The “new” vintage “craze” is reaching a fevered pitch with the old Dead-Tree Press. One would could only conclude that this will be the biggest winter ever for our beloved old rusty Sno-Skoters, if we ever get some snow.
Highlights include the January 2005 issue (on sale now) of American Snowmobiler that features a KILLER article from no less then Olav Aaen on the amazing Team Johnson Twin Engine Rampage. This article is worth buying the magazine for, even if you do have to suffer countless stories about Slo-Cross to get to the good stuff.
Olav goes into great depth about how the boys from Team Johnson came up with and put together what can only described as the Historic Johnson Rampage. I admit it, I’m hopelessly in love with that machine. I think it’s the coolest thing I’ve seen since, well, dare I say it? Yes. Since a 1977 Polaris leaf spring SnoPro sled.
My favorite quotes from Olav (Olav’s company, Aaen Engineering is the sponsor of this years “Ride With The Champs”) has to be: “Vintage racing has become the surprise hit of the snowmobile world. Heck, it may be the fastest growing form of snowmobile racing today” and “starting the engine is quite dramatic, as flames shoot out the short exhaust stack”. Cool.
Next, in Snow Goer Canada, our old friend Hal Armstrong has an article called “Time Machine” that is getting published regularly. Some of you will remember Hal from the Classic Vintage Videos (available at Teshios site). Hal’s been in the hobby since it became a hobby.
The articles are written to inform readers about how the technology on today’s sleds have evolved from the older sleds. The articles are written about significant sleds that may have not generated huge sales, but brought fresh thinking to the industry.
In the Fall 2004 issue, for example, Hal wrote about the famous Chaparral IFS racers and the influence the design of those sleds would have years later. It’s a GREAT article. Well written and entertaining.
So what about the magazines for new sleds featuring vintage articles? Well until the VSCA puts out another magazine or the next issue of the Magneto comes out, this is as good as it gets!