Rare Two-Seater: 1970 Snowbug Luvbug

Somebody has incredible taste in vehicles, as seen in that Cadillac CTS-V wagon parked next to this equally incredible and rare snowmobile. This rarely-seen and unusual, made in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, 1970 Snowbug Luvbug snowmobile is listed here on Facebook Marketplace. It can be found in an area that knows a thing or two about snow and snowmobiles: Mercer, Wisconsin, and they’re asking $6,800. Here is the original listing.

That’s a wide ski on the front, but I think I’d still want two skis if I had a choice. That being said, this Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, maker of snowmobiles, invented by Mr. Howard Schraeder, seemed to do ok with just one ski. They were made for a long time, and even some of us who are diehard vintage snowmobile fans haven’t heard of the Snowbug. The company offered them from 1958 through 1977, so two solid decades, and this one comes with an original pull-behind Snowbug sled. The seller refers to this snowmobile as a Snobug, but it’s actually spelled Snowbug.

The first model in the late 1950s was a single-seat work sled, but you can see that this is a side-by-side two-seater. They were put to work by crews in Northern Canada, folks like miners, farmers, surveyors, prospectors, hunters, trappers, etc. The unusual, almost military-looking rear end of this Luvbug model appears perfect, as does almost everything else about this example. The seller says they bought it last year for their “snowmobile wedding,” which is about as cool as it gets. I didn’t know there was such a thing, but what better to tie the knot than in a two-seat Luvbug. An electric start system will keep that newly-married couple happy rather than arguing as to who will pull-start this thing.

The seating area is as simple as it gets compared to other sleds from 1970. There isn’t even a speedometer here, and no other gauges at all that I can see, but it does have reverse and foot pedals for acceleration and braking. These last two photos are screenshots from the seller’s video. Sadly, most of the photos are vertical, and the video is even a vertical. I know, for a horizontal vehicle, it drives me nuts, too. Believe it or not, this rig has a single track, and all of the Snowbug snowmobiles had a single track. By 1970, the three models were the Snowbug, Superbug, and the Luvbug. The Luvbug was the bomb-diggity model, top of the pack. This track is 31.5 inches wide, and this sled weighs 450 pounds. That isn’t as much as it could be with aluminum and fiberglass construction keeping the weight down.

As the top model, the Luvbug should have the biggest engine, a 336-cc Sachs two-stroke with 27 horsepower. This one is clearly a single-cylinder, but I believe a twin-cylinder was also available, as it’s listed in my snowmobile bible (Snowmobile History, by Pierre Pellerin). It’s not a ton of power, but it should be more than enough to carry two happily married people around on groomed trails. You do not want to get this one stuck in the deep snow, not that you want to get any snowmobile stuck in deep snow. I really like this one; it looks like an absolute jewel, and for anyone interested in drawing a huge crowd at a vintage snowmobile show, you could hardly do better than this. Have you heard of this model?