Pictures of some Vintage Sleds

C

confusion_900

Member
Here some Pictures of some Vintage Stuff , the 2 pictures are a 1980 Polaris Centurion that I have been redoing and is almost done , the other picture is a 1977 440 Rupp Nitro that is a hoot to ride , I also have a 1980 440 SRX that I just finished up and will load some pictures later , just thought you Guys would like to see some "Good Old Hot Rods" from back in the day
I see there is 2 of the Rupp but you get the idea

Water Test 240.jpg polaris Seat 087.jpg GO Thru PICTURES 003.jpg Water Test 240.jpg
 
D

Deleted member 10829

Guest
Those look great! We had a Rupp dealer in the town I grew up in and there were a ton of them around. Very fast.
 
skiroule

skiroule

Well-known member
Nice Work! I've been hoping that we would start seeing some shots of projects, finished or in-progress. Not only are they fun to look at but they provide serious motivation to keep at our own projects. Those are some exceptional machines.

You are so right, they really are a hoot to ride. As I've mentioned before, the trails are so much better now and you can actually wind these things up and really trail ride them.

I'm still in parts collection mode and have a pair of spindles on the way but I'm hoping to start doing some work on mine in early summer (assuming summer arrives this year).

One question though, why does my garage not look like yours?
 
mezz

mezz

Well-known member
Very Very Nice! I think I'll bring my sled into the kitchen too! LOL! Nice Garage.-Mezz
 
C

confusion_900

Member
Well here is some more pic's of the 1980 440 SRX I just finished up , it has a little port work done with some Aaens on it , kinda working with clucthing right now and now will have to wait till next year , owell

SI 002.jpg SI 003.jpg
 
skiroule

skiroule

Well-known member
snoluver1 said:
The only similarity between that garage and mine is the case of Miller Light on the floor. Lol!!
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Pretty funny...I was thinking the same thing.

The gold and black scheme on that SRX is really sharp. Yamaha had some great looking sleds in that time period.

I'd love to have a set of Aaens for my 440 but man, are they spendy! I'm pretty sure the neighbors wouldn't be willing to help me out with a small contribution either. Also, from what I've read, I'd probably have to start messing with the jetting so I'll probably just keep the stock setup. It should still be plenty fast enough.
 
J

jr37

Well-known member
Here's my current project. It needs quite a bit of work just to ride, but with a little luck and time, it will be rideable by next season. It was/is my dads sled, he was the 2nd owner. It was originally owned by a Scorpion dealers rep. If I remember the story right, Scorpion gave him the sled as part of his job promoting Scorpions to the dealers. It has over 10,000 miles on it, and some of them were pretty hard miles. All in all it is in ok shape. Someday I will do a complete resto on it, just not now. DSC02289.jpg DSC02290.jpg DSC02291.jpg
 
skiroule

skiroule

Well-known member
Looks pretty good for 10,000 miles and a few decades. Pretty cool that it's a family machine and you have the whole history. I have no doubt that you'll have it ready by next season.

I'm thinking I need to build a work table for mine this summer. Would make things a lot easier.
 
bearrassler

bearrassler

Active member
IMG_1854.jpg

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Here are some old Vikings that we had stored for years, We put them on a trailer and I sprayed them off. I don't know if much will get done this summer but one of these days they will run again.
 
bearrassler

bearrassler

Active member
Confusion, the first new sled that I purchased myself was a 1980 Centurion, and my younger brother got a 1980 SRX at the same time. Mine was faster and held up a lot better back in the day.
 
P

polarisrider1

New member
bearrassler said:
Confusion, the first new sled that I purchased myself was a 1980 Centurion, and my younger brother got a 1980 SRX at the same time. Mine was faster and held up a lot better back in the day.
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Your first sled was a Centurion? wow! 500 triple, fastest sled of the day, no suspension and a country mile to turn it around. I was into Scorpions that year and missed out on one. they all pretty much became grass drag sleds around here.
 
bearrassler

bearrassler

Active member
polarisrider1 said:
Your first sled was a Centurion? wow! 500 triple, fastest sled of the day, no suspension and a country mile to turn it around. I was into Scorpions that year and missed out on one. they all pretty much became grass drag sleds around here.
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It was the first one that I purchased myself. My parents had lots of sleds and I had ridden for 16 years before I bought my first one. I was 23 years old at the time and you are right, I don't think anyone beat me in a race on that sled. My brother had the SRX 440 and a friend had the El Tigre 6000 and I could take either one on the lake and on the trails. At the time I thought that it rode and handled great. One weekend in 1982 I put on about 600 miles on a two day backpack trip and felt fine. Of course the trails were groomed to perfection and there was almost no traffic. I will have to look for an old picture of it. I lost most of my pictures in a flood in 1997.
 
skiroule

skiroule

Well-known member
You probably wish you had that Centurion back. As you well know, they are highly prized in the vintage world. There is just something about the 70s and early 80s triples. From my perspective, it was the perfect North Dakota sled. Lots of wide open straights to air it out.

Looking at the Vikings reinforced something that was so great about the 70s and that was the amazing variety of colors that were offered by the manufacturers. We had Coleman lantern green, major metalflake (which is pretty much limited to boats now), flat black, tractor colors, the list goes on. It seemed like there was no hesitation in trying out a color or effect but at that time, people often bought snowmobiles that would make on question what they found appealing about them.
 
J

jr37

Well-known member
bearrassler said:
It was the first one that I purchased myself. My parents had lots of sleds and I had ridden for 16 years before I bought my first one. I was 23 years old at the time and you are right, I don't think anyone beat me in a race on that sled. My brother had the SRX 440 and a friend had the El Tigre 6000 and I could take either one on the lake and on the trails. At the time I thought that it rode and handled great. One weekend in 1982 I put on about 600 miles on a two day backpack trip and felt fine. Of course the trails were groomed to perfection and there was almost no traffic. I will have to look for an old picture of it. I lost most of my pictures in a flood in 1997.
Click to expand...

The Sidewinder pictured a few posts back beat an Indy 500 back around 1990 in a race. It couldn't beat the Indy in a short distance, but given a mile or so the Scorp had a little more on top end. The next day the owner of the Poo took his sled back to the Poo dealer and told him he got beat by an old Scorpion, fix it. (or something like that)
 
B

brentd

New member
Great looking sleds!!! I remember when I was a youngster my dad had a 1980 SRX, very fast. We also had a Rupp nitro. Is there a good web site for Rupp info ? I want to get one for a vintage ride.
 
skiroule

skiroule

Well-known member
brentd, just in case you check back: If you can’t find a specific site, monitor vintagesleds.com on a daily basis but have the money ready. Stuff often moves within a matter of hours. Rupps do show up on occasion (you can filter on Rupp). A 73 340 Sport was just posted today by a seller in MI.
 
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