Dark Roasted Blend: Incredible Snowmobiles

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Incredible Snowmobiles

"QUANTUM SHOT" #134

The Antarctic Snow Cruiser, 1939

In 1939 U.S. Antarctic Service acquired a very special vehicle:
"Snow Cruiser, a.k.a. The Penguin"
Joel Dirnberger has assembled a tribute page about its brief history

Cut out view of the "Snow Cruiser":

Note such subtleties as
- plane moored on roof
- double bunk beds
- huge spare tires

Changing these tires on the retractable wheels:

Make sure you see the gallery of "Snow Cruiser" pictures,
collected here
and here

"The Snow Cruiser failed to perform up to expectations. The tires sank deeply into the snow and spun too easily."

True, one has to be careful when driving in the Antarctic:

Russian Snow Crawler, 1965

Army version of heavy truck ZiL-E167, designed to serve remote Siberian areas.
It could easily drive over one meter of snow, with a decent speed of 10 km/h (off-road) and 70 km/h on the highway. (source)

Recent versions of ice- & snowmobiles

A curious conversion... good as a head-turner, but maybe not so good in the snow.

I like this one better:

"The Hyanide" - the utmost off-road ride

"dirt bike" + "snowmobile" + "four-wheeler"

This is one is the most intriguing concepts to appear recently:
"The Hyanide" is an amazing hybrid vehicle created by German designers Oliver Keller and Tillman Schlootz for the 2006 Michelin Challenge Design. It moves on a segmented tread (more as a caterpillar than anything you've seen so far), which spans the whole length of a vehicle. To drive it, you would steer with your hands and feet, and it would flex in the right direction... It would have the ultimate traction: if any of it's drivetrain touches the ground (no matter how rough it is), it will move.
Read CNN article about it.

Graphics by Peter Bollinger

More pictures and info here
and here

Image courtesy Tilmann Schlootz & Oliver Keller/ Michelin Challenge Design

Slightly different version submitted for the same design competition is a "Baal"; see it here

Think this is a new idea? Think again:
These are the magazine covers from the 30s:
(courtesy Modern Mechanix)

back to the modern days:
Turn Your Mountain Bike into a radical snow ride

This seriously cool and easy conversion will take your existing mountain bike and allow you to go riding in deep snow.
Check out the manufacturer's site: KTrak Cycle

CONTINUE TO PART TWO

Permanent Link...

Category: Technology,Vintage

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COMMENTS::

1 Comments:

indigoshift said...: Those were truly awesome. I need a kit-car version of that first one, so my lifelong dream of filming a movie called "Four-Wheelin' at the Mountains of Madness" can finally be fulfilled.; ___

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