Sure, it’s a bit of a stretch to refer to any snowmobile as “perfect”.

However, after getting some seat time on this year’s version of Arctic Cat’s 137-inch 600 Limited, we’re hard pressed to find anything about it we don’t like.

Yes, the 137 Limited with this engine has been around for about three years now but the 2016 version has some upgrades that just make it exceptional.

First, there’s the new TEAM clutch set. These clutches are such an improvement in the way this eager 600 delivers power to the snow, we were frankly surprised the first time we rode it.

The upshifts are smooth and linear but these clutches backshift with incredible agility and it just feels like the power is “right there” all the time, whether you’re cruising wide-open spaces or running trails in the mid-range.

Definitely a huge asset to this sled and sometimes it flat-out feels like an 800.

The other thing we’ve fallen in love with is this sled’s QS-3 shocks. These are incredibly easy to adjust and you always know exactly where they’re set.

The three adjustments make a very real difference in the way the sled rides, too. This is way more than fluff and has taken this sled up a huge notch this year.

Why the 137? We think this engine-tranny combo just works better with this track length.

Initially, we thought a 600 would work better with the 129 – and it is good – but this very potent 600 is just very happy with the longer track.

A 137 also gives you a lot of versatility for both on-trail and off-trail use.

Here’s the wrap-up: Good fuel and oil consumption, great ride, great handling and an overachieving powertrain.

It’s hard to hate a sled that delivers like this one – even if you’re married to another brand!

A couple of our readers were upset because I wrote a ““what if” story about Yamaha’s YCCT engine being used in the Cat 7000 this year.

Apparently these “expert” commentators don’t like us making assumptions about what could happen – they just want the facts.

Here’s why we write stories like this: We have an incredible track record for being right! At this time of year we frankly don’t know where the OEMs are going with new product.

No, surprisingly, they don’t call us up and ask us what we would think about using “this engine in this chassis” or “do we think consumers would like a sled like thus or so?” I know – it’s shocking, isn’t it?

However, because we are well-known in the sno-mo-biz we do have a lot of inside info on what product planners may be thinking.

Our ability to guesstimate and opine about what may be coming has been pretty accurate over the years. It’s one of the reasons Supertrax is the number one mag in the business and this website gets so much traffic.

We’re not saying this is what WILL happen – it’s just an educated “maybe”.

So, here’s our latest “what if”: Suppose Arctic Cat wanted its newest engine to be a Yamaha direct injected 800 2-stroke.

Here’s our defense of this pipe dream:

FACT 1. Such an engine would get Yamaha into the 2-stroke mountain market immediately.

FACT 2. An 800 DI engine would meet all EPA criteria for pollution in a category where it’s very difficult to get certification.

FACT 3. Cat already has an engine agreement with Yamaha and is going full speed ahead with it.

FACT 4. It would save Cat zillions of dollars getting another 2-stroke certified.

FACT 5. Yamaha would be a serious player in a category it hasn’t had strength in for a decade.

FACT 6. Yamaha owns 2-stroke DI technology (only one of two snowmobile OEMs who do) and isn’t using it in the snowmobile business yet.

Even using this kind of logic, the fact is, we just don’t know for sure.

Certainly it would make huge sense for Cat to come with a slot-injected 800 like the DSI 600 and not a DI Yamaha-built 800 twin. However, the resources are right there for the taking and it wouldn’t be the first time Cat has taken a completely unexpected twist in the road and blown us away.

Just thought you guys would appreciate some facts.

We put 90-miles on a production 2016 Renegade with the revisited 1170cc 4-stroke last week. If you hadn’t heard, Ski-Doo went with its drive-by-wire technology on this engine this year, expanding it from the ACE 600 and 900 engines.

This setup gives you three different riding modes, depending on the trails you’re riding and whether you prioritize mileage over performance.

Since the trails had just been groomed we kept the Rennie in Sport mode all day and were impressed with its strong acceleration, especially from 60 to 80-mph. At this speed the sled rockets itself forward like an 800 and surprisingly, for a 4-stroke, keeps accelerating hard beyond 80.

This is a fantastic engine in the upper ranges and its largest-in the-industry 1170 cubes of displacement generates enormous torque when that crank is spinning. It feels like a hypersled.

Throttle tip-in from idle and low speeds is very smooth now with DBW and Ski-Doo has pretty much beaten-up the throttle lag problem of the past. Throttle effort at the thumb flipper is extremely light.

Truthfully, we’d prefer a bit more throttle spring – it’s almost too light and when your one-handing it to adjust your goggles or give signals you have to be careful the sled doesn’t lurch from a sudden off-balance application of throttle.

In powder we noticed the typical riding demeanor you get with a 4-stroke sled. It feels noticeably heavier than an E-TEC and when you get it off its line or out of a groove set by the sled ahead of you it wants to “pendulum” itself in its own chosen direction.

This requires some preplanning and throttle control because the sled will understeer in fluffy snow. On hard packed snow this tendency is much less and the weight of the heavier engine works to the rider’s advantage.

We also found the adjustable skis work great. We had to do some road running with marginal snow left on the pavement and found a “sweet spot” we could adjust in where the skis were floating on top without grinding the carbides on the pavement (be careful not to retract the skags too much or you’ll grind the bottom of your skis off).

No complaints with handling or suspension with the X. This is a fully evolved chassis and Ski-Doo has done a great job with it. It feels nimble and lighter than the other 4-stroke we had on this ride, a Cat 137-inch Limited, but we’re not completely sure which one is fastest because both sleds had really low mileage on their odometers.

Overall, we felt the Cat was a bit more engaged with the trail than this particular Rennie but both are a pleasure to ride.

We’ve been puzzled by this question ever since Yamaha announced it’s drive-by-wire YCCT (Yamaha Chip Controlled Throttle) system on the Vector last January.

