Here’s an interesting local Beausejour, Manitoba sled. This machine was built by a local racer named Dave Shack. An innovator and thinker, Dave built this independent front end machine from a 1976 TX Starfire chassis.

The Starfire had the 340 liquid kit engine and Dave installed the front end of his own design. The sled has a trailing arm construction with a single "V" or "A" arm on it’s side, and a hydraulic shock/spring. This machine did very well against leaf spring competition locally.

It was a handful to drive and maintain as it was ALWAYS being tweaked for better handling. I can remember him working on it at Tyndall garage and it was quite impressive. Dave raced this sled during the ‘76-’77 Manitoba Snowmobile Association season. In late ‘77 Dave bought a new RXL which is now in my possession.

The question is: Where is it now?

Story and photos contributed by Dale Neduzak of Time Benders Garage.

Meet Sammy and Shelby, and Shelby’s new toy: This is a one of a kind, prototype 77 Polaris RXL garden tractor. They are extremely rare, and only one has been found, verified by experts, and has been restored to pristine condition. She came factory with a whopping 8 hp briggs and stratton 4 stroke, power house! It has been overbored .010, has been ported, polished, and piped with a genuine, Fleet Farm High performance tuned exhaust system. She has been geared up with a 4″( instead of 3 1/2″) front drive pulley. Making it a wheel standing monster on the hole shot, and a whopping 9 mph at 3650rpm! The cornering on this machine has never been paralleled on a by another piece of yard equipment to date.

All kidding aside, Jim Haug built this beauty mostly because Shelby always wanted to drive Jim’s actual lawn mower.

This machine was originally a 76 Simplicity Yeoman, sold new by Pierce Sales and Service of Plainview. With some extra pin stripes, and some donated parts from my garage crew, this baby took a whopping 20 hours to restore. Shelby loves to ride it, and has been known to cruise it down to her new neighbors – Brian and Denise Bronner. Their house has pretty much become her new 2nd home. This is what happens when a guy who likes snowmobiles runs out of things to work on in his garage! Actually it is what happens when a dad knows what his kids wants and has not learned how to say no. So here it is, before all of the dents, scratches and burned off tire treads. Enjoy!

Kale Wainer works in the Marketing Department at Arctic Cat and gets questions from a handful of loyal PRIDE readers (Cat’s magazine they send to customers) asking what he is building now… well, Kale thought maybe vintagesleds.com readers would enjoy his latest sled. Good thought Kale!

It started life as a barn wreck 1976 Pantera that came complete with a free mouse and nest. (Quite the surprise when he opened the airbox.)

Kale’s intention from the start was to modernize the sled, he really wanted to have a better seating position like the new Cat sleds, so he bought a gas tank and seat from a 2006 Sno Pro and mounted that. Once the seating felt right, the handlebars were too low, so the steering post was shimmed ahead ¾”, then the stock handlebars were cut off and replaced with a handlebar clamp from a Sport Quad.

To finish off the sled a few key sponsors were critical in the final outcome. If the goal was ergonomics, there was only one company to turn to and that was Rox Speed FX. Their 5” adjustable billet riser was the ticket to getting the bars in the air, as well as a set of their Universal handlebars capped off with a Rox bar pad, handguards and mounts. The coolest part of the handlebar setup was being able to retain the stock handgrips and controls for a pseudo vintage look.

After that, Rox focused attention on the stock running boards by adding a set of their billet SledTreds. Although Rox doesn’t make SledTreds specific to vintage snowmobiles, this pair was altered to fit, but originally slated for a Ski Doo MXZ. The number plate on the back of the tunnel is also a Rox product. (Perfect for vintage one-lunger racers.) The universal number plate is run by all the top snocross pros and easily rivets to any tunnel.

To cap off the look, Kale took it to Robb at Blown Concepts and a custom graphics package was made that is loosely based off the 1976 Cross Country Cat, appropriately named SnoCross Country Cat. I’d highly recommend Blown Concepts for all your graphic needs. Robb can recreate any vintage decal (As long as you supply an original) or can design a custom graphics package. Other major help came from Bottomline Traction who designed and fabricated a custom set of carbides for the skis. (In the near future I will be replacing the steel skis with plastic.)

Kale also mentioned that if any vintagesleds.com readers have any feedback on his creation, or would like to submit their custom Arctic Cats to PRIDE magazine, Kale would love to hear from them. Maybe they could even end up like the CAT’S PRIDE feature they just did on Andy Avelis!

Sponsors mentioned in Kale’s creation of an updated Cross-Country Cat include Arctic Cat, Rox Speed FX, Blown Concepts Custom Vinyl Graphics and Bottom Line Traction Products. Thanks for Sharing Kale!

Before…	…and after

This picture is so cool. Straight off the Bull Sessions… ‘pdafast’ built two custom sleds, one for each boy. Neat. What a neat Dad. I’ll bet the projects were very inexpensive, Dad & the boys got to spend some QGT together and make some toys that will be a lifetime of memories. Very cool.