I believe this is a 78 Arctic Cat El Tigre 5000. It was a formidable machine with a 440 cc air cooled engine with a top speed of about 75 mph. It’s now at the dump with no skis or track. 
1978 Arctic Cat El Tigre
- Thread starter Snagglefoot
- Start date
I had a '78 in 1980. That thing ran like nobody's business and I promise it went a lot faster than 75 mph. I was young and brave when I had it going well over 100 mph more than once. I did a lot of stupid things then that I wouldn't dream of doing now.
AZjeff
$50 Site Donor 2023
Never owned a sled but a good friend's family was crazy for Artic Cats. The El Tigre was BA in the day. 100 on a sled is stupid scary. Friend still has the early 70s Wankel Panther that his dad bought.
Then there was the King Cat 800 4cyl.
Then there was the King Cat 800 4cyl.
You didn't mention whether you are you going to grab it and restore it!
Sad.
Did you bring it home?
Did you bring it home?
One is easier to obscure from the wife's view than the other.
I guess it depends on your weather?
I guess it depends on your weather?
4WD
$50 site donor 2024
I'm feeling better about my plans to reactivate a low hour 2006 bay boat (with an outboard)!!!
The snowmobile is an excellent example of something that cost more to fix than it's worth.
That dump looks like something from my childhood dreams. Lots of potential target practice there.
Cannot tell you how many times I should have heeded that advice....
I believe that either 1976 or 1977 was the first year that Arctic Cat stared using Suzuki engines. Previously they were using Kawasaki engines exclusively.
I owned a 1975 Suzuki 440 Fury which was an Arctic Cat El Tigre chassis and body (silver painted) with a factory hopped-up (twin expansion chambers, 5-ports, bigger carbs, higher compression) 440cc Suzuki engine and Comet clutch in it. The Fury was a hot rod limited build for Suzuki dealers. Suzuki claimed 62hp for this engine but dealers claimed that the engine was producing far more, I heard reports of as high as 83hp! It was easily the fastest sled on the market at that time, I blew everyone away on the lakes with it (even the new water cooled Kawasaki and Polaris sleds), and it was WAY faster than 75 mph. This was embarrassing to Arctic Cat so they went to Suzuki to supply their engines, but the engines that Arctic Cat purchased were detuned versions (smaller carbs, lower compression, 4 ports, single exhaust) because Arctic Cat wanted an engine that was not as high-strung or noisy. A year or two later Arctic Cat purchased the hopped-up 500cc FA version of this engine for the free-air El Tigre 5000. Is this the sled that you had Wayne?
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Maybe it was the 500cc. It was a great engine, it started first pull no matter how cold it was outside and it was stupid fast. I remember how cool the track sounded above about 80 MPH, it would start to howl like a cat, an Arctic Cat.
I was reading a forum post where the poster said that a factory stock Suzuki 440 Fury was clocked with a radar gun at 108 mph! Not only that, but the acceleration up to 108 was said to be "astounding". The claim was also made in several publications that this was the fastest sled on the market in 1975. I can attest to that, I never lost a race. I never paid any attention to my speedometer, they were notoriously inaccurate, and I didn't want to look down at it when I was going that fast so I never really knew what it's top end was. For having produced only 3500 of them in only one year there are a surprising number of them that are still running. There were so few of them produced that Suzuki didn't even put them in their 1975 snowmobile brochures.Maybe it was the 500cc. It was a great engine, it started first pull no matter how cold it was outside and it was stupid fast. I remember how cool the track sounded above about 80 MPH, it would start to howl like a cat, an Arctic Cat.
The engine produced so much power that they were destroying Arctic Cat's hex clutch, so part way through production they switched to Comet clutches. Mine had a Comet clutch. I think that Arctic Cat ended-up doing the same thing. They also had problems with destroying track sprockets because of the power.
Here is what it looked like under the hood. Not many sleds came with dual expansion chambers.
There is no doubt in my mind that your El Tigre was just as fast, if not faster Wayne. I know from personal experience why it impressed you.
I had a '76 Pantera 500 free air. Suzuki motors were a bear to pull over, hard pulling recoil starters. They ate CDI boxes. the ones that mounted on the motor, relocating off the motor helped a lot. And that Pantera was premium fuel only, had a sticker on the cowl saying so.
My first and last Cat. Rode Polaris then and now on Ski Doo's.
Those Hex clutches were notorious junk.
My first and last Cat. Rode Polaris then and now on Ski Doo's.
Those Hex clutches were notorious junk.
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