More than two years of engineering, development, manufacturing and logistics work came to fruition in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, as the very first Yamaha SR Viper RTX SE units rolled off the assembly line at the Arctic Cat factory.
The milestone was marked by a ribbon-cutting ceremony with executives from both companies and witnessed by the factory employees responsible for building the units.
“Our alliance is a show of great cooperation between our companies and this, I believe, is the biggest news to hit our business in decades,” said Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA president, Toshizumi Kato. “On behalf of Yamaha Motor Japan I would like to congratulate everyone on this major accomplishment of what we see here today. Thank you to the factory workers of Arctic Cat, you should be very proud of the work you have done.”
The all-new SR Viper models are the result of an industry-first in the modern era: Yamaha is in a supplier agreement with Arctic Cat to leverage their respective strengths.
Yamaha is undisputed in the snowmobile world for its leadership position in high performance 4-stroke engines. Arctic Cat is known for lightweight chassis and suspension design.
“Together we have made a snowmobile which has the best of both our snowmobiles’ DNA,” continued Kato in his remarks. “I look forward to a future of mutual and beneficial growth for both Arctic Cat and Yamaha. Today let’s celebrate our accomplishment so far, for tomorrow the opportunities are endless.”
Full SR Viper model production is planned to begin at the end of September, with dealer deliveries ongoing throughout the fall.
For more information about the all-new SR Viper models, visit Yamaha-Snowmobiles.com and follow Facebook.com/YamahaSnowmobilesUSA.
