I'll add my .02. The 440 snowcross engines are 500 build sleds per manufacture. These engines are close to 100hp (corrected). These engines are very peaky, and I would think hard to clutch for the average F500 racer. The manufactures, Arctic Cat, Ski-Doo, Polaris, and Yamaha change every year to keep up with the competition. I heard a rumor that the 440's were going away, and will be replaced by 600cc 2 strokes. Thats the bottom of the market segment now. There is very little interest in 500cc market share. Yamaha has only 4 strokes in there line-up. Eventually 4 strokes will replace 2 strokes in snowmobiles.It might take 5 years, And the costto produce 4 stroke's would be to much for this class.It was said before, the manufactures are not interested in supplying engines for the F500 class. There is not enough volume to make it worth there time. My opinion is this, Rotax will be making parts for a long time for the 494 and 493. We could easily run these engines for the next 5 to 10 years. Or, another alternative would be to let any 500cc 2 stroke run. The salvage yards are full of very cheap 500cc engines/sleds of four different brand,.and should be very close in HP, and are very reliable. I would personally like to see this class stay with 2 strokes and CVT because of the affordability. We need to keep this class cheap, and keep it the most bang for the buck. OK, Flame away!! Rick Eskola Red Devil #04 CenDiv.
Chuck Voboril <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Good bottom line reasoning on the economic reality of trying to use new motors FMod47. As long as a motor that everyone is happy with has a good supply of spare parts, then you simply do not need a currently produced motor. My advice: Before introducing a new choice to the class, make sure it has been produced for quite awhile and has a satisfactory parts supply. This will allow it to endure after it also is out of production. Chuck Voboril >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Reply-To: [email protected] >To: [email protected] >Subject: Re: [F500] What?! Discontinuing the 493?! >Date: Sat, 2 Dec 2006 10:12:32 EST > >Years ago when I worked with Mike Quadrini at his Polaris dealership I >checked with Polaris about motor possibilities --- quite frankly they were >NOT >interested. The, to us, marvelous F440 race car was of little interest to >them. >The ridiculously small number of engines we use in a year (most large >dealerships in northern climates sell more sleds of individual sizes 400, >500 600 >etc) wouldn't mean anything to their overall profit margin. About all they >would concede was the possibility of making a short block available but >not for >any discount. They certainly would not have made any guarantee that >production >would continue beyond the current year. The fact that Bombardier and Rotax >have taken any interest at all is major - >as for the 440 race engines - I don't know how they are right now but >there >is constant development ($$$$$$) each year ----- a new one each year?? > >I am, unfortunately, not offering any solution but I just want people to >realize that we are not major players in the snowmobile market - if a >franchised >dealer couldn't sell at least 20 sleds per year it would probably lose its >franchise - does Tony even sell 20 engines per year to the group? I find >it >even difficult to believe that Tony can make a profit on the engines since >he >has to lay out the $$$ to stock them and then wait for the demand (Thanks >Tony >for your support these past years). --------------------------------- Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta. ________________________________ FormulaCar Magazine - A Proud Supporter of Formula 500 The Official Publication of Junior Formula Car Racing Subscribe Today! www.formulacarmag.com or 519-624-2003 _________________________________ _______________________________________________ F500 mailing list - [email protected] To unsubscribe or change options please visit: http://f500.org/mailman/listinfo/f500 *** Please, DO NOT send unsubscribe requests to the mailing list! ***
