Kirk Hibbert a mile before the finish line of the 1990 Jeep 500 cross-country, which he won in stunning fashion aboard his 1990 EXT Special. Kirk will be at the 50th, along with this very EXT Special and perhaps his ’93 I-500 winning ZR.
In fact, the Hibbert family will have a very cool display of this stuff and historical artifacts from Tucker’s career. Tucker will be there, of course, and he’s mentioned some sweet interactive displays as well.
How about this: Tom Rowland is planning to bring more than 60 machines, many of which are some of the most historic sleds in company history, such as his collection of 1982 Cats.
He’s also bringing this early-build 1985 El Tigre, the first of the AFS Cats.
And he’ll have his collection of Firecat prototypes, including this late-generation proto.
P.J. Wanderscheid and the Wanderscheid Racing/Country Cat crew will be there, along with many of P.J.’s World Championship-winning oval sleds.
And with a recent shipment of decals from Action Graphics, you can be sure you’ll see plent of ArcticInsider decals throughout TRF that weekend.
In fact, check the bumper of your truck before leaving town.
Dang, sure wish I could make the pilgrimage up to TRF for this celebration. Hey John, I’ll definitely need a few new AI decals for the sled. Ah, I’ll assume I get a renewal of my sponsorship contract for next snow season? LOL! Interesting tag line….
Nice pictures of the older sleds!
“Can they squeeze all this into one weekend, and all the displays might cover the whole state!”
Do you have any A/I stickers with the catch phrase, “HOLD MY BEER WHILE I SHOW THOSE YOUNG PUNKS HOW IT’S DONE”?
Todd: I’ll have the contract drawn up and sent to your lawyers.
s.t.i.c.s.9: Great idea, I will use that for the gen-5 decal slogan. Or maybe just “Here, Hold My Beer.”
Am really looking forward to the 50th celebration. Included in the sleds that I am bringing to the 50th are also some sleds of Eric Bergstrom’s and also Aaron Scheele’s. All combined…we will have the 7th sled produced in the fall of 1961, the 2nd-to-the-top-finishing Arctic Cat from the 2011 Winter X Games, and a whole lot more in between all of those 50 years. Utility vehicles, vintage race sleds, modern race sleds, trail sleds like we grew up with, experimentals, concepts and more. Many sleds we are bringing are not rare at all, and are really pretty common, they just rekindle fond memories from the past. Needless to say, I have been spending some of my spare time recently cleaning some sleds, painting some skis, etc, etc. Is going to be fun to show our sleds for sure, but, will be even more fun to look at what everyone else is displaying and mingling among a few thousand other fellow Cat fans for 48 hours straight!
John, saw your name on the results list for the last round of the mnmtb series. Will you be at afton alps? Let me know, I’m just getting into this MTB thing, hoping it will help with my entrance to the Pro class in USCC this coming winter. Hope to see a familiar face there!
#432
John,
Can’t wait to see all the cool sleds on display! I am working feaverishly on a prototype racer…err…I mean I am calling Tom Rowland to see how he is doing working on my Cat.
I hope having a Cat on display doesn’t ruin my Deere reputation, better put Cari’s name on it instead, LOL! I even found an old “ZR Sno Pro” hat to wear as part of my disguise incase I retire my JD garb for the weekend:>)
See you there!
-Joe Rainville
I sure hope they have some 580s there!
Anyone have a 634 puma for sale?
Looking for a 634 puma. 443-994-9720 doctorgrm@usa.net
don’t. The snow forts we use to make out of poor Moms mop bucket. We alayws wore out a mop bucket every winter. We would pack the snow in the mop bucket and then turn it over and dump out our bucket of snow and make a big old fort so we could hide in it and throw out snowballs. I also remember Mom made snow ice cream. Mom would go out to the fence post clear some snow alayws making sure it was the cleanest of snow and bring it in and make snow ice cream and that was to be the only snow you ate. I also remember we use to take the top of a garbage can and use it for a sled if we didn’t have enough sleds for everyone. The snow plow would push the snow to the end of our street and we would make a sled run from the huge pile of snow. O how we had fun. Didn’t matter what age you were we all played together. Kids just played and had fun. Then it was off to someones house for hot coco and the taste of hot coco was different then then it is now. Maybe it is because we don’t enjoy the snow when we get old. Maybe it is because we don’t make the cocoa from scratch like we use to. Or maybe it’s because we lost the kid in ourselves. What ever it is it is sad to me as I remember enjoying winter. We could hardly wait for a snow day as it seemed like we just stayed out all day and got to enjoy ourselves and we didn’t care that we would have to make up the snow day at the end of school. I remember waiting by the radio to see if school had been canceled and waiting to find out who had to shovel the drive way first. Those were the days. I wish for one more snow storm like we use to have where neighbors helped each other out and kids liked to just have fun with out the TV or cell phones and they could just be a kid and enjoy simple things. Those were the good ole days that I never want to forget. MissKathy
This is very generous of you, Shelby. I don’t have any Magnolia stapms, but I always admire them when I see them on projects by others. It would be nice to have one of my own.Blessings,Teresa http://leuysg.com [url=http://cyzyvv.com]cyzyvv[/url] [link=http://bjgwtamq.com]bjgwtamq[/link]