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Snow Trac vehicles in Antarctica

The exchange rate in 1983 for USD -> CAD = 1.2330

That would make the price of the Snow-Master to be 31,436 USD in 1983.
 
i talked with a old man in melburne who worked for porsche they outfitted quite a few st-4's for antarctica with a standrad 356 porsche motor with duel carbs he said they made about 90 hp and could run 6 to 7 k all day long
 
Cletis said:
So IF a new Snow Trac for 31K were available today, how man would buy one?


Cletis
Click to expand...
just wait there is a guy working on producing a new one he at last count had about 1.5 mill of his own money tied up in it with patents and engine certification i expect we will see it in a few years that's too much money to put out and do nothing with.i'm guessing he is likely watching now as i=he is amember but got scared away by another member asking too many questions and demanding information he spent lots of money develiping so now we all just have to wait.
 
to answer your question the one i have serves my needs just fine how ever a new one at 30k would be a steal i would expect thhe new one to seel between 50 and 75 k as the new one will have a liquid cooled electronic controled engine and other stuff like gauges have gone up in price also on the new ones there wer some un disclosed changes made t the varriator bit it still works the same no i don't see a need to replace my old st but if i had to get one quick it would be nice to know i wouldn't have to rebuild another one
 
Consider this....

In the years of production you could buy a car for about a 1/3 of what the snow trac was priced at on the same day. Given this I am thinking a new one at $31K would be quite a good value relative to a new sedan of average price. Can you buy a new sedan for 5 people, full size as it gets today, for $10K? I don't think so, at least that I would want to drive.:wink::doh:

So for 31K I might be real intersted. Especially with more top speed, molded track with bolt on grouser of your choosing,.....it would be cool!! The Axe Trac from down under I think was trying to be at this price point as well...So some one else must be thinking the same thing?

Thinking...:smile:

Kirk
 
A dealer once confided in me that the price of a Snow Trac was so far below the price of any other competing Snow Tracked vehicle, that he routinely marked up the Snow Trac 300%.And it was still only half the price of the competition. This made them easy to sell.
A '60's sales brochure I used to have from a dealership in Seattle, list the Snow Trac at 6000$, the Retail costs!, the very first machines retailed for 3800 $. The same year a "Bug" cost 2000$.
The dealer in Seattle, sold Bombardier, Snow Trac and Case, the only dealer I ever came across that sold 2 competing makes. They are gone now. But one of the mechanics there told this great story of having a new, paletized Snow Trac arrive. When they went to unload it off the tractor trailer they managed to tip it over on it's side. It sat there all day waiting for the Insureance adjuster, on it's side. Later they tipped it back up right, started it up and drove it away. It appearently required NO Repairs!
After they closed out of business the mechanic went to work for a Seattle VW Dealership. When I started showing the ST4's at the Northwest Vintage VW Meets he would aways seek me out and tell the story.
 
A little more to compare. I called Raidtrac today to see what the cost is. A new Raidtrac, 30intracks, four speed standard trans, 35 hp is 34K.

Makes the st for 31k look very good.

Cletis
 
One has to eventually wonder if the Snow Trac were priced at what the reasonable mark up back in the day was, and why they wouldn't have sold them at the cheaper price, and sold way more units. Unless the thinking was they would only have "X" number of units to sell each year, so may as well make as much as possible on each one.....This would explain why these machines were never really built in large numbers. They were never intended to be built at a volume that exceeded the production of the original shop. Of course this is all speculation at this point. But honestly if they could have been bought for say $10K or so in the 70's I would have though a lot more would have been sold. I don't think you can mark an item up as much as is being suggested, without cutting into production numbers.

Regards, Kirk
 
First lets get this straight. A RAIDTRAC is not a snow cat. Its like an Argo with tracks but a little bit better. I wouldnt count on a modern day snow trac to run 31K. More like 75K +
 
That 75K figure makes sense considering the cost of a piston bully or prinoth at 100K - $200k$$$ For 75k you would get a very plain simple, full size snowcat. Real basic like a snowtrac!!! A VW of snowcats!!!
 
I don't think it would sell very well at $75K.....If it could be built and priced at say $50K or less sales would be much higher. This may be done without a hydrostatic drive transmission. The variator drive system is one of the reasons the snow trac was able to be light weight and inexpencive, and why I think it could be made and sold for less than $75K. Keep the Hydro out of the picture and I really think it could be done. Hydros are fine, just damn expencive and very heavy, and ineffecient with power, requiring a larger engine to compensate for the loss of power in the hydrostat. The Snow Trac was the antithesis of this type of machine. Light and effecient, simple but reliable...That is why we still like them today.

JMHO, Kirk
 
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