Nitromater
This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
pro stock snowmobile
- Thread starter Nick Name
- Start date
mastertone
Nitro Member
who cares!
Nick Name
Nitro Member
d'kid
Nitro Member
oh, come on David... it's only once a year at a national event....
I really think Todd Serra's 8.265 @ 155.87 ain't too shabby... I sure as heck wouldn't try that on a pair of tracks.... I was 31 before I ever saw a snowmobile in person.
And Craig Eagle, It's a Legal Class... I think it's correct that they get one National Event a year....
d'kid
BaldyLochs
Nitro Member
Has there ever been a Jet Snowmobile?
rckymtn3
Nitro Member
I grew up with motorcycles, and I mean, one of my "life lessons" was buying a Kawasaki 100 basket case with my lawn mowing money when I was ten, and with my dad's assistance and tutelage, rebuild it so it lived again. I went on to a great number of different dirt bikes in ever increasing sizes, then onto road bikes of increasing sizes. My first time on a sled was in the early 80s when I was sixteen. I was shocked. I have never been on a production vehicle that accelerated as quickly....before, or since, unless it was a newer sled. Mind you, I haven't been in a ZR-1 or a 599 with traction control, but something tells me the sled would beat them in a short course. You can't beat the traction. It was like buying a dragster off the showroom floor. Never rode one on pavement, but I can only imagine.
rckymtn3
Nitro Member
A thread called pro stock snowmobile, being about snowmobiles. I would be surprised as well.
BaldyLochs
Nitro Member
Raise your hand if you miss TNN's American Sports Calvacade 
Truck Pulls, Winston Drag Racing, Swamp Buggies, Lawn Mowers ... you and I both know that Steve Evans would be all over Pro Stock Snowmobiles 
Truck Pulls, Winston Drag Racing, Swamp Buggies, Lawn Mowers ... you and I both know that Steve Evans would be all over Pro Stock Snowmobiles
.
Nitro Member
A guy here in Cedar Rapids does a lot of work on sleds and has some customers that drag race them. He said it's not unusual to see 60 ft times in the 1.1 and under range! I had no idea they launched that hard.
Five minutes down the road from here, they used to (and maybe still do) hold belt sander drag races, and LOTS of people show up for them. If you can get spooled up over that, watching an 8 second snowmobile should absolutely blow you away.
It's still drag racing, whether it's lawn mowers, quads, snowmobiles or what have you - and that's a good thing.
It's still drag racing, whether it's lawn mowers, quads, snowmobiles or what have you - and that's a good thing.
I was fortunate to be crewing for Todd Serra's winning Pro Stock Snowmobile at Brainerd, and I can assure you that although they might be a novelty to most NHRA drag racing fans, these sleds are pretty sophisticated pieces of drag racing machinery.
The rules are pretty basic, and very similar to Pro Stock cars. The engines can be no larger than 1000 c.c.'s, naturally aspirated on legal race gas. The engine bottom end must start as an OEM piece, and the "skin" must match the engine brand. Most teams will admit to horsepower in the 270-280 range. The sled/driver combo has to weigh in at 650 lbs. Most of the top competitive sleds in the Pro Stock class run a tube chassis or a billet tunnel/chassis, and a rear skidframe from either Pro Stock Inc or Proline Performance. They run a 10.5 inch wide Camoplast track specifically made for the application.
All Pro Stock sleds must run a CVRT belt type transmission. The primary clutch is a centrifugal type very similar in principal to what the fuel cars run, constructed of billet and using a combination of springs and flyweights to apply pressure and shift the power back thru a rubber belt to a torque converter, then a jackshaft which drives a chain to spin the drive axle and track. Tuning the clutch system is tricky, and that's where most of the magic happens that separate winners and also-rans.
All of the top teams run some serious data management computers, and will go over the graphs and numbers religously after every run. I can tell you that there was a glitch with the data computer on Todd's sled after the first round, and he went back to some old-school tuning by feel to get the sled to launch and leave cleanly in the final.
The two stroke engines can be extremely finicky to tune, and are very touchy to jetting and air density. MSD ignition progamming is also key, to adjust when and where the power hits and how hard. It's a delicate dance to grab ahold of the drive belt and efficiently transfer power down to the track, without blowing the track away at the hit, or having it get loose and blow the track off farther down the 1320. Sound familiar?
All of the Pro Stock Snowmobile racers take their racing seriously, and spend a pile of time and money to build and tune these machines. And really, anything that runs an 8.26 pass at 155 mph without a rollcage is a pretty darn cool, wouldn't you say? Most of the Pro Stock sleds on the pavement will run upper one-teens for a 60' time. The same sleds on the ice are now in the 1.0 range for their 60's. Any way you slice it, that's a lot to hold on to.
For those drag racing fans that might be interested in seeing the Pro Stock sleds again this year, they will be in Martin, MI the weekend of Sept 21-23 at the Amsnow Magazine Super Sled Shootout. If low 8's aren't fast enough for you, the Outlaw Turbo Sleds will be there and running under 7 seconds in 1000' at around 170 mph.
The rules are pretty basic, and very similar to Pro Stock cars. The engines can be no larger than 1000 c.c.'s, naturally aspirated on legal race gas. The engine bottom end must start as an OEM piece, and the "skin" must match the engine brand. Most teams will admit to horsepower in the 270-280 range. The sled/driver combo has to weigh in at 650 lbs. Most of the top competitive sleds in the Pro Stock class run a tube chassis or a billet tunnel/chassis, and a rear skidframe from either Pro Stock Inc or Proline Performance. They run a 10.5 inch wide Camoplast track specifically made for the application.
All Pro Stock sleds must run a CVRT belt type transmission. The primary clutch is a centrifugal type very similar in principal to what the fuel cars run, constructed of billet and using a combination of springs and flyweights to apply pressure and shift the power back thru a rubber belt to a torque converter, then a jackshaft which drives a chain to spin the drive axle and track. Tuning the clutch system is tricky, and that's where most of the magic happens that separate winners and also-rans.
All of the top teams run some serious data management computers, and will go over the graphs and numbers religously after every run. I can tell you that there was a glitch with the data computer on Todd's sled after the first round, and he went back to some old-school tuning by feel to get the sled to launch and leave cleanly in the final.
The two stroke engines can be extremely finicky to tune, and are very touchy to jetting and air density. MSD ignition progamming is also key, to adjust when and where the power hits and how hard. It's a delicate dance to grab ahold of the drive belt and efficiently transfer power down to the track, without blowing the track away at the hit, or having it get loose and blow the track off farther down the 1320. Sound familiar?
All of the Pro Stock Snowmobile racers take their racing seriously, and spend a pile of time and money to build and tune these machines. And really, anything that runs an 8.26 pass at 155 mph without a rollcage is a pretty darn cool, wouldn't you say? Most of the Pro Stock sleds on the pavement will run upper one-teens for a 60' time. The same sleds on the ice are now in the 1.0 range for their 60's. Any way you slice it, that's a lot to hold on to.
For those drag racing fans that might be interested in seeing the Pro Stock sleds again this year, they will be in Martin, MI the weekend of Sept 21-23 at the Amsnow Magazine Super Sled Shootout. If low 8's aren't fast enough for you, the Outlaw Turbo Sleds will be there and running under 7 seconds in 1000' at around 170 mph.
Last edited:
