Red Bull brings in the new year, Levi LaVallee broke his own world record for distance jumped on a snowmobile by launching 412 feet

from
http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/Video/red-bull-new-year-no-limits-021243143084453

ESPN has a much better video at http://espn.go.com/action/story/_/id/7409827/new-year-no-limits

above images from http://pwheelie.blogspot.com/index.html#5677859760282499609
LaVallee jumped alongside Robbie Maddison, who unofficially broke the world record for distance jumped on a motorcycle during practice for Saturday night's event. Maddison said he jumped 392 feet during practice but during the live event, he came up just short of the 391-foot record, landing at 378 feet, 9 inches.

After working out the details of their individual approaches, the pair sailed through the air, in synchronistic fashion, jumping over 300 feet of water from the North to the South at the Embarcadero Marina Park. Robbie Maddison was leading at about 110 mph with Levi LaVallee gaining, as if in the draft, at maybe 120 mph. http://www.ultimatemotorcycling.com/2012-red-bull-jump-lavallee-maddison

And that is about it for news coverage of this spectacle event. Not like its a heavy news day around the world, but basically no one but ESPN and Ultimate Motorcycling were there and reporting about it today

Maddison kick-started the Red Bull series in 2007 by jumping his motorcycle 322 feet in Las Vegas. The following year, he jumped onto and then off the 96-foot high scale version of the Arc de Triomphe at Paris Las Vegas.

Maddison has jumped the 279-foot wide Corinth Canal in Greece, at a height of more than 300 feet above the water, and did a no-handed back flip over the open span on London’s Tower Bridge.

Tere found a great video compilation of the past new years eve Red Bull jumps!

Before atv's became commonplace in the 1990's, some people converted their snowmobiles

This last one was a factory conversion kit "Wunder Wheels"

Found on http://home.cogeco.ca/~alamore1/SNOWMOBILES/Sled_Show.html via http://thenewcaferacersociety.blogspot.com/

Just one of dozens of unusual snowmobiles found on Sledder Al's Vintage Snowmobiles

Bizarre. http://snowmobile-canada.com/vin9.htm via http://thenewcaferacersociety.blogspot.com/

A variety of snowmachines from The Old Motor

 What some used to do with their Harleys in the winter

 Cat tracked and hydraulic rammed with solid front tires.

 Wow, land train... I can't recall seeing one before. Very cool

either a homemade snow machine from car parts, or a conversion kit...  in front of the woman on the right is a door I think, and behind her the body seems to have some sheet metal going up the side from the frame

found on http://theoldmotor.com/

New Snow Cruiser photos and information found

It was built by the Pullman train car company, in Illinois
and in the below full size news article (click on it for full size) it says that it was abandoned in the antarctic due to it's being so heavy (37 tons and 55 feet long) that it immediately was stuck in and ice crevass. It's longest drive was from the factory near Chicago to the shipping docks in Boston... at 55 miles and hour
found on http://www.pullman-museum.org/cgi-bin/pvm/newGetSubjects.pl?subject=The%20Snow%20Cruiser

for more snow cruiser info and the video of it being unloaded and no surprise, it was too heavy fot the unloading ramp http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/12/antarctic-sno-cruiser-was-driven-to.html seems no one was really thinking in terms of how a 37 ton vehicle was to get around in a world not paved in concrete

Bombardier B-12 snowmobile

from http://www.flickr.com/photos/djipibi/4373984169/sizes/o/in/photostream/

from http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2011/06/14/from-the-hemmings-nation-flickr-pool-a-trip-in-a-bombardier/

1957 B-12 , powered by a Chrysler Industrial straight six and three speeds with lever steering column. Denis customized the invention of the legendary Joseph-Armand Bombardier, replacing the wheels of the slides in the center by maple to give the vehicle more stability in loose snow. http://blogues.cyberpresse.ca/monvolant/descarries/2009/01/27/traverse-bombardier-et-mise-au-point/

Garett Walker Sledheads
I had heard about a vintage snowmobile rally in Eganville and it piqued my curiosity. With a growing interest in documenting regional cultural festivals in Canada, and as an outsider to snowmobile culture, I made my way northeast towards the Ottawa Valley. I’ve been documenting some of the lesser known Canadian cultural festivals, celebrations, and rituals of the present, attempting to construct an understanding of my own relationship to the multifarious notion of Canadian identity.

