ALLEN HETTEEN- POLARIS CO-FOUNDER, DIES

November 1973 - Allen Hetteen, Co-Founder and past president of Polaris died November 24, 1973 as a result of a tractor accident on one of his farms near Roseau.
Hetteen, a pioneer in the snowmobile industry, began work on his first snowmobile in 1954 while in business with his brother, Edgar Hetteen.  The the Hetteen brothers, along with David Johnson, thus established Polaris Industries as a snowmobile manufacturer.  Edgar Hetteen later founded Arctic Enterprises in Thief River Falls, Minn.
Allen Hetteen became president of Polaris in 1960, and managed the company through its high growth years of the 1960's.  Polaris was sold to Textron, Inc. in 1968, and Hetteen continued as president until his resignation in m1970.

1969 HOMELITE SNOWMOBILE

In 1969 Homelite built three models of snowmobiles: The Ranger with a 10HP Husquevarna engine and a 12 inch track, The Forester with an 18HP JLO engine with a 15 1/2 inch track and The Explorer with a 23HP JLO engine with a 18 inch track.

BUDWEISER-POLARIS SETS SPEED RECORD

January 30, 1983 - The Budweiser-Polaris set a new world speed record.
The Budweiser-Polaris super-speed machine blasted down a quarter-mile of Lake Phalen at 150.75 Miles-Per-Hour (smashing the long standing speed record of 135.9MPH) to obliterate all records for an over-the-snow machine and also breaking all records of The Guinness Book of Records as being the fastest over the snow machine ever.

1977 SCORPION LINE-UP

In 1976 Scorpion expanded its Whip lineup with the Range Whip.
For 1977 Scorpion introduced another all new sled called The Sting, with a 440cc fan-cooled Cuyuna engine and either slide or Para-Rail suspension for the performance buyer.  The complete 1977 line-up included the Whip (with a deeper blue paint job), The Range Whip (in new rogue red), and The Lil' Whip, which also is a little deeper blue for 1977.

SKI-DOO RACING SLED

1982 Ski-Doo twin-tracked factory racer snowmobile.

THE 1988 YAMAHA EXCITER

HERE IS WHAT YAMAHA HAD TO SAY ABOUT THEIR 1988 EXCITER IN SEPTEMBER, 1987 - The Yamaha Exciter provides incredible acceleration and handling. It is designed lighter than other performance snowmobiles to allow you to get to the part of the mountain that other sleds never see.  Its suspension can be adjusted to suit the riders needs and style.  It has a block pattern track to improve traction and cornering on snow or ice.

GONE FOR THE WEEKEND

I will not have any new posts until Monday
Larry

PREVIEW OF 1976 ARCTIC CAT ELTIGRE

There were a lot of changes and refinements in The Arctic Cat line of cats for 1976, but probably none was more notable than the new engines and the classification system of them.  All new cats including The El Tigres featured the Spirit engine made to Arctic Cat's specs by Suzuki.The new El Tigre for 1976, had free-air 4000 or 5000 Spirit engines, which was in the high performance department.  In addition was the new green and black pin stripping along with some new safety features.

HOW MUCH ICE IS ENOUGH TO BE SAVE

The following is a rough gauge of ice thickness required for safety on the lakes and waters;
     *2 INCHES are needed to support one person, walking.
     *3 INCHES will support a group of people, walking single-file-spread out.
     *4 INCHES are sufficient for fishing on foot.
     *5 INCHES of ice are needed to support the weight of a snowmobile and a rider.
     *7 1/2 INCHES will support a two ton auto.

COMET'S NEW WIDE-RANGE PRIMARY CLUTCH

September 1987 - The new model 108C wide-range primary clutch from Comet was a 1/2 inch larger in diameter (a total of 8 inches) for use with 1 3/8 inch wide belts. Couple with a 1 1/2 inch diameter center post, its size offered a lower engagement ratio and a higher gear at shift-out.  This improved shift characteristics from low to mid-high ranges.
The new 108C accepted the same calibration such as arms and springs in use with the race-proven 102C.  The new model replaced the 1 3/8" belt versions of the 102C