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Charlie Lofton on his way to winning the 650 SnoPro class in Alpina Michigan.
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So now you have some background on these machines and who drove them, and a little of their “checkered history”.
But how do you know if you’ve spotted a real one?
I have to say that I’ve been burned more than a few times on this website when people claimed they had a ‘real’ sled of some sort, only to find out later the thing was 100% clone or replica. Others have also been burned in this manner, and it is not pleasant for anyone – the burner or the “burnee”.
Don’t get me wrong – I am not opposed to clones in any way, shape or form. In fact, I applaud them and truly enjoy them when someone has done a great job on them. But when people try to pass them off as original, because, well, that’s when a whole lot of people, (not just me!), get really, really, really angry.
So what constitutes real? Well, that’s a whole other subject we’re not going to get to in depth with here. However, if you have any sled with 100% of it’s original parts in tact, consider yourself extremely fortunate. If you have a real race sled with all it’s original parts – wow. That almost never happens.
I think what most collectors agree on is that if you have the genuine article in a chassis – that is a bulkhead and a tunnel, or at the very least, a bulkhead (in particular if it is a unique model) then you at least have something real to work with. You then have a shot of finding the original parts for your real chassis. If you accomplish finding all the original parts for your rare race sled (and don’t have to fabricate any) then first of all, thank your lucky stars and the dozens of people who will have helped you find and get any of those original parts. They won’t be just laying around your local snowmobile dealership anymore.
More than likely with race sleds, however, you will not find any in tact, you’ll find them missing motors, seats, hoods, skis, pipes or other parts. Even more likely, they were continually raced over the years, and whomever was racing it replaced parts with whatever they thought would give them the best advantage.
Sometimes they are very cleverly disguised and used for trail riding! Case in point: One of the rarest of Polaris race sleds disguised as a 77 TXL and trail ridden for years before it was found hiding – in plain sight. That’s a story for another time.
Back to the Cats.
So – given the above criteria, how do we ID a real one? They have some common traits… and here they are, provided by collector Jerry McGee, with help from several other owners. Jerry has one of the original machines currently being restored.
Jerry McGee bought his 74 Cat SnoPro from a fellow named Kenny Skinner. Kenny had put the sled together, using an invader motor, a regular Z suspension, and a lot of other incorrect pieces. Through the last 4-5 years, (yes folks, you read that right!) Jerry has been painstakingly learning and searching for the correct parts. Through some lucky horse-trading, he came upon the motor and Andy Avelis helped him out with a suspension. Today, Jerry is only short the radiator and an expansion tank and some time to finish the project. The one drawback to the sled that has Jerry somewhat disappointed is that any reference to the original driver was completely gone, and efforts to gain any information from previous owners hasn’t produced any leads.
I contacted Jerry for ‘in-progress’ shots, and he was happy to share these photos:
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74 Cat SnoPro bulkhead. Note the round front axle – but a very 76 ‘Z’ like belly pan.
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Note the bulkhead axle is two stamped pieces welded together.
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The skid frame is very unique on the 74. Like the bulkhead, individual stamped pieces are welded and riveted together.
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Unique motor components include the water pump mounted to the recoil housing, and the duel plugged heads, with water inlets on the top of the heads.
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The main unique identifier on a 74 Cat SnoPro is the bulkhead. This clever, unique design consisted of stamped component pieces that are welded together (and/or riveted) to form pretty light pieces that are still very strong. Being the first year Cat ran liquid cooled engines, they had to find a unique place to put the radiator – and a welded on front piece was created. I’ve gotten lots of mixed information on the tunnels. They are not like 73 EXT tunnels, but they aren’t exactly like any production models. More than likely, they are the forerunner to the 1975 El Tiger or Z tunnels.
Much like the bulkhead, the suspension is very unique. Again, stamped pieces put together for strength, it was a very interesting design concept. As far as we know, most of the rear skids were cut, shortened and drilled part way through the season to try and save some weight. The tracks also under went a ‘diet’ part way through the year, and may have been outfitted with titanium or even aluminum cleats. The skis are zinc plated; they look chrome, but are not.
The motors have some definite identifying marks as well. First up, the water pump being mounted to the bell crank housing is completely unique to the 74 Cat SnoPro in the entire Cat catalog. It’s a twin plug Kawasaki motor, with the coil studs mounted to the cylinders on top of the carbs.
Then there is that hood… I think you’d be hard pressed to pick a better looking hood on any sled, any where, in any time.
So that’s the common traits that have been positively identified on the original 1974 Cat SnoPros. They all shared these traits – except one very, very special SnoPro. We’ll take a look at that next.
Next: Odd Man Out. The Most Unique of the 74 Cat SnoPros.