So just where did these sleds go after the initial SnoPro season in 1974? How many were made? In what sizes? Who drove them? Well, let’s see what we can piece together.
First, just how many did they make. Well, from looking at some videos and pictures, you get a pretty clear idea that that each driver was in at least two classes. Special sleds may have been built for Eagle River. Some would have been trashed before and during the season, from testing and accidents.
Stephen Knox (aka SKNOX on the Bull Sessions) runs a little website you may have visited called The Boss Cat Legacy. He’s done a great job of archiving and keeping track of all kinds of information on vintage Arctic stuff, including keeping track of a lot of the 74 Cat SnoPro photos that have been posted here on vintagesleds.com over the years. Stephen did work at Artco in the early 1990’s but it was the fact that he grew up in Cat country by Arctic engineer Paul Eggebraaten and very near to other Arctic legends like Denny Ray, Dale Cormican, Vern Ricard, as well as 69 World Champion Roger Janssen. All in all, a great place to grow up a Cat fan.
Here’s the numbers Stephen had:
1. Four or five 650cc machines were built
2. Five or six 440’s were built
3. Five or six 340’s were built
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Larry Coltom lined up on one of his #33 machines, West Yellowstone, Montana, March of 1974. Photo from bosscatlegacy.com
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That means there originally was somewhere around 14 were built, but the truth is, we don’t have an exact number. Stephen confirms that after the first race, the team needed to lose some weight on the sleds to keep up with the lightweight Polaris and Yamaha sleds. At least two machines were destroyed in the process of trying to put them on a diet.
That means means we are down to around 12 machines, maybe less. However, more could have been destroyed. Other sources tell me that after 1974, the factory had a salvage sale to get rid of last year’s race “junk”, and likely a lot, if not all the sleds were sold – however, it is VERY doubtful that any got out completely in tact.
The old chassis were used to test ideas for 1975, and there is a good chance more were destroyed this way. If a chassis did get sold with a lot of their parts, there is a good chance that they were not the original parts. That is, during testing, for example, Coltom would grab a new motor and put it in Chassis A, throwing the old motor aside. To assist in his testing, he would put a seat on the machine from Chassis B, and handlebars from Chassis C. When he was done, the motor would get taken out, and Chassis A, (now containing Chassis B an Chassis C parts) was, at some time, sent to salvage for sale – without the motor and hood.
See how this gets really complicated to figure out?
So who drove what? Well, let’s keep in mind what we learned in part one: Larry Coltom was #33, Charlie Lofton was #11 and Dave Thompson was #22. This is also VERY confusing… because most people associate the #22 with Larry Coltom – because in later years, that was his number. Not so in 1974. Keep that in mind. Also, we have Tom Marks driving as #44.
So in looking through the books and magazines, I’d say each driver ran two classes. This would make sense, because it would give each driver a chance to breathe between races. What I can tell is:
1. Thompson: 340 & 440
2. Coltom: 440 & 650
3. Lofton: 440 & 650
4. Marks: 340 & 650.
That’s just 8 sleds folks. Now assume there was 3 or 4 for Eagle River, that would make 11 or 12, tops, and the sleds built for Eagle River were likely never sold. The reason? Larry Coltom himself once told me that the sleds made for Eagle River were light, they would have been too dangerous to allow anyone else to drive. They were so thin, he couldn’t stand up on the running boards – they would bend!
So we are talking about a total of 8 sleds for sure, perhaps a couple of more that were spares – or never completed sleds the factory never raced. In any case, there was 8 complete ones near the end of the 1974 season, so lets go with that.
So now we know what we are looking for – sort of. Over the years, I’ve seen several sleds claimed to be a 74 Cat SnoPro, but they turned out to be modified 73 EXT’s or even later model Z’s with older hoods and parts grafted on. It wasn’t until I met Andy Avelis that I started to get an idea of how to identify these unique sleds.
Next: How to identify the genuine article.