2011 Arctic Cat M8 HCR Long-Term Test

End of the first M era

By Stephen W Clark

Published: September 20, 2011

Hill Climb Racer is what HCR stands for but with this one you’ll get even more than what the name suggests. Whether you are sashaying through powder, dropping off a cornice, bounding over big bumps on-trail, or actually hillclimb racing the HCR will put a smile on any aggressive rider’s face.

Photo by Stephen W Clark

During the launch of the 2011 machines Arctic Cat’s previous M-Series sleds almost instantly went from being top-performing mountain sleds to feeling a bit outdated.

That’s when the Polaris Pro-RMK 800 and the Ski-Doo Summit 800R E-TEC hit the slopes. The 2011 M8 hadn’t lost its fantastic motor or great handling characteristics, it’s just that the arrival of the Pro-RMK and Summit E-TEC had raised the bar in the mountain segment.

The conventional “rider-behind-the-motor” chassis configuration of the M-Series began to feel old. For the duration of last winter we had a bright green 2011 M8 HCR in our test fleet and we rekindled our love for the machine and platform that for many seasons we simply couldn’t get enough of.

An incredible sled
The HCR is at its core basically Cat’s M8, but tailored for hillclimb racing. It comes with a 3-inch wider 42 – 44-inch front-end, titanium sprung Fox Zero Pro front shocks, all the bells and whistles of the premium M sleds and a tether just in case you’re really serious about taking it up a RMSHA course.

HCR’s configuration makes it more suited to riding rough terrain where a race-like suspension is needed. The wider front-end makes it more stable on the trail and, depending on rider preference, more stable and predictable in the mountains. There are a lot of benefits to the wider front-end, but the added width does sacrifice some sidehilling ability especially when trying to navigate through tight trees.

Our first ride on the HCR last season was incredible, it was early season and Island Park, Idaho, had just received a heavy dump of snow. Snow was so deep that we could hardly get off of the flats and up into the mountains so we spent the day boondocking through ungroomed trials with more than a foot of fresh fluff on top of a good base. We would each take turns leading the group and carving up the virgin powder. Riding these trails all day we had an absolute blast quickly burning through a tank of fuel. We had to ride pretty much with the throttle wide open the whole day so as not to get bogged down and stuck in the deep fresh snow.

What impressed us the most that day was the M8’s horsepower. The engine pulls hard and when the powervalves open on the top end you can feel it pull even more. The 800 H.O. engine has one of those powerbands that really gets the adrenalin flowing and just makes you want to grin.

As one of Arctic Cat’s premium mountain models the HCR comes with a telescoping steering post that allows you to easily adjust the handlebars’ height without tools. The adjustable steering post is really nice as it allows you to lower the bars on the trail and then raise them in the mountains for more leverage. The M8’s bars rotate on an almost perfectly horizontal plane, for sidehilling and deep snow riding this steering setup is ideal. But on the trail a steering system that dips the handlebar on the inside is preferred. We found that even with the horizontal pivoting handlebar when it is in the lowest position on the trail we could still lean enough to keep the machine cornering flat.

The adjustable height steering post and horizontal plane steering is a system that gives a good handling balance between trail and mountain riding.

HCR a steal
The beauty of a machine in its final year of a model cycle, like our HCR, is that after many seasons of updates and tweaking it is the most refined and reliable version of the model. With the arrival of the new 2012 ProClimb chassis, the value of previous generation M-Series, like our 2011 HCR, likely will drop and we are guessing there will be some great buys available on these machines at dealerships.

There also are tons of aftermarket parts available and a lot of companies that have extensive knowledge on tuning these sleds. Buyers who can resist the urge to buy the latest and greatest machine will find great value in the new holdover M-Series models. Sure, newer models likely will perform better, but it will still be tough to beat a good rider on an M-Series in the foreseeable future.

An M-Series Tribute

In the final long-term review we will ever write on the old Arctic M-Series, it is fitting to pen a small tribute and parting thoughts on what has become a legendary mountain snowmobile.

For 2012 the new ProClimb chassis will replace the M-Series marking the end of an era in mountain snowmobiling. In its 6-year reign the M-Series chassis has always been one of the best machines in the mountain segment, winning AmSnow’s Best Mountain Snowmobile award no less than four times. The very fact that the M-Series remained competitive for so many years is a testament to how good it is.

Although Arctic Cat made improvements almost every year shedding weight and increasing horsepower, the basic chassis geometry of the 2011 M8 and 2005 M7 are very close. That geometry stayed the same because the M-Series worked so well in the mountains especially in technical sidehill terrain. Sidehill handling of the M-Series contributed to an evolution in mountain riding that has drawn many riders away from avalanche prone open faces and led them into steep tree-filled technical terrain that was previously considered unrideable. Pro riders like Brett Rasmussen and Chris Burandt showcased the capabilities of the M-Series and redefined the impossible with incredible video segments showing technical tree riding.

Not only has the M-Series contributed to this technical sidehill evolution, but it also is special in that it marks the last machine with what is now considered the old-school layout. Since snowmobiles were first invented they have featured a large hood up front enclosing the engine with the riding position and steering post behind the motor. In the last few years manufacturers have compressed the geometry on the front-end by moving the engine back, moving the riding position over the engine and running the steering post in front of, and closer to the motor.

The M-Series is one of the last snowmobiles that you can open a single hood to reveal the whole engine; working on engines will never again be as easy as it was with machines like the M-Series.

All good things come to an end, and we are sad to see the M-Series chassis that we have come to know and love reach the end of its development cycle. But our initial impressions of the new 2012 Arctic Cat mountain models give us the confidence that the next generation chassis will continue to be competitive in driving mountain snowmobile technology to new heights. Let’s ride!