The Big Red One Comes Thru! - Filmed in February, 1971 in and around Crosby, Minnesota (including Serpent Lake) this promotional film touted the apparent technical superiority of Scorpion Snowmobiles
Notice during the first test that the Yammy was closing fast, then wasn't shown in the rest of the drag races? That's because nothing could touch the SS 433 in 72 (especially modified w/expansion chambers). And I say that as a hardcore Ski-Doo teenager and from having to watch their taillights on my TNT.
My first sled at age 8 was a 71' stinger 292cc. It was in my grandparents shed and I once watched him squirt some gas into the carb to get it started. So one winter morning I went to the shed, filled a little handheld squirt can with gas and pumped a little into the carb. 2 or three pulls and I was dong laps around the driveway. My grandfather was amazed that I got it stated and cause so, he let me just have my fun. I did laps all winter until the bogey wheels were falling off and I was at the age of 14. I would hold that thing wide open after big storms going up and down our rural dirt road. 45-50 mph was max speed but enough for me and whoever I had over as a friend at the time.
Man, my first full size snowmobile was a 1970 Stinger with a 340 Sachs single. At the time I wasn't really keen on the looks, but now years later, I miss that ol girl. I've had an affinity for Scorpion snowmobiles since I got into riding and have owned quite a few over the years from the bubble hood era to the late generation Whips and Stings. Had a lot of fun on the vintage machines and there are times when I long to have them back.
@@freetimecrawler In the early 60's they Fred Fuchs (Fox) started building go carts and mini bikes. In 64 was the first year for snowmobiles. 73 was the last year. Just like many snowmo manufactures the oil crises shut them down. They where sold but production never restarted. I am a Fox Trac collector and a armature historian of the company....
The Yamaha was much faster, only in this case the driver is told to stay behind the stinger. We know the Yamaha had nearly 20% more horsepower and much higher top speed than the others in the same class at that time.
@@wadewacker7276 I was there..... the kids telling the truth. Study the very first race. Ski-doo gets the hole shot, Stinger miraculously passes him and the closing segment shows the Ski-doo 440 T'NT rapidly running down the Scorpion so the race was called.
@@jeffreyhagelin3672 My best friend had a 1971 ski doo 440 TNT and raced my cousin on his Super Stinger 3 440. Both wide tracks across a field. Wasn’t even close. I was actually there. My friend to this day still smiles about that race and tips his hat to the Stinger👍In time you will come across posts where people blew away Thunder Cats on 650 Indy’s and they are gonna tell you it was gaining at the end……. PS, if you watch the film, the Ski Doo was consistently in last place. Just saying 🤔
@@wadewacker7276 l watched the film and immediately recognized the fraud. The Scorpion dealer we had up my way flooded the market with cheap sleds and then the next year had to declare bankruptcy because his shop couldn't keep up with the warranty repairs ... Any how, he had a 292 Stinger set up by the factory... It ran good... until it blew up. Seems like factory tried a little stuffing of the case of the crankshaft.. They made a full circle crank by filling in the half round with Bondo, with a metal band holding it in place...he called the Scorpion factory and told them, " I don't think too much of your Bondo job. The steel hoop came off and wiiped out the engine !" 😂🤣🤣🤣
@@wadewacker7276 My friend had a '71 440 Skidoo T'NT and it was a torque monster, with large bore pistons and produced over forty HP @ 6500 RPM, quite remarkable in it's day.... and then there were the Blizzards, they dominated the stock and modified classes. Just saying. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
The TnT were just awesome. That Yammy 433 could move also. The Scorpion? Our friend had a couple of the Whip 340s blue ones and they were okay back then.
I grew up with Scorpion sleds, my first sled was a Stringeroo ( might have been the best sled they ever made) The Stringeroo was a blast, pretty light sled with a 292cc. Pretty sure it was 292cc but may have been 277cc sacks. I raced a lot of Cats with our 440 Super Stinger and got shut down by most of them, a 440 Panther would walk right by like I was standing still LOL. No, not that bad but close. At the time the Scorpion's were a little better then Ski doo, a Yamaha equivalent like the GP433 was just about the same. Artic Cat was King.
