Big Engine Chaparrals in Museum 

He danced around the best one Chaparral ever made, the SSX liquid cooled Fuji powered speed demon!!!

I had a 1974 340 ssx liquid cooled. Fun sled

A friend of mine had a few of these SSX 440 liquid and would keep one nice by using the parts ones. When he was a teen a friends dad bought one right out of a semi trailer along the side of the road. They just wanted to liquidate them. They found that they were jetted rich so they jump down a size or two,and that made em come alive. They also found out the hard way about making them too lean. he said they used a phone book cover for the base gasket after replacing the burnt piston🤣. The factory jetted them rich so that didnt happen.They were just covering their butts .That was probably 1974 and the two friends were 15 years old. As the years went by my buddy would buy them when he could. He saw a add and the old farmer had a fan cooled one and a SSX liquid cooled one.The farmer said he never liked the SSX because it was always fouling plugs. My buddy said "sold". When he finally got a new modern snow machine he gave me the SSX. We went through it and one of the things we found was the rear suspension was limited in the travel. It would travel 5 inches out of the tunnel but when in the tunnel only 3 and a half before it hit the top of the tunnel. Hmmm. We bolted and riveted steel plates on the tunnel and lowered the mounting holes. That gave it the full travel. It also putt more weight on the ski's. When you nailed it in the stock form the ski's were in the air and they don't steer well when their in the air. you know what i mean? we also put a taller seat on it so your knees wernt in your arm pits'. I port matched the intake and put in some Boysen duel stage reeds. The baffles in the pipe broke loose so i cut the end of the tube off and removed them, then welded the end back on. Removed the dash board and moved the tach up on top and the temp gage into the carb cover. We did this so we could modify the hood and uncover the whole engine. No speedometer because i can tell when I've reached terminal velocity and the speed i would splat like a bug on a windshield. Why did i paint it red? Because why would they choose baby poop brown for the high performance model? Not me. That was like a slap in the face. Had a friend with a indy 650 three cylinder, on the groomed trails he said he couldn't pass me because when i got around a corner and he said when he got around the corner I'd be gone. He would catch me and then another corner, I'd be gone. He said i looked like a monkey f*&#king a foot ball riding it. You actually have to ride these old machines. Only time he could pass me was on a long straight and out horsepower me. One guy was bragging on his 485 fan cooled and how fast it was. He was checking out the old SNAPPY CHAPPY and said he was surprised the old jalopy had made it this far on the ride. You should have seen his face as i caught him and went by at 90 plus. At the next stop i told my buddy i had beat him, he goes right over and asked the guy what it felt like to be SPANKED by a old jalopy. The SSX sleds had different gears in the chain case for the record. Many more stories of throwing snow . Came out on the power lines one night and this group was flashing the lights. WE go over and we knew them.They said they knew it was us 5 miles out, because that sled sounds like no other. It cackles. Definitely a scary ride, it outruns its brakes and it's headlight. The new sleds set fire to the brush and I'm back here with a candle. Good times. I still have this machine but I'm 60 now and it's hard work and beats the crap out of me. When i do fire it up, its like hearing a good old friend. If you have read this far go to my channel and look for a couple videos and hear the cackle for yourself. Leave a comment.

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.

Great collection.. grew up on a 71 Skiroule S-250 but I had all the snowmobile mags and my favorite photo all time is a Chaparral coming down a trail with the skies lifted (fronts pointing down).. still got it somewhere

What a amazing collection a true piece of history

Beautiful examples of great American made sleds. So rare. Great video. I remember these red beauties new racing at Boonville NY in USSA competition.

Cool those were nice looking machines

Wow, nice to see a fellow Albertan with such a passion for old sleds.

Roger Janssen raced one of the first Chaparral IFS sleds. He said it was ahead of its time but needed development.

My first Sled as a kid was a chaparral, the high handle bars saved my life one night, I went through a barbed wire fence and the handle bars were so tall that I tucked under them and only received a small puncher wound on my upper left leg, still have the scar. However after that my mother band all night rides.

Bought a new 1973 SS-3 440 when I was 19 and absolutely loved the machine. I was a kid, and did what most kids do when that age, ran the dog do out of it. The week link of the sled was the suspension. The bogie par-a-rail suspension didn't hold up to my madness. If I had known the great improvements that were going to be made the following model year, I would have definitely waited for the 74 model. The 74 liquid cooled 440 SSX was much quicker and handled even better with the new slider suspension. I was working for GM and for the life of me don't know why I didn't buy the 74 model. If I had known, it was the last year for Chaparral I may have done just that. One great thing about the Chaparrals was there handling. When out on the trails, I could easily outpace the other machines of the day. I was wild and loven every minute of it while ridden my SS-3 440. If memory serves me right, I paid 1100.00 dollars for the machine. Great memories and I am thankful I didn't seriously hurt myself while riding my sled. When looking back at how I was back then, it amazing how I have changed sense then. Like I said, I am thankful for my guardian angles. That much power in the hands of a crazy teenager is not recommended. And to think of the powerful sleds that are made today. That is really a scary thought. Loved the drive down memory lane. Thanks for the video.

My close friend got killed in a car accident in Nov 1973.The 440 Chapperell is still in the create in parents garage. He was supposed to get it for Xmas. In Miramichi New Brunswick

Just awesome machine's

Interesting , Thank You . As I remember from an old Snowgoer? Magazine they had so much more cornering power that a lit of racers got dumped on there first turn .

So many things old , still in use today

Nicely done, but can't believe there wasn't a word mentioned about the burnt orange 1974 liquid cooled SSX, Chaparral's last entry in the sport. Fastest 50hp machine I ever saw. I bought one still in the crate, a 440, when they went out of business. $815 OTD!!!!! Best $800 I ever spent. It whipped my Arctic El Tigre, so I sold the Tigre!!!! Didn't handle as well, but would just kill it in any sort of straight line race. Never overheated, either.

What beauties! Wow! Too bad good ole chaparral did not last! Seeing these machines make me wish i had bill gates money so i could buy everyone of them . I actually had a chaparral 100cc enduro type motorcycle i rode year round in michigan.

Quality

Where is this museum?

Excellent videos of forgotten times Be even better if you could open all the hoods Looks like Chaparral was using Rotax motors?

where's the lc models, is that not what the brown one was ??

How much do you know about Red Line snowmobiles ? we don t see too many do we ? 🤔

I had a 1968 OMC SNOW CRUISER and it didn’t have anything independent……

Awesome just awesome video and machine's love old vintage sleds and thank you for sharing and keep the information and videos coming !

Bought one new in 1972 it was a 340 twin Koehler engine i think handled very well wasn't quite as fast as my dad's 340 tnt ski door but handled and rode a lot better.