Well Gary, my wife did get me this book for Christmas and I have to say it makes for fascinating reading, at least for me. It provides a lot of detail on many makes and models of the day, including a lot of spec. data. In addition, it provides historical information about the companies behind the manufacture and marketing of different brands including those that survived, the rise and fall of others, and some that never really got off the ground.
The cover contains the description: “Memorable Machines and Highlights from Snowmobiling’s Golden Age.” In terms of sales and sport participation, the Golden Age is certainly an arguable claim. Out of curiosity, I looked up a separate Snow Goer article containing some snowmobile production numbers for part of the period covered by the book. According to Snow Goer, which based its numbers on company data and reports, a total of 1, 692, 600 snowmobiles were produced for model years 70, 71, and 72. That’s impressive, almost 1.7 million snowmobiles rolling off the line in just three years. No wonder it seemed like everyone had one (or more).