It just makes sense, should Yamaha put this control system on the Viper in MY2017, why wouldn’t it make the same setup available to the 7000 Cats?

There’s a couple of ways to look at this. First way: Yamaha is really trying hard to make its Viper a distinctive Yamaha product and cut some of the strings attached to Thief River Falls, Minnesota where the Viper is built.

Although the relationship between the two sled-makers is going very well, it would give Yamaha some kind of an edge against the 7000 Cats and would make the two models more un-similar – maybe something Yamaha owners have been hoping for.
Think of a YCCT equipped Viper with a SingleShot skidframe – Yamaha enough for ya?

The other way to look at this is to make the YCCT engine available in both the Viper and the 7000 but only as an early-season-purchase feature and only on the highest end versions of those sleds, the Viper LE and the 7000 Limited or El-Tigre.

This way it provides more incentive for buyers signing up for the next year’s sleds early and also gives both companies the opportunity to consumer test the YCCT technology before going in 100-percent with it on all models.

I guess the third option would be to just put it on all of the above sleds in every category. That’s pretty much the way the shared technology program has been working so far and that would match the Viper head-on with what Ski-Doo is offering with its DBW 4-TEC.

The buzz in the sno-mo biz right now centers on the expected arrival of new engines for MY2017.

Let’s make this perfectly clear: Right now we don’t know what’s coming for sure. In just a few weeks we will know what’s coming but we won’t be able to tell you about it until March.

I said that so I can go on a rant about what we think might be coming without getting in trouble with the OEMs.

Obviously, we have some strong suspicions, however our suspicions are based on what we know about the market, what we know about the OEMs and what we know about the past. Here’s some deductive reasoning, Supertrax style.

SKI-DOO:

It is not just time, it’s past time for SD to launch a new engine platform, particularly a new E-TEC DI 2-stroke.

BRP owns the DI market for outboards producing the highly successful Evinrude E-TEC line using E-TEC technology on a mountain of different engine variants. Twins, triples, V-fours and V-sixes populate the Evinrude line of E-TEC engines.

Something else is unique about Evinrude’s flavor of E-TEC and it’s something we think is overdue for Rotax snowmobile engines using E-TEC DI. Fully stratified Direct Injection.

The outboards use a second-generation hammer head, voice-coil injector compared to what we’ve come to know since 2008 on Ski-Doo E-TEC sleds. This new injector delivers a stratified (read: lean) charge across the entire RPM operating range. E-TEC injectors on Rotax snowmobile engines produce stratified combustion to just above idle RPM.

The reason we’re amped about E-TEC II, as we believe it will be called, is power. The leaner the mixture the more power the engine will make.

The other benefit will be even better 4-stroke-beating fuel economy and of course, reduced emissions. We’re pretty sure Ski-Doo will show us a new engine next month. Whether it’s a 2-stroke or a turbocharged 4-stroke is the big question.

ARCTIC CAT:

You don’t have to be too in-tune with the calendar to realize Arctic Cat has to be readying at least two new engines.

First, there’s little doubt a slot injection DSI 800 must be well along in its development. Will we see this engine next month? We don’t know, however we would wager substantial jing on the arrival of a reinvigorated, domestic built, Arctic Cat 800 twin with the company’s dual stage slotted piston injection system in the next twelve months, max.

The other engine story at Cat has to be the emergence of more Yamaha power. Five years ago we were told MY 2016 would be the last year for Suzuki power and we think this makes even more sense knowing in the ensuing five years Arctic Cat and Yamaha entered into a co-operative engine supply/manufacturing agreement.

If you read the Supertrax interview last month with Cat’s snowmobile VP, Brad Darling and Peter Smallman-Tew, snowmobile VP at Yamaha, you heard clearly the marriage is going very well and that we should be ready for something pretty impressive soon.

I read those words as meaning 1) “Pretty impressive” = big power, maybe turbo 2) “Soon” = this year!

Stay tuned.

We’ve talked about Yamaha’s HPDI (High Pressure Direct Injection) on this website before.

If you haven’t read about it here you may still be aware of the fact Yamaha owns 2-stroke DI technology and actually produced it for a number of years on its 2-stroke marine outboards.

It’s a totally different system than Ski-Doo’s DI E-TEC but produces very similar results. I’ve experienced this technology on the water and these 2-strokes are flat-out phenomenal engines and have all the desirable features of 2-stroke Direct Injection. They burn very lean, use little oil, produce almost no smoke and make great power.

Our point is this: Yamaha has been getting very serious about the mountain market the last two years. It’s MT-X line of 4-stroke Vipers is getting a lot more attention lately and its 1049cc 4-stroke triple is proving to be a decent performer in high altitude situations.

It’s doubtful, however, the MT-X will steal many Polaris, Ski-Doo and Cat 2-stroke-loving mountain hardcores away from their selected brand. You could say it’s an uphill battle (pun) for Yamaha trying to sway vertical customers into the 4-stroke genre.

A DI 2-stroke, however, would change all the rules. Remember, up until a decade ago, Yamaha was building some really awesome 2-stroke sleds. The 700cc triple in the SRX comes to mind but some of those early 600 twins were also really fast, lightweight powerplants.

Knowing how Yamaha operates, any new 2-stroke would likely be a complete new blueprint and the use of HPDI may necessitate a from-the-ground-up rejig of any engine designed for a snowmobile, anyway.

What’s even more interesting is, with the Viper, Yamaha now has a really competitive chassis to put a 2-stroke in.

Hey, maybe we’re dreaming in Technicolor here but when a company owns great technology and it’s just sitting on a shelf somewhere in Hamamatsu, doesn’t it tweak your brain to think what could be possible?