@@wadewacker7276 If you listen to the beginning of the video they state. This test is to prove Scorpion is better. It does not say this test is to find which sled is better. No other represenitive's from the other manufactures were present. This was not a test, it was a sham promo for Scorpion. All the riders were employees of Scorpion and they state that fact in the video.
:I-had-the-71-SS-433, it-would-kill-all of those sleds-with-ease. :That's-why-it's-missing in those drag-races. :You-can-see in the first-race, the SS-was-sleeping at the light, then caught-the-others &: they-say, "STINGER". :What-a-joke.
This was great ! I mean as an example of total BS. I think they were OK but I don’t remember anybody ever going to the races saying “ what about the scorpions ?” My family sold Moto skis back then … same JLO 399. Durable but no contender. Polaris , skidoo , arctic and Yamaha were all contenders like other comments said. Arctic rode so much better Yamaha would have handled better Scorpions did have cool looking handle bars There were over 100 manufacturers then. By about 1980 was down to 4 Interestingly they did include 3 of the 4 survivors
Rupp and Polaris. Especially if a '71 Rupp 440 Magnum or a '71 Polaris 432 TX was in the mix. The two machines that would have won this competition. That Yamaha was a good one too. The drag race was obvious. The Yamaha slept on the start and still caught the Scorpion well before the finish line.
Yeah actually no Rupps, if they had Skiroules and Roloflex and maybe a few Merc Trail Twisters the results would be alot different. When I think Scorpion I think MF lol.
the yamaha was faster everytime....they didnt even have it in a couple of those races..then when the old yamaha started to pass , the driver let off....as instructed
My 72 stinger II track has the lowest rolling resistance I've seen. Even modern tracks arent that pliable. Likely wouldnt survive under modern power, but i can see it having big affect on vintage performance.
So funny.. The Scorpion optimized in every way I am sure... Other sleds = Belt adjustment? Air fuel ratio? Oil fuel ratio? Track tension? Carb. balance (If two)? Throttle cable adjustment? Ski Toe adjustment...Hell No!!
Which are both built by Cat. All snowmobile back then were junk compared to modern machines. The Scorpions back then were as dependable as any brand, you must not have known how to maintain them.
@@freetimecrawler 67 and 68.gas tank in chassis, steering mounted to top of it , Cracked leak gas under hood. 71 stinger single chain to drive sprockets , broke chain busted case . Actually was best of all sleds. 73 super stinger RV too long of list. Drive pins and internal drive sprockets sheared . Many other issues all top heavy and bad on deep snow. I have Cats and Yamahas Now , OK machines. Ya it was the dawn of snowmobile's so I'll give them that.
@@freetimecrawlerlol. My Scorpion 292 Stinger was built like a tank where it didn't count and like a toy where it did. I took many a snowmobile trip only to wind up with the cowl off and wrenches out due to carburetor issues and overheating while my BIL putted around blissfully on his free-air Polaris Colt 290SS that I did the tune-ups on. Our pre-trip prep was identical, a plug change, gas, oil and de-icer, check the crank case oil, track and ski alignment. His always ran, mine ran half the time. Carburetor icing in cold, vapor lock and plug fouling in warm. My BIL's twin Mikunis ever iced up and it never fouled a plug though top sped was somewhat diminished in warm temps. When mine was running, we ran identical top speeds across the lake ... a blistering 57 mph.
This promo vid is Fake news. Late 60’s early 70’s snowmobile technology was owned by Arctic Cat. Look at the Stinger corner @7:42 pffffft! The Arctic Panther even being a two seat trail touring machine was deff a better handling sled and early 70’s cats had the bitchin’ Kawasaki motors. Attic was first with the engine (weight) over the skis, first with canted skis, first with a slide rail suspension. Scorpion had to resort to this fake news shit to even stand a chance.
