The 1978 El Tigre marked Arctic Cat’s bold leap forward into fully liquid-cooled, big-performance sleds. It wasn’t just fast, it was refined.
🏁 Quick Facts:
- Offered in two configurations: 5000 (Suzuki Spirit 500cc Free Air) and 6000 (Suzuki Spirit 440cc Liquid Cooled)
- The sled featured a widened 32″ ski stance (up from 29″), a 6″ length increase, and 5″ more width compared to the ’77 model
- Upgraded to 4.5″ suspension travel (previously just 2.5″), offering major handling improvements
- Ski and chassis upgrades, including radiator and heat exchanger, added weight—but testers noted it steered like a sled 200 lb lighter
- Test rider feedback from a shootout in Cable, Wisconsin, praised its acceleration, handling, and comfort, calling it “One of the best, if not the best, machine I’ve ever ridden”
Its Suzuki 440-based twin pushed nearly 70 hp, while upgraded stance, length, and suspension set a new benchmark above its ’77 predecessor. It wove together raw power and rider confidence in a package that outperformed expectations, earning its reputation as both powerful and poised.
📸 Did you race or ride one of these in the late ’70s? Drop a comment or tag @ArcticInsider—your stories make this history real.
I think there is an error in this one. They had an air cooled 500 and the Liquid cooled 44. Not two liquid cooled engines. Otherwise, great. I loved those flying tigers!
Need more information on the new ones though. What is happening at the factory stuff.
Very first sled I bought myself was the 78 El Tigre 5000. On the farm we had 69 and 71 Panthers. My first years working and was out of the snowmobiling a few years. Pick up my first new sled at the dealer and headed back to the farm . Unloaded it and grabbed the throttle and it pull right out from under me and I rolled on the ground . Got up smiling this was no Panther. Grab the throttle again took off , first of many Arctic Cats since then. Great memories.
best advertising ever,
i remember all those cool ads in the magazines
in 1990 i had an 80 tigre 6000 (500 liquid)
wickedly fast sled!
flew past many newer indy 500s and mxs ,
great times!
Nice story Alicia! Aaron Scheele coaxed me back with some interest after seeing some of his creations using the Eltigre platform. I ended up spending several months in his fab shop building my rendition of Thunderstruck. I built expressly for the Ride With The Champs that year. Of course the sled was fun and challenging to build but the camaraderie in the shop was priceless! This was back in the days with John Sandberg and Kale Wainer..Thanks for rekindling the memories..Jim
I too almost got tossed off the 1978 5000 FA first time I conned my brother into letting me ride his. Compared to my tiny 275cc Jag this was a rocket from 0-60. They made that deep bucket seat for a reason… hehehe. The 1978 thru 1981 5000 FA had two more transfer ports and wider heads with more fins than the first generation 500 FA. 7 more hp. Total of 62 stock while the past years engine peaked at 55. 8000 rpm was easily possible on a long flat field. What a screamer….
Oh crap edit that to the 1979 model. Memories Off! The 1981 was the best free air 5000 ever. Several updates made it even faster. Even if the parts manual is mislabeled and called it a fan cooled. lol.
I’ve often wondered if the powers-that-be at Arctic Cat back then deliberately put the pulse charger exhaust and those little, tiny 32mm carbs on the 5000 to make absolutely sure it was slower than the 6000? Several years back (15 to 20 years?) I built a friend of mine a 5000 from a hodge-podge of 5000 and 6000 parts. (Funny tidbit: Because of the mix of 5000 and 6000 parts, he named it the “11000”. LOL!) My buddy told me he liked the sound of the 6000 pipe better than the 5000 pipe, and would I add that to the mix? I told him I don’t know how it’s going to run, but we’ll give it a try. Not having a set of stock 5000 32mm carbs, I decided to use the ’81 6000 38mm carbs that we did have. The end result? That thing was a friggin’ rocket! Through some horse-trading with my buddy, I ended up owning it. I drag raced it for a couple of years and it took a really, really strong running 6000 to outrun it in 500 feet. Just to add to the story: The track studs eventually chewed through the tunnel on the “11000” chassis. Rather than use another El-Tigre chassis I decided to try a ’78 Pantera chassis, because the tunnel is 1″ deeper and more room for studs. I swapped the entire drive train – track, suspension, engine, clutches, exhaust, etc. – out of the 11000 and into the Pantera. After getting the clutches and suspension set up to the Pantera chassis it was averaging about 0.4 seconds faster in 500′ than it ever ran in the Tiger chassis! I drag raced it like that for a few years and did very well with it, often times beating sleds that it had no right to. Then my daughter took over the driving duties and did even better. (She weighs less and has a LOT BETTER reaction time than I do! LOL!) I got out of drag racing and the sled sat in storage for a number of years. Then a couple of years ago I offered it for sale to a couple of younger fellas that are doing quite well drag racing Arctic Cats themselves. They bought it, are racing it now and doing quite well with it. As one of the owners told me at a race I attended last winter “We always take that Pantera with us everywhere we race because it always makes us money!”
Always wanted an El Tigre as a kid. But we had a 1976 Pantera 5000 instead. I Got kicked in the butt more then once by my dad. For busting me drag racing someone across the lake on his sled. Only if I knew back then, I could have told him I was practicing for my drag racing career. That he ended up being my pit helper for a very very longtime.
AC 142 great story!
I rode all of these sleds while working for an Arctic Cat dealer
All were awesome the 500 free air was unbelievable it had a cleated track and you could ride a wheelie like a modern deep snow sled on the trail
The 440 was super fast the Lake speed king
I remember the 500 in 1981 i think there were some in 1979 then Cat closed
The 500 had unbelievable power that’s all I remember about riding it
But Polaris had come out with the Indy in 1980 and redefined the whole trail industry just like there race sleds had 3-4 years before
1981 5000 was rubber track except for a few that wound up with the last years cleated due to a temporary shortage. Cat had the beginnings of the A arm ifs about 1981 but they took a fishing trip before the prototypes were built. A few years later things changed.
By the way Polaris got the idea for the RXLs from the ifs Skiroules built by Gilles Villeneuve for the 1976 oval season. Polaris watched the race in Maine and watched the Villeneuves spank Cats best that day. Leading by half a lap. Bob Eastman was there. He took one look at the Super Pickles and went Hmmmmm. Nice front end idea. Cat still won the most Sno Pro races that year. Coltom was on fire. Next year the RXL came…..