I have been documenting regional cultural events that are seldom seen outside their locales. These events are traditions that are important in building and maintaining regional communities in different places across Canada. As a country, Canada spans 9,984,670 square kilometres, making it the largest country in the western hemisphere. Its culture is as diverse as its geography, and so it is not so strange for me to feel like a foreigner inside the country I call home. This is one of the reasons why I wish to bring these activities into focus and share them with a larger public in hopes of including these hidden treasures in a larger picture of how we as Canadians view Canada.
http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/visualarts/yorkquaycentreYQC09_6.cfm

Between 1945 and 1951, L’Auto-Neige Bombardier sold 2,596 vehicles. The Department of Public Works owned the majority of the B-12's up north and they were painted yellow
http://jproc.ca/rrp/chimo_photo_album.html

Ice autos, 1910-1920, Duluth to Rochester

Found on http://www.atomicantiques.com/2010/01/06/ice-autos

Snow machines from SteampunkVehicles tumblr

How Ford delivered new cars... bet you (like me) never saw this before!

Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal reporters around a hundred years ago with a converted Model T

Above is another Wisconsin handmade snow machine that is marked with Wisconsin Conservation Dept

Alaska mail delivery in 1936

All found on http://steampunkvehicles.tumblr.com

Allrides has some cool stuff you oughta see

Just the thing to keep a farmer dry when using the tractor in the rain.

There are some things that have been done with VW vans that are a surprise to me, but making a bead blaster cabinet is pretty cool and useful, the waterfall in the garden... mighty unusual

a full size 4 door Caprice snow machine is a first.

see these and all the rest at http://allride.skynetblogs.be/index-12.html

The 1936 BMW snow machine

I found these photos before, but never could find the top one to make them a pair in a post, because in the top photo, you can't tell that there is a sidecar, and I didn't know it was a BMW

Top photo from http://motorcycle-74.blogspot.com

Bring a Trailer, where the cool stuff for sale shows up

1951 Royal Spartanette trailer converted into a hauler

80's Dodge van sno cat

1914 Indian Model F

1954 Willys panel delivery

Browse through the listings of all the unusual and rare vehicles, and race cars

http://bringatrailer.com/

Snowmobiles can fly. Anything that goes farther than the Wright brothers at Kittyhawk is really flying

On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright piloted the first powered airplane 20 feet above a wind-swept beach in North Carolina. The flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet.

Three more flights were made that day with Orville's brother Wilbur piloting the record flight lasting 59 seconds over a distance of 852 feet

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/wright.htm

Levi LaVallee went 361 feet on a snowmobile



From http://autozine.com.br/

home made snow machine

for more http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2010/01/28/a-solution-for-many-many-snow/#more-9642

C'mon steampunk inventors, the snowmachine of 1914 needs your recreation efforts

from a postcard found featuring St Petersburg in 1914 http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2010/10/05/unusual-soviet-snowmobile-equipment/#more-18818

Necessity, the mother of invention

From http://englishrussia.com/ and http://thenewcaferacersociety.blogspot.com/

For a gallery of the homemade snow machines: http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2010/04/14/russian-homemade-snowmobiles/#more-12333

WANT !

from http://aircooled-village.blogspot.com/2010/12/t1-promotion-pisten-bulli.html via the great http://stipistop.com

Real unusual things from trailer washers, motorized wheels, to tank track Rolls Royces

Never seen one before, and something about the age of a black and white photo tells me that these are obsolete

I have no idea at all what this is

Ok, but why take it out if you have to add skis?

Really early car phone

Odd stuff on this tow truck

1890's and I was told it's a velocipede

Lenin's 1922 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost snow machine. Most expensive snow machine conversion? or strangest use for a Rolls Royce?

I've never seen a photo of a tractor involved in a car crash

no idea what the motorbike in front is

Never seen a train engine like this... must be for moving train cars around in a train yard

For packing dirt roads?

Early Daytona Beach racers with superchardged Auburns, before NASCAR took over racing on Daytona Beach

Click for full size to read the story

Two of the rare Jeeps the (1959) FC 59, but the below is even more rare

Model T tank

Love the motor wheels... I'd so love to ride one! This one was investigated by Hemmings Blog and you can read more about it: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2010/11/22/m-goventosas-one-wheel-to-obscurity/ it went 93mph... I doubt that anyone did that more than once given the conditions of roads in Italy in 1931 to 1933, that's when the above photo was taken, 1931

Puegeot in 1934, great designed car, looks like the top is coming down

Wipers on the inside and outside... and that might be Ron Howard... like Tere commented, it sure looks like him during the Andy Griffith show

Photos from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=927