Shot just about two weeks ago in the mountains of Norway, this video shows a classic Bombardier snow vehicle driving around by a small village and the BangShifty angle of it is that the vehicle is powered by a 350ci Chevy small block that sounds amazing with open and unmuffled exhaust barking out from under it. For those of you who do not get to experience the types of conditions that you see in the video or that those of us in cold weather areas got to see first hand during the winter, it bears noting that cold temperatures literally change the way things sound. There is a crispness to the sounds that you hear in the cold. We’re sure that has something to do with the physical properties of the air itself when the temperature plummets but there is an awesome snap to the exhaust note of this thing.
The vehicle you see here is a Bombardier B12 snowmobile. If we were betting men we’d say that this one dates from around 1970 or thereabouts. Bombardier has been making them since the late 1940s and they have largely had the same shape but there were changes both physically and mechanically over the years. The “12” in the B12 meant that it sat 12 people. There was a B18 as well that was obviously larger. Top speed for a stock one was about 30mph and that was pretty good. We believe that a small four banger was the original power plant and this Chevy 350 which sounds mildly pissed was a huge upgrade made by someone over the years.
This is cool and we want one to mess with (although spring is arriving in heaps here…maybe next year?)
Thanks to Arild for the tip!
Snow absorbs reflected sound, so the sound is not muddled by echos. I love the quiet that comes with a snowfall.
As any real drag racer should know colder air is more dense you know more molecules close together therefore sound which is just molecules bouncing off each other more “faster” sound transfer.