@@greywolf9398 Grey Wolf you had bad luck then!! My Scorpion Stinger and Whip worked flawlessly. I’d like to try the dope you’re on then maybe I’d run for president 😂🤣
@Dickhead Goldman, Your so full of shit I bet your eyes are brown😂 Your beloved Cat skinned couch with steel cleats sucked the Stingers ass the entire race. Call a counselor, grab a beer and accept reality 👍
Agreed. Staged for scorpion , the gp433 won everything in USSA racing in 1972. And us kids used dads 440 cat to eat up many of these "red rockets" JLO was a piece of junk. All those sleds properly tuned would smoke that red turtle.
@@arthurdavis1065 BS. We used to smoke them fat heavy steel cleated Cat boxes with Stingers all day long especially in deep snow. They spun down and Stingers floated on top.
That was good for a laugh. Top of tunnel mounted motor, bogey wheel suspension and a fan cooled engine that would constantly foul the RH cylinder plug (furthest from the fan). I had one of these and it would vapor lock on temps above +10F. I had to install hood louvers just to get enough cooling to complete a trail ride. The Polaris and Arctic Cat sleds with slide rail and low mounted engines were so much better than Scorpion. If it wasn't vapor locking or fouling plugs you could count on at least one rollover every ride due to the high center of gravity. :Looking back, it was just comical.
@@michaelf6327 Carburetor would get so hot the fuel would percolate. No air flow through the hood, it was sealed up tight like a suitcase. I installed a pair of louvered panels in the hood and wrapped the muffler with foil faced insulation.
You are all wrong. ‘73 Brut LC 44. In that timeline, nothing came close in every category. Downside is that no clutch manufacturer of that era could build a strong enough clutch to handle the power output. Google them, then just listen to their sound. Was so fun to be a flag man in the CC races then. You could hear their “sound” approaching like no other machine. Just sweet.
Notice during the first test that the Yammy was closing fast, then wasn't shown in the rest of the drag races? That's because nothing could touch the SS 433 in 72 (especially modified w/expansion chambers). And I say that as a hardcore Ski-Doo teenager and from having to watch their taillights on my TNT.
My first sled at age 8 was a 71' stinger 292cc. It was in my grandparents shed and I once watched him squirt some gas into the carb to get it started. So one winter morning I went to the shed, filled a little handheld squirt can with gas and pumped a little into the carb. 2 or three pulls and I was dong laps around the driveway. My grandfather was amazed that I got it stated and cause so, he let me just have my fun. I did laps all winter until the bogey wheels were falling off and I was at the age of 14. I would hold that thing wide open after big storms going up and down our rural dirt road. 45-50 mph was max speed but enough for me and whoever I had over as a friend at the time.
It looked like the Yamaha was going to win.. The GP 433 went like a scalded cat.
They didn’t hide the speed of the yammy too well in the first race.
I wish Scorpion could start production again. I can only imagine the sleds they would build now .
I’m with ya👍
I actually heard/read once they were coming back maybe like 10 years ago but never saw or heard anything after I read that. R.I.P. I guess
big red one coming through !
Man, my first full size snowmobile was a 1970 Stinger with a 340 Sachs single. At the time I wasn't really keen on the looks, but now years later, I miss that ol girl. I've had an affinity for Scorpion snowmobiles since I got into riding and have owned quite a few over the years from the bubble hood era to the late generation Whips and Stings. Had a lot of fun on the vintage machines and there are times when I long to have them back.
I has a stingeroo 277 when I was a kid. Loved it.
Love the stinger but even Ray Charles could see how much faster the yamaha was and hes blind and dead.
The Yamaha was behind the Stinger not in front of it🤔
I had a '71 Stinger 400 CCW. Liked it, wished I could have gotten a later one with the para rail suspension.
SS433 would walk all over those sub par machines, tuned exhaust and all. My GP396 would have stroked those machines
I had a 73 GP 338 I had that sled for 8 years and never really touched it. Start second or third pull every time
Yada yada and yada😴
@@wadewacker7276 hahahahaha
I don't want any scorpion unless it's got the Sach motor .
Wow every thing looked purplish hazy in the olden days.
LOL!
Yeah, that's where Jimi got the song title.
