Speedway Snowmobiles
The Freezin’
Season Ferrari
In October 1971, Speedway Products announced its entry into the snowmobile market for the 1972 season. The new company was led by former Rupp employees, so it was no surprise that their all-new Speedway snowmobile was performance-oriented.
“We’re not producing a mass-market machine,” Speedway President John Morrow emphasized. “It’s a hybrid – a sports snowmobile for serious competitors and enthusiasts. We’re after a ‘Ferrari’ position in America.”
To reinforce the message, enthusiast magazine advertising for the new blue metal flake Speedways urged consumers to “Think of it as a blue Ferrari.”
One of a new class of very high-performance sport sleds that was just beginning to emerge, Speedways were built in both trail-legal (stock) and race-track-only (modified) versions that were differentiated primarily by exhaust systems and the presence of or lack of lights and bumpers.
Built For Speed
Featuring a serious go-fast design by Bill Scott, another former Rupp guy, the streamlined Speedway Blue Max was loaded with technology.
Kohler “sunburst” free-air two-cylinder engines (for the splayed cooling fins) with high compression heads and individual pipes for each cylinder provided power for most, but not all, Speedway models, as the 1972 and 1973 340 models were Sachs-powered.
The Kohler engines ranged from a 295 offered only in 1974 to a 650 triple factory race engine with more than 100 horsepower offered in all three model years in which the brand built snowmobiles. Trail models with the 440 twin topped out in the mid-60s for horsepower, which put them in serious contention for the best power-to-weight ratio of any stock trail sled on the market at the time.
A unique, rubber-damped mounting plate for the engine and clutch tilted the engine forward and held the drive train alignment true under power.
Other weight-saving features included an easy-open aluminum belt guard and a fiberglass belly pan. The low center of gravity provided better stability. But with high power and a short track, these sleds required an experienced rider with a deft touch or they could escape the driver’s control very easily.
Other features included a triple-row roller drive chain, polyurethane drive sprockets, disc brake mounted on the drive axle instead of the jack shaft, chrome skis, auto racing style hood lock pins, blue-tinted low windshield, two-up wedge seat and trail-legal lighting on stock models only. Buyers of the stock models could add tuned pipes as an accessory.
Trail and Track
Speedways obviously weren’t for everyone. When Snow Goer evaluated a 1973 440 stocker, our riders at that time found the 5,200 RPM clutch engagement was the highest of any sled evaluated that year. That, combined with the sleds’ touchy handling, made Speedways harder to control than most sleds.
On top of that, the 112-decibel (dB) sound output measured at the spring tests made the tested Speedway the loudest sled that year by 4 dB. And with relatively small hood openings for cooling air, the machines tended to run hot and were prone to vapor lock, a sled-stopping problem for all brands back then.
The 1973 test sled seized one cylinder on the track dynamometer just after recording the top speed. After repair, the test sled tended to vapor lock when not being run hard. Track failures were common, as the vulcanized cleats came off and the tracks shattered.
Nevertheless, our testers concluded that, “If you’re a high-performance nut or have the money to buy something to beat the boys down to the next bar, the 440 Blue Max really does deserve a special look.”
Speedways had other strong points, too, including eye-riveting good looks, excellent side-to-side stability and a better ride quality than expected. And more than anything else they were undeniably fast.
Nevertheless, sales were slow for trail models. But they found success as drag racing machines, particularly in smaller associations and at outlaw events that weren’t too picky about rules. For example, Garry Franz, of Eau Claire, Michigan, won a 1973 Michigan International Snowmobile Association (MISA) Super Stock grass drag points championship with a Speedway.
The striking blue machines were also competitive in wintertime oval sprint racing, making their presence felt in USSA modified classes and elsewhere. One team was sponsored by Carling Black Label beer.
Time’s Up
More than 1,000 Speedway sleds were built over three years of production, with few significant changes from year to year other than adding the small-bore engines. The ’73s and ’74s were distinguished by a black anti-glare panel atop a reverse hood scoop, safety reflectors at the back ends of the front bumper and the Blue Max name superimposed on the flag decals on the sides of the hood.
The 1973 Arab oil embargo that turned the motorsports world on its head plus the emergence of competitive very high-performance machines including some with liquid cooling were both significant obstacles to Speedway snowmobile sales. The company failed early in 1974.
The remaining assets were sold to the Fox Corporation of Janesville, Wisconsin. But any of the rare “blue Ferrari” sleds still attracts outsized attention at vintage shows to this day.
SPECS
Manufacturer: Speedway Products, Inc., Mansfield, Ohio, a subsidiary of Earhart Industries of Byron Center, Michigan
POWERTRAIN
Engine: 436cc Kohler “sunburst” piston-port free-air twin with two Tillotson HD diaphragm pumper carbs, magneto and breaker point ignition, and twin pipes into dual tuned ACS mufflers.
Compression ratio: 12.5 to 1
Lubrication: Pre-mix at 20 to 1 Power output: 64 HP @ 8,500 RPM
Clutches: Comet Model 100 heavy duty flyweight drive and Comet torque-sensing driven
Chassis
Type: Riveted 6061-T6 aircraft aluminum usually with stirrups, fiberglass hood and belly pan, and chrome tube bumpers
Claimed dry weight: 346 pounds
Front suspension: Quad-leaf springs with Monroe hydraulic shock absorbers
Ski stance: 28.5 inches
Rear suspension: Aluminum slide rails with Monroe hydraulic shock absorber
Track: Goodyear 15.5- by 96-inch fiberglass and steel-reinforced molded rubber with vulcanized steel cleats and dual sprocket drive (48-inch footprint)
Brake: H & H 8-inch mechanical disc
Fuel capacity: 4.9 gallons
Standard equipment: Choke, speedometer/odometer, tachometer, gas gauge, tether switch, non-slip foot pads, racing-style hood lock pins, chrome skis, snow flap
MSRP: $1,599