Vintage snowmobiles have to take off in the collector market fairly soon, don’t they? As vintage cars and trucks continue to be priced at crazy numbers, getting a vintage snowmobile this nice for under a grand has to be a deal. This 1972 Chaparral Firebird 440 with electric start is listed here on Facebook Marketplace in Kalkaska, MI, and the seller is asking $625. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Lothar… of the Hill People for the tip!
Having grown up in Northern Minnesota and having a handful of old snowmobiles, most of which had 8-10 hp single-cylinder engines and were from the 1960s, something like this Chaparral Firebird 440 would have been like owning a Maserati. Electric start? On a snowmobile?! A hidden headlight (behind the windshield)? Very cool. This is a sleek machine, to say the least.
Chaparral Industries started as “Snow Birdie,” a company founded in Illinois in 1966. By 1967, they realized that they needed an influx of working capital to stay in business, and an investor was found in, of all places, snowless Austin, Texas. The company was moved to Grand Junction, Colorado. Powered Product Corporation made the Snow Birdie Chaparral and Firebird for 1968 and 1969, at which point another infusion of cash was needed. Armco Steel of Ohio stepped in, production was moved from Grand Junction to Denver, and the company name was changed from Snow Birdie to Chaparral.
1970 was the first model year for the new Chaparral company, and they were offered until the end of 1974. By then, the North American snowmobile industry had gone from dozens of makers down to a few, due to a year or two of insufficient snowfall, but also because of something as far removed from cold and snow as you can get: the Arab oil embargo of the early 1970s. Armco Steel shut down production at the end of 1974, even though the ’75 models were ready to go. There was talk of American Motors being a possible buyer, but the end came for this fine line of snowmobiles, sadly. This particular sled is a Firebird 440, which the seller refers to as a 440e, as in electric start. It looks like an absolute jewel in the photos.
They don’t show a photo of the engine, but here’s a screenshot of the little (vertical!) video they provided showing it being started with the little button on the left side of he cowling. They say this is the Hirth engine, which should be a 438-cc twin-cylinder with around 38 horsepower. You can hear the sweet sound of it starting and idling in the listing. At $625, this is a good deal for such a nice-looking snowmobile, and Chaparrals aren’t something you’ll see a lot of at vintage snowmobile shows. Have any of you owned one?
Now, why in ‘tarnation would BFs summon the guru of unusual, to report on a snowmobile, when 2/3rds of the nation is freezing. Not in sunny Colorado, 50s this week, BUT,,,on to this FANtastic, being fan cooled. Electric start was indeed a rare option in ’72. Batteries, usually 6 volt, just weren’t what they are today, and failures were common. Besides, these USUALLY started rather easy, but was considered high class. I know the untrained may look at this and think, what a spiffy machine. In all honesty, this is a rather poor machine, bogie wheel suspension is iffy, at best, and while they had plenty of steam, stopping and steering them( They did make one of the 1st IFS steering) was quite another issue, and where I bet 90% got wrecked. Hirth made a powerful motor, and these were clocked at almost 70 mph on ice. In case you’ve never been, 70 mph is FLYING on a snowmobile. Hazards come up awfully fast.
If I may say, while by the mid 70s, many snowmobile makers did quit, it was actually a heyday for the ones that remained. Snowmobiling was at its peak in the 70s and 80s, and when I did most of my riding. Chaparrals were actually pretty common, and over 65,000 sleds were made. Where are they all today? You know those “piles” of junk snowmobiles we see, guaranteed a couple of these are at the bottom. Great find.
Sleds are alot of fun, never came across one Chaparral.
I’m not sure the market for snowmobiles as collectable is going to be a “Next Big Thing” The demographic for these aging sleds is, well, aging. But this is certainly a nice representative of the sled of the day. Hard to believe the embossed seat has survived!!! Chaparral really had some hot sleds at the time, but all pale in comparison to the least powerful sled today.
Now if I were collecting, the first sled I would locate is a RUPP with the Fiji built liquid triple and that they used long before Polaris. It was a lay down installation and had the three MEGAPHONE exhausts (no muffler of chamber) pointed right down to the snow. The noise was brutal, as was the ride. But man did it have top speed.
As a dealer I serviced one of these back in the ’80s and came away impressed. Never saw another.
Challenge Scotty???
Jay, I can’t find any information about Rupp using Fuji engines, even for racing. They did use Xenoah engines, another Japanese engine. I even checked my three-book vintage snowmobile bible (Snowmobile History) books, along with several internet searches. I’m stumped! They did use Kohler three-cylinder engines, is that what you meant?
SOLD.
Rupp never had a liquid cool triple. One sled of the early 70’s was the “Brut” made by Brutanza Engineering. It had a Fuji(Polaris) bottom end with liquid cooled cylinders I believe. It was a laid down design with pipes exiting straight out the bottom of the sled. Intakes faced straight up.
I have been into vintage sleds since mid 90’s and saw the rise of values and the leveling off. The hi performance and race only sleds brought big bucks. Now some of the oddball consumer sleds are seeing a small bump in value. Something pre-Covid you could get for $300 is now $600. A lot of the times they are not in that good of shape. This Chappy is a good buy. Be careful of the driver cogs that propel the track, the plastic crumbles and your left with a revving engine and hardly moving. 50+ year old plastic gets a bit fragile. Fortunately there are sources where you can get them re- side not if you really want a rare piece find a Rupp motorcycle, Speedway mini-cycle or Moto-Ski Skeeter mini bike. Or even rarer Alouette motorcycle. All made by snowmobile manufacturers trying to make money in the no-snow months.
Scotty and Karbo, You are absolutely right, it was a Brut. “The story is the same, but the name was changed to protect the innocent”
Excellent article Scotty. Chapparal was actually quite innovative. In 1973, they introduced the first IFS snowmobile, a radival racing sled called SSX. Sadly, it was not very competitive. Polaris, got their butts kicked in during the 1976 season. For 1977, the RXL was introduced with IFS and liquid cooled engines. Probably the most dominating race sled ever. This is a very nice Chappy, as some call them.
Thank you, sir! Shoot, I forgot to mention the IFS on their racing sleds, thanks for bringing that up.
1972 was the first year for the Chaparral IFS Race sleds and they came with 440 and 650 triples with really pretty radical set of tuners. VERY collectible sleds today.
This sled at first glance seems like a steal. If the seat is as nice as it appears that alone is worth half the asking price.
1972 was a pretty good year for Chaparral and the Firebird SS models are coveted with collectors.