Would like to have seen an Arctic Puma in that mix instead of a Panther.
Where is the Fox Trac ?
Fox Track didn't build many snowmobiles, and were never a serious contender in the industry.
@@freetimecrawler In the early 60's they Fred Fuchs (Fox) started building go carts and mini bikes. In 64 was the first year for snowmobiles. 73 was the last year. Just like many snowmo manufactures the oil crises shut them down. They where sold but production never restarted. I am a Fox Trac collector and a armature historian of the company....
The Yamaha was much faster, only in this case the driver is told to stay behind the stinger. We know the Yamaha had nearly 20% more horsepower and much higher top speed than the others in the same class at that time.
You know that for a fact……were you there?? If so point out where you were standing in the video😂
@@wadewacker7276
I was there..... the kids telling the truth.
Study the very first race. Ski-doo gets the hole shot, Stinger miraculously passes him and the closing segment shows the Ski-doo 440 T'NT rapidly running down the Scorpion so the race was called.
@@jeffreyhagelin3672 My best friend had a 1971 ski doo 440 TNT and raced my cousin on his Super Stinger 3 440. Both wide tracks across a field. Wasn’t even close. I was actually there. My friend to this day still smiles about that race and tips his hat to the Stinger👍In time you will come across posts where people blew away Thunder Cats on 650 Indy’s and they are gonna tell you it was gaining at the end……. PS, if you watch the film, the Ski Doo was consistently in last place. Just saying 🤔
@@wadewacker7276 l watched the film and immediately recognized the fraud.
The Scorpion dealer we had up my way flooded the market with cheap sleds and then the next year had to declare bankruptcy because his shop couldn't keep up with the warranty repairs ...
Any how, he had a 292 Stinger set up by the factory... It ran good... until it blew up.
Seems like factory tried a little stuffing of the case of the crankshaft.. They made a full circle crank by filling in the half round with Bondo, with a metal band holding it in place...he called the Scorpion factory and told them, " I don't think too much of your Bondo job. The steel hoop came off and wiiped out the engine !" 😂🤣🤣🤣
@@wadewacker7276 My friend had a '71 440 Skidoo T'NT and it was a torque monster, with large bore pistons and produced over forty HP @ 6500 RPM, quite remarkable in it's day.... and then there were the Blizzards, they dominated the stock and modified classes. Just saying. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
The TnT were just awesome. That Yammy 433 could move also. The Scorpion? Our friend had a couple of the Whip 340s blue ones and they were okay back then.
Ya bad start, then the SS-433 caught up and let him go on the Scorpion
Yeah just average performance wise.
Americans working together wow that is a long time ago. I hope America can work again someday but after the last 30 I am done. Good luck
And just for the ladies, a sled so underpowered that even with their skills they won't get hurt! Hmmm...........
And the next day definitely a chiropractor visit
I grew up with Scorpion sleds, my first sled was a Stringeroo ( might have been the best sled they ever made) The Stringeroo was a blast, pretty light sled with a 292cc. Pretty sure it was 292cc but may have been 277cc sacks.
I raced a lot of Cats with our 440 Super Stinger and got shut down by most of them, a 440 Panther would walk right by like I was standing still LOL. No, not that bad but close. At the time the Scorpion's were a little better then Ski doo, a Yamaha equivalent like the GP433 was just about the same. Artic Cat was King.
72 GP 433 Nothing came close.
What a bogus test. A Scorpion with a JLO engine and a muffler beats a Yamaha with twin expansion cambers? No way.
But it did🤔
@@wadewacker7276 No.
@@greywolf9398 Watch the video again as painful as it may be.
@@wadewacker7276 If you listen to the beginning of the video they state. This test is to prove Scorpion is better. It does not say this test is to find which sled is better. No other represenitive's from the other manufactures were present. This was not a test, it was a sham promo for Scorpion. All the riders were employees of Scorpion and they state that fact in the video.
and the Yamaha had dual carbs. dont rely on this very one sided video to make an informed judgement.
