Snowmobile
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2015.0002.001
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- OBJECT TYPE
- 1 passenger/open/12 cyl/2576 cc
- DATE
- 1971
- ARTIFACT NUMBER
- 2015.0002.001
- MANUFACTURER
- Featherweight Corp.
- MODEL
- Big Al
- LOCATION
- Montréal, Québec, Canada
More Information
General Information
- Serial #
- 0498
- Part Number
- 1
- Total Parts
- 3
- AKA
- N/A
- Patents
- N/A
- General Description
- Unknown
Dimensions
Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.
- Length
- 286.6 cm
- Width
- 267.0 cm
- Height
- 139.2 cm
- Thickness
- N/A
- Weight
- N/A
- Diameter
- N/A
- Volume
- N/A
Lexicon
- Group
- Motorized Ground Transportation
- Category
- Recreational vehicles
- Sub-Category
- N/A
Manufacturer
- AKA
- Featherweight
- Country
- Canada
- State/Province
- Québec
- City
- Montréal
Context
- Country
- Canada
- State/Province
- Quebec
- Period
- Unknown
- Canada
-
Motorized snow vehicles have a long history in Canada and many other northern countries beginning in the early 20th century. These vehicles, which date from 1968-1993, represent a variety of themes in the history of the snowmobile in Canada. In 1971 the United States Snowmobile Association (USSA) decided to try to settle once and for all the competing claims relating to the speed record for a snowmobile. Various companies entered the competition with their specially designed high-speed machines. The only prize awarded would be bragging rights to engineering superiority. Many of the machines built for the race did not look much like conventional snowmobiles; one was a dragster with a track replacing the rear wheels. - Function
-
Recreational snowmobiling and snowmobile racing - Technical
-
Featherweight Corporation initiated the project of building a speed trial snowmobile and recruited George Barris, the custom vehicle designer who created the bat mobile, to design the body. They built the body around two standard Alouette chassis and four Kholer 3 cylinder engines. In the end, Big Al did not take part in the race which was won by Bombardier SkiDoo clocked at 129.2mph. "The 1971 Big Al was not a production line vehicle, but one of the extravagant and short-lived machines built by manufacturers to promote their company through rapid-acceleration competitions. Unlike other extravagant vehicles, the Big Al was made mostly of Featherweight production parts used in its regular snowmobiles. The Big Al snowmobile was designed to reach speeds of up to 300km/h. It never saw the racetrack, however: it was released as the energy crisis hit, knocking out snowmobile demand. (ref. 4) - Area Notes
-
Unknown
Details
- Markings
- Big Al Alouette Tillson Toledo, Ohio Made in the U.S.A. (engine requirements/specifications) Style by Barris
- Missing
- Dzus fasteners, gas caps (2) and threaded male receiver for gas cap on pr. left side.
- Finish
- Du-Pont acrylic laquer in overlays of 30 coats of transparent snow burst colouring dye in white to yellow to amber to gold to orange to red.
- Decoration
- Decals (Big Al, Canadian & American Flag)
CITE THIS OBJECT
If you choose to share our information about this collection object, please cite:
Featherweight Corp., Snowmobile, circa 1971, Artifact no. 2015.0002, Ingenium – Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation, http://collection.ingeniumcanada.org/en/item/2015.0002.001/
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