Power

The heart of the Thunder Cat is this 950cc water cooled fuel injected v twin four stroke motor which features single overhead cams and four valves per cylinder. A fully automatic CVT transmission with high and low ranges means there’s no need to shift gears.

The Thunder Cat is powered by a liquid cooled fuel injected 950cc V-twin four stroke engine. A four valve single overhead cam setup in each cylinder expedites the large volume of intake and exhaust gasses being passed through the ThunderCat's massive engine. Power is transferred to the Thunder Cat's shaft drive system through its fully automatic CVT system which features both high and low ranges with reverse. For situations that you can’t just rage through in two wheel drive, the ThunderCat features four wheel drive with full differential lock capabilities.

One problem the Arctic Cat had to overcome was the momentary spike loads that the drive train was subjected to during jump landings and times where traction went from unavailable to instant hookup. According to Arctic Cat, if they were to try and build a drive system to hold up to these milliseconds of punishment, they would have had to use something about the weight of the drive components used on a Corvette. What the engineers did was develop a spike load dampener. The spike load dampener is similar to a wet clutch pack that would allow for a small amount of slippage during abrupt changes in force being placed on the drive line. While we can’t say how well it works from one day of testing, we can tell you that we never actually felt a loss in power or a feeling of slippage in the drive train. We’ll assume that means it was working well as we did put a load on the engine after landing off of jumps and nothing broke.

If you have the money and the skill to master its power, the Thunder Cat is the best performing machine Arctic Cat has built to date. For more than just its powerful smooth motor, this is one case where bigger is indeed better.

Acceleration on the Thunder Cat is in a word 'controllable'. Arctic Cat did a great job of making the biggest cat in the pride a kitten when it comes to demeanor. Don’t get us wrong, the ThunderCat is insanely fast. The power begins with tons of torque and we never found a wide open place big enough to wind it all the way out.

While our test facility didn’t offer any slippery conditions, the Thunder Cat felt tractable. However, a mere twitch of your right thumb is all that is needed to break the back end loose. The ThunderCat launches straight forward without wheeling under hard acceleration like a well setup sport machine, this is as much chassis design as it is the machine's smooth power. A job well done if you ask us.

While the ThunderCat is controllable for its displacement, its 950cc motor can make it a handful in tight conditions. Don’t let its easy going manners fool you; an inexperienced rider could easily get in over their head in a hurry on any machine with this much instant torque and horse power.

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