:I-had-the-71-SS-433, it-would-kill-all of those sleds-with-ease. :That's-why-it's-missing in those drag-races. :You-can-see in the first-race, the SS-was-sleeping at the light, then caught-the-others &: they-say, "STINGER". :What-a-joke.
This was great ! I mean as an example of total BS. I think they were OK but I don’t remember anybody ever going to the races saying “ what about the scorpions ?” My family sold Moto skis back then … same JLO 399. Durable but no contender. Polaris , skidoo , arctic and Yamaha were all contenders like other comments said.
Arctic rode so much better
Yamaha would have handled better
Scorpions did have cool looking handle bars
There were over 100 manufacturers then. By about 1980 was down to 4
Interestingly they did include 3 of the 4 survivors
Test trails? For what?
no rupps... :+[
Rupp and Polaris. Especially if a '71 Rupp 440 Magnum or a '71 Polaris 432 TX was in the mix. The two machines that would have won this competition. That Yamaha was a good one too. The drag race was obvious. The Yamaha slept on the start and still caught the Scorpion well before the finish line.
Yeah actually no Rupps, if they had Skiroules and Roloflex and maybe a few Merc Trail Twisters the results would be alot different. When I think Scorpion I think MF lol.
whats the name of the song? sounds like anouther snowmobile ad song
I don't know if there was really a name, but the words were, "look out cat, look out ski doo, scorpion stinger is coming through".
No Polaris????
At 2:38 ...
the yamaha was faster everytime....they didnt even have it in a couple of those races..then when the old yamaha started to pass , the driver let off....as instructed
How would you know as instructed?? Were you the driver of the Yamaha😂
My 72 stinger II track has the lowest rolling resistance I've seen. Even modern tracks arent that pliable. Likely wouldnt survive under modern power, but i can see it having big affect on vintage performance.
And Scorpion went out of business when?
1982 with their then owner Arctic Cat.
When Arctic Cat filed bankruptcy to be exact🤔
The Polaris sleds were conspicuously absent from this test due to their obvious superiority.
They didn't make round 3.
So funny.. The Scorpion optimized in every way I am sure... Other sleds = Belt adjustment?
Air fuel ratio? Oil fuel ratio? Track tension? Carb. balance (If two)? Throttle cable adjustment?
Ski Toe adjustment...Hell No!!
Nice!
Those Scorpion's did run good. Polaris and Rupp were the King's of the early 70's but the Yamaha and the Scorpion were contenders.
X umm actually the Speedway’s were the ones to beat
@@JohnSmith-ws6jg Oh ya, forgot about Speedway's 1972-1974 - ya they were screamers.
Produced by ex-Rupp employees.
until the MERCURY SNO-TWISTERS CAME
Scorpion needed to change with the times. More R and R in racing and performance could have been a big help.
Oopser daisy, meant R and D😂
Sorry scorpion but I owned a Yamaha 433, a real turd in deep snow but on a lake it would eat em up. Love my old machines but that's the gods truth!
I had 4 Scorpions they were all pieces of Junk. Now I have Cat and Yamaha
Which are both built by Cat. All snowmobile back then were junk compared to modern machines. The Scorpions back then were as dependable as any brand, you must not have known how to maintain them.
@@freetimecrawler 67 and 68.gas tank in chassis, steering mounted to top of it , Cracked leak gas under hood. 71 stinger single chain to drive sprockets , broke chain busted case . Actually was best of all sleds. 73 super stinger RV too long of list. Drive pins and internal drive sprockets sheared . Many other issues all top heavy and bad on deep snow. I have Cats and Yamahas Now , OK machines. Ya it was the dawn of snowmobile's so I'll give them that.
@@freetimecrawlerlol. My Scorpion 292 Stinger was built like a tank where it didn't count and like a toy where it did. I took many a snowmobile trip only to wind up with the cowl off and wrenches out due to carburetor issues and overheating while my BIL putted around blissfully on his free-air Polaris Colt 290SS that I did the tune-ups on. Our pre-trip prep was identical, a plug change, gas, oil and de-icer, check the crank case oil, track and ski alignment. His always ran, mine ran half the time. Carburetor icing in cold, vapor lock and plug fouling in warm. My BIL's twin Mikunis ever iced up and it never fouled a plug though top sped was somewhat diminished in warm temps. When mine was running, we ran identical top speeds across the lake ... a blistering 57 mph.
