The Chrysler Sno-Runner. The Original 1970's Snow Bike.

From John DeLorean’s ill-fated drug buy to Ford mortgaging its Blue Oval logo, the people running car companies have taken some desperate measures to stay in business.
In the late 1970s, the Chrysler corporation was in such desperate financial straits that company managers seriously thought that salvation could lie in a one-passenger motor vehicle that was essentially a cross between a mini-bike and a snowmobile. What’s even crazier? The Chrysler Sno-Runner actually made it to production.
According to some sources, the concept started when an inventor approached the American division of the Japanese Kioritz company (maker of Echo-branded chainsaws) about using one of its two-cycle engines on his design for a simple snowmobile. “Snow-bike” was more accurate, really; the design had a single ski up front and a three-inch cleated rubber tread in back. After building and selling just a few thousand-far fewer than expected-Echo and the owner of the intellectual property parted ways and the idea ended up at Chrysler.
It should be noted that Chrysler did have some serious experience designing and making tracked vehicles, albeit those with a slightly higher gross vehicle weight than the Sno-Runner: Chrysler built more than 25,000 M3, Sherman, and Pershing tanks during World War II.
However, the second World War was a fading memory in 1975 when engineer Steve Quick entered the picture and proposed the “snow bike,” as his children remember him calling it. Quick hired in at Chrysler and within a year he was appointed engineering project manager for the personal snowmobile. The project was given a hard deadline for the start of production, something that would lead to an almost fatal flaw for the project.
Part of Sno-Runner lore is that the project at Chrysler was supposedly launched with an eye towards potential sales to the U.S. military, which was then looking for a snow machine that could be broken down to fit in a carry-sack, air-dropped, and then easily assembled in the field without tools. There is a period photograph of a number of production Sno-Runners that were painted with “Experimental USMC,” but that may well have been thought up after Chrysler’s version of the Sno-Runner was already developed for consumer sales.
Fortunately for Quick’s team, Chrysler actually had an appropriate engine already sitting on the corporate shelf. Chrysler had bought the West Bend company in the 1960s, which was manufacturing an 8-horsepower, 134cc (8.2-cubic-inch) two-cycle single-cylinder engine, the Power Bee 820, for its own brand of chainsaws. Variants of that engine were also apparently used in period go-karts.
The Chrysler Marine division was tasked with Sno-Runner production. The Power Bee was mounted under the rear of a tubular welded aluminum frame with an integral 1.33-gallon fuel tank. To my eyes, the styling evokes the Honda ST70 mini bike introduced in the late 1960s. The front ski is suspended with something akin to a single telescoping motorcycle fork. A second ski, apparently to improve stability, is fixed below the rider, who has foot pegs to keep their feet out of the snow. The track and drivetrain are suspended with steel coil springs.
The 71-pound Sno-Runner could be disassembled with just five quick-release pins and stored “easily, even in a subcompact car,” according to Chrysler advertising.
Back then, even full-size snowmobiles had recoil starters, so there’s no electric start on the Sno-Runner. It had motorcycle-style controls, with a twist-grip throttle on the right of the handlebars and a brake lever on the left, plus a working brake light. The electrical system also included capacitive discharge ignition, a 90-watt alternator, a taillight, a headlight with high and low beams, and a kill switch next to the throttle.
A single-speed gearbox with a centrifugal clutch put power via a chain to the 63-inch long, metal-reinforced rubber track. The handlebar lever operated a friction band brake around the clutch housing to slow and stop the Sno-Runner. Power was rated at 7 horses, with a top speed of about 25 mph and a range of about three hours on a full tank of gas.
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