Greetings, and welcome to Valdi's Old Snowmobile Information Factory...
The hobby is growing, with younger people entering the hobby. For all of you, I hope these videos educate and advance your knowledge and expertise.
The goal here is to promote and preserve the rich heritage and evolution of snowmobiling. Our purpose is to preserve and restore snowmobiles and help promote wider acquaintances, and closer relationships, and aid hobbyists in their preservation, restoration, and demonstration efforts.
This RU-vid channel builds on previous work. BRAAAP films produced a series of six DVD productions covering the hobby. (see link) As host of the series, I enjoyed highlighting all the different brands, colors, sounds, and sights associated with antique, vintage, and classic-class snowmobiles. See link below that showcases the six volume DVD series
Should give us the production numbers, it's all original but I think it was special order from the cat factory. Cat also said at the time they would make available any sled designed for racing to the general public as long as it could be reproduced on the assembly line
The 634 cc Hirth, the last sled you talked about actually is a 1970. I was a Chaparral dealer at the time. 1970 was a huge improvement over the 1969. 1970 included polyurethane track, aluminum tunnel, enclosed hood, thick soft seat, raised seat with storage under seat. In 1971 Chaparral made them lower and sleeker, nice sleds. 1969 models had issues. Rubber track, steel body, recoils all broke on third pull on all kohlers. Chaparral was purchased by Armco steel, then when the recession hit and gas shortages on the west coast caused a loss, at that point Armco discontinued production. The last couple years Chaparral tried too many new things and had too many warranty issues. About 1973 or 1974 was last year of production I believe.
Dang brother. You have some of my favorite sleds there. I owned a 634 Puma. Just like the one you have in the background. I drag raced that one and a 440Z. We won everything
I remember when they came out, everyone was talking about them, they were almost mythical. A couple guys bought some in my area, later that winter we had a radar run, and both ran their v4s. I was expecting them to take the show, many 650 polaris indys beat them , wild cat 700s my old 650 wild cat did even did better, the v4s were running with the mach1 617s. They weren't huge performers out of the box.
Ooof the history and hard work sad, have been enjoying your videos, sad to see all your irreplacable hard work disrespected by mother nature in this way. Hope to see the vintage sled community rally and help you get things going again. You had an absolutely beautiful collection😢
Currently own a '95 storm. Bought it with all original parts. Only change i made was plastic skis. She may need a overhaul this fall to keep her in good shape. But wouldn't trade it for a newer model!
Those golden vintage sleds (when properly restored) had a rumble that was exciting. Hearing this sled brings back memories for me of when my Dad would start-up our '71 Skidoo Olympique on a cold, wintery Canadian night. My Mom would say "Hey, get your snowmobile-suit on...Dad's going-out for a ride..." Such beautiful memories, thank you Vladi for the show.
Great point Valdi. The absolutely insane full mod 1970 760 Panther that my father built for a customer was later sold to two gentlemen who said they were racers out west. We sold a 1971 King Kat 793 to another guy and on testing day the full Mod 760 saw how much better the 793 KK was it wasn’t very long before The Monster was sold during the 1971 season. Shortly after our former big time racer customer returned and bought a cute 303 Wankle Lynx for putting through the woods. His racing days were over. lol.