Had a Scorpion Stinger and a Whip. Never let me down no matter the weather conditions.
This promo vid is Fake news. Late 60’s early 70’s snowmobile technology was owned by Arctic Cat.
Look at the Stinger corner @7:42 pffffft! The Arctic Panther even being a two seat trail touring machine was deff a better handling sled and early 70’s cats had the bitchin’ Kawasaki motors.
Attic was first with the engine (weight) over the skis, first with canted skis, first with a slide rail suspension. Scorpion had to resort to this fake news shit to even stand a chance.
Yeah, the only sled the Scorp would beat would be the TNT.
And your the first to publicly look like a full blown clown😂
@@wadewacker7276 Ha! I owned over 20 sleds, Scorpion was a little better than junk. Mr.Weed Wacker
@@greywolf9398 Grey Wolf you had bad luck then!! My Scorpion Stinger and Whip worked flawlessly. I’d like to try the dope you’re on then maybe I’d run for president 😂🤣
@Dickhead Goldman, Your so full of shit I bet your eyes are brown😂 Your beloved Cat skinned couch with steel cleats sucked the Stingers ass the entire race. Call a counselor, grab a beer and accept reality 👍
The Yamaha was and still is the king of hp, very staged presentation to a naive audience back in the day.
Your opinion.
Agreed. Staged for scorpion , the gp433 won everything in USSA racing in 1972. And us kids used dads 440 cat to eat up many of these "red rockets" JLO was a piece of junk. All those sleds properly tuned would smoke that red turtle.
@@wadewacker7276and a correct one. Last 2 races didnt even see the Yamaha 433 in the race. Obviously shown coming hard in 1st race then let off.
@@arthurdavis1065 BS. We used to smoke them fat heavy steel cleated Cat boxes with Stingers all day long especially in deep snow. They spun down and Stingers floated on top.
@@arthurdavis1065 Ya right😂 Your great Yamaha’s are doing the world a favor after 2025👍
chaparral 440 ss would beat them all
Ya and so would a Thundercat🤷♂️
If Scorpion was so great, why out of those four machines, is it the only one not in business.
They got bought out by Artic Cat
@@dennybarlau8065 Right Artic Cat wanted the clutch.
Article cat also wanted there Motor the cugana and there rail system
Scorpion made 90 percent of their parts in house
Ever hear of the GOOD die young? Think on that🤔
That was good for a laugh. Top of tunnel mounted motor, bogey wheel suspension and a fan cooled engine that would constantly foul the RH cylinder plug (furthest from the fan). I had one of these and it would vapor lock on temps above +10F. I had to install hood louvers just to get enough cooling to complete a trail ride. The Polaris and Arctic Cat sleds with slide rail and low mounted engines were so much better than Scorpion. If it wasn't vapor locking or fouling plugs you could count on at least one rollover every ride due to the high center of gravity. :Looking back, it was just comical.
What caused the vapor lock, and what did you do to cure for the vapor lock?
@@michaelf6327 Carburetor would get so hot the fuel would percolate. No air flow through the hood, it was sealed up tight like a suitcase. I installed a pair of louvered panels in the hood and wrapped the muffler with foil faced insulation.
Mmmmm had two Scorps back in the day but do not ever remember the carb getting hot.
The owners manual states that for trail riding to remove the hood and the driver would stay warm from engine. lol
YAMAHA.
Where was Polaris for this competition?? Are we confident this wasn't a SCORPION AD?? !!!
You are all wrong. ‘73 Brut LC 44. In that timeline, nothing came close in every category. Downside is that no clutch manufacturer of that era could build a strong enough clutch to handle the power output. Google them, then just listen to their sound. Was so fun to be a flag man in the CC races then. You could hear their “sound” approaching like no other machine. Just sweet.