Magnum 440, What made them a Winner in their Day?

[tx340]

The 440 Mganums were dominant race sleds in this class in 72/73.

What made these sleds so good? I look at them and they had a center mounted engine while everyone else had switched to the front mounted location. They did not have a low center of gravity like the T-jets of the day.

Was it the Tohatsu motor that takes all the credit, or was the power to weight ratio way better than the competition?

If you raced one of these sleds back then or have these sleds in you collection I would like to here your thoughts.

[alaskaruppguy]

Power to weight ratio was always good compared to other sleds. I would say the Tohatsu motor gets the credit in the 73 440. It was a very high strung motor in it's day but very tempermental. The biggest problem was the chrome bore. I think I peeled the chrome off about 9 cylinders that year. I won alot of races that year but also didn't finish alot of races. When it ran good it was hard to beat even by the bigger sleds. I remember having a love/hate relationship with it. I now have it nicaciled and don't have near as many problems. It still runs like a raped ape.