From its stock race heritage to being a liquid-cooled trail and frozen lake runner, Yamaha’s SRX was a beast on the oval track or on the trail. This 1979 Yamaha SRX 440C is listed on Facebook Marketplace in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, a place that knows a thing or two about snow, and the seller is asking $3,000. Here is the original listing, and thanks to the original snow king, Howard A, for the tip!
Yamaha spent a lot of money on its snowmobile program, starting in 1965 when it bought a snowmobile from Bombardier and disassembled it piece by piece. The team studied every part and piece and developed the YX15 prototype that first summer. As with a lot of first attempts, it failed miserably, being too nose-heavy, and was dubbed the “snow submarine” by some testers. As we know, with Yamaha’s engineers and designers over the last few decades, failure wasn’t an option.
The company’s first commercial, consumer snowmobile, the SL350, came out in 1968, and the rest is history. Sadly, 60 years would be enough for the company’s snowmobile program, as they recently announced they were getting out of the winter sports business in 2025. It was a dark day for snowmobile lovers around the world, but the industry hasn’t exactly been growing over the last few years. The seller says this SRX looks and runs great, and it sure looks great.
Yamaha fine-tuned its snowmobile lineup for almost a decade, and the SRX (Sport Racing Experimental) name first appeared at the end of 1974 as the kingpin of Yamaha’s Sno-Pro racing program. It won 7 out of the 13 races that season with drivers Lynn Trapp and Ed Schubitdke at the helm. The 1976, the SRX became the company’s first liquid-cooled consumer race-only snowmobile, made for the oval track. In 1978, the SRX became a consumer sled with a 7-gallon gas tank compared to the 2.6-gallon racing fuel tank of the earlier models. The engine on this beautiful example looks almost like new.
You can see the radiator at the rear of the 80-horsepower, 439-cc two-stroke twin-cylinder engine, providing much-needed cooling for this lightning-fast sled. The only usability issue with these models was that they didn’t have Yamaha’s famous Autolube oil-injection system, and you had to mix the oil and gas. So be sure to carry some extra oil in case you’re on a ride longer than the 7-gallon gas tank will take you without filling up. The seller says this one has new pistons and a restored hood and seat cover. $3,000 is a bit more than this one cost new, but as I always say, a Hemi Cuda isn’t $4,000 anymore either. Values go up on some vintage vehicles, and this important model is one of them. Have any of you owned a Yamaha snowmobile?
Steamboat Springs.. Great skiing. 👍 The Mahre Brothers home mountain I believe. That speedo sure goes up high on this rocket.
I’ll be danged, the squeaky wheel DOES get the grease. I want to personally thank the author, who did a lot of research on this. I can’t add much. In the 80s I had a ’77 Yamaha 340 Exciter, fan cooled, I rode to #ell and back,,,couple times, never let me down. At the time, the outfit I had my truck leased to, there were a couple guys, 3 brothers, the father, ( who I wished was MY old man), all had their own trucks, and snowmobiles, and on the weekends, they had a trailer near Crivitz, Wis. NW of Green Bay, we’d all ride ALL weekend. There were 2 kinds of rides, the “family” ride, and the “mans ride”. The family ride was for the kids and slow going, and the mans ride,,,well, let’s say we didn’t sleep much. After trucking all week, it didn’t help my marriage any, the “mans” rides outnumbered the “family” rides 10 to 1.
Okay then, the 340 Exciter , couldn’t hurt it, and we rode pretty rough. They all had 540 Ski-Doos, and the 340 was bit behind, but I can’t describe the fun we had. Rode from bar to bar, not to get potzed, to warm up, 1 place had a smorgasbord to die for. We wouldn’t get back to the trailer until 3am. We said the sleds ran better after the bars closed.
That all changed when I got the SRX. Mine was a 1980, the 1st year for oil injection. I got it from a co-worker that hit a lead pipe at speed and wasted the left ski. I got it cheap, $100, I think with the intention of fixing it. Well, it turned out a much bigger hit. Ironically, I knew of a snowmobile junkyard, and they just happened to have a 1980 SRX with a bad motor. I got that cheap too, and put the good motor in the other sled, AND, I had a lot of extra parts.
Now the sled( finally). We must remember, liquid cooling was in it’s infancy, and many L/C sleds didn’t make it. The JD Liquifier, some Ski-Doo models, most with heat exchangers above the track and all had problems. Yamaha tried to solve that problem with a radiator, and it did work well. After I got it together, it never ran right, oil fouled the plugs. The oil injection was set way too rich from the factory, I heard, to insure the thing wouldn’t blow up. The “junkyard” guy said to run, it on pre-mix and turn the oil pump off. Man,,, that was like a switch, made a world of difference. I kept up with, not passed, all the big boys with that sled. 65-70 no problem, except stopping. It actually scared me, not for the brutal acceleration, it handled/stopped terribly. It was front heavy, unlike the fan cooled Exciter. The L/C added a lot of hardware. Had some real close calls with that SRX. The Achilles heel was the water pump. The only time I had to get pulled back, the water pump seal puked. Luckily I had another one, but shortly after, that one started leaking, and I literally gave the sled away to a friend that collected them. I remember the ad, “How’s your SRX life”, ( the R looked like an E) pushing the limits in conservative Midwest. The only sled I had the best results with, in all areas,,,was Arctic Cat. THEY know how to build a snowmobile. Yamaha made some great sleds too, and I’m upset to hear they are going under, just like the Toyota withdrawal from drag racing, “cause these times they are a changing”.
Thanks again, for the tip writeup.
That’s a great tip about the water pump, Howard. That isn’t surprising, but you’d think they would have made them foolproof. I guess nothing is foolproof, especially when it’s -10 degrees. Oil injection seems like a must-have for sure. Thanks for sending in the tip!
Seeing an old sled like this sure brings back a lot of
great memories.
Nice. I bought from my friend, a well taken care of 1979 440EX (Exciter), oil injected, fan cooled. It had some carb tuning done to it. Was very reliable sled. Always started with either 1 or 2 easy pulls. I could run plugs for couple seasons easily. Very fast sled, I had it until sometime in the mid to late 90’s. Very few sleds could out run it. In the trails and powder it was unstoppable, being so light just shifting your weight you could toss it thru the corners and it floated on powder. One of the best.
All the 76-80 SRX’s are strong collectors sleds. The 77 is the most desirable by far as the performance was so strong. Still being raced today in some cases but the real nice ones are prized collector items. First year 76 was close but the 77’s are just more sought after. 78-80 are all pretty good for collectability and great looking sleds. $3K for a real nice would be a pretty good buy.