Arctic Cat

Arctic Cat is an American brand of snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles manufactured in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. The company was formed in 1960 and is now part of Textron Inc. Arctic Cat designs, engineers, manufactures, and markets all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles and related parts, garments (such as snowmobile suits), and accessories.

History
Arctic Cat was formed by snowmobile pioneer Edgar Hetteen in 1960 after leaving his previous self-started business, Polaris Industries. Arctic Cat grew to become a major manufacturer of snowmobiles, watercraft, winter clothing, and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). The company's first name was Polar Manufacturing, but it soon changed to Arctic Enterprises. The company made its first snowmobile in 1960.

In 1968, a 15,000-square-foot winter-wear factory was opened in Rainy River, Ontario, employing an additional 60 workers. In 1970, they started the Boss Cat line.

Various boat manufacturers, including Silver Line, Lund, Larson, and Spirit Marine, were bought and operated throughout the 1970s to expand the company.

Arctic Cat went bankrupt in 1982. Two years later, a new company, Arctco, was created to continue the production of Arctic Cat snowmobiles. The company successfully kept the Arctic Cat name alive. In 1996, the company changed its name to Arctic Cat.

The company has produced many other product lines including snowblowers, generators, mini bikes, personal watercraft, helicopters, and two-wheel drive vehicles. The brand's headquarters has relocated several times, but Arctic Cat continues most of its manufacturing, along with snowmobile engineering, in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. The company also manufactures engines at a facility in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

On January 25, 2017, it was announced that Textron would acquire Arctic Cat for $247 million in a cash transaction. The all-terrain vehicle and side-by-side models branded as Arctic Cat were either discontinued or rebranded Textron. The snowmobile models kept the Arctic Cat brand.

In early 2019, the company announced that the Arctic Cat brand would return to its side-by-sides and ATVs beginning with the 2020 model year.

Snowmobiles


Arctic Cat is known for their M series snowmobile models. These were third in market share size behind Ski-doo and Polaris in 2003. This “Skinny Mini” prototype sled differed from other sleds as it utilized parts that provide more than one role and a track that had less width than other sleds, reducing rotating mass.

Arctic Cat discovered that this design was suitable for mountain riding. However the trail model developed an overheating issue as the heat exchanges were found to be insufficient when ridden on ice and in marginal snow conditions. Though most sleds experienced no issues, this resulted in a class action lawsuit and resulted in an in and out-of-court settlement where Arctic Cat bought back 3,200 short-track Firecat F-7s from owners.

The sleds featured a lay-down type engine that placed the carburetors in front of the engine, which was centered low in the sled to centralize mass and believed to allow cooler air inlet temperatures. Numerous changes were made for the 2007 model as a new chassis was introduced, which was called a twin-spar chassis. It replaced all previous models while adding a new 4-stroke engine, the Z1 Jaguar, which featured an 1056 cc 4-stroke parallel twin.

In 2009 the Z1 was turbocharged to produce 177 hp, which was 1 hp more than any other production snowmobile. The Crossfire and M-series remain on the same M-series chassis, which is a spin-off from the original Firecat Chassis.



All-terrain vehicles
Arctic Cat started producing utility all-terrain vehicles in 1996 and expanded to produce side-by-side ATVs in 2005. They produce many models, from youth models to competition models, with other models being sport, recreation, 2-Up Trail, and utility models. Arctic Cat now offers a line of economy mid-size utility ATVs manufactured by Kymco in Taiwan. Most models come with both 2-wheel drive, and 4-wheel drive, ride-in suspensions, and electronic power steering capabilities.

The original design of utility ATVs was offered from 1996 to 2004 and featured single-cylinder liquid or air-cooled motors from 250 to 500 cc, all of a common design. This Arctic Cat-designed motor was manufactured by Suzuki and featured a 2V SOHC design with hemispherical combustion chambers. Manual and CVT automatic transmissions were offered. A 650 V2 V-twin engine option borrowed from the Kawasaki Prairie was also offered starting in 2003. A major redesign of the platform was launched in 2005.

With the new redesign came new bodywork, electronics, a rear-mounted gas tank, and a standard front-locking diff. The chassis remained largely unchanged. A new high-performance engine platform also debuted in the 650H1. This H1 platform was a direct evolution of the previous Suzuki-manufactured engines with many parts being interchangeable, but was now manufactured by Arctic Cat in the U.S.

A 700EFI model was also offered, which used an engine and transmission combo borrowed from the Suzuki King Quad model. This is a 4V DOHC design with no relation to the H1 engine platform. This was replaced with the 700H1, which was a higher displacement version of the 650H1 with fuel injection added. A multi-fuel capable Parallel Twin diesel made by Lombardi Marine was also available in the TRV 700 chassis from 2007 to 2015 in limited quantities. A 1000cc H2 V-twin engine was also made available.

In 2014, Joshua Newman provided extensive belt testing for the 400 cc air-cooled model, improving the brand's reliability. In 2017, Arctic Cat produced its final model year of ATVs after joining Textron with Alterra continuing under the Textron Off Road brand name.

The Arctic Cat brand returned to the ATV lines in 2019, for model year 2020 vehicles.

Side-by-sides


Arctic Cat offered its first side-by-side UTV, the Prowler, starting in 2005. This is a utility model with a large rear-mounted box similar to a pickup truck bed. It's mainly intended for utility and farm use. A new high-performance model, the Wildcat, was also launched to meet the new demand for recreational UTVs aimed at high-speed trail riding, which was made popular by the huge success of the Polaris RZR. Both Prowlers and Wildcats are offered in 2 and 4-seat models with various engine offerings.

In 2015, Arctic Cat launched the Side-By-Side (SXS) Racing Series as a support series to the Stadium Super Trucks. The series fielded ten Wildcat side-by-sides for its debut at the Sand Sports Super Show in Costa Mesa, California.

In 2017, Arctic Cat produced its final model for UTVs after joining Textron with variations of the Wildcat and Prowler being offered under the Textron Off Road brand name.

The Arctic Cat brand returned to the side-by-side lines in 2019, for model year 2020 vehicles.