1976 scorpion range whip

By 1974 Scorpion Inc. of Crosby, Minnesota was trying to redefine itself as one of the "major" players alongside Arctic Cat and Ski-Doo, the world's largest snowmobile manufacturers. Just as now, sled makers were watching declining sales and knew they had to differentiate themselves from their competition.

Newly independent of previous parent Fuqua Industries, a Georgia-based conglomerate, Scorpion Inc. had established itself as more than a maverick sled company based in small town Minnesota. It had a unique Para-Rail suspension system that was essentially rubber bogie wheels running along parallel slide rails. By 1974 Scorpion had bought the former JLO line of two-cycle motors and shifted production from Germany to Crosby-Ironton, Minnesota. To get power from the Rockwell-JLO (renamed Cuyuna) motors to the poly-constructed tracks, Scorpions used a unique Power Thrust clutch, credited to Marly Duclo.

The original Range Whips relied on a 399cc "400" motor and were staged between the "full-size" top line Whip which used either a Scorpion-owned 340 or 440 Cuyuna fan-cooled twin cylinder engine.
While the Cuyuna brand motors were not the horsepower kings that Ski-Doo's Rotax group could build up, the Range Whip proved formidable nonetheless as a "trail stock" drag sled.

Light in weight at 358 pounds (dry, no fuel), the Range Whip's aluminum construction was a centerpiece for all Scorpions of this era. Like the Whip, introduced the season before, the Range Whip mounted the Cuyuna twin far forward and down low. Many Ski-Doo's of this time still had the engines mounted just ahead of the rider in a mid-chassis configuration. The Range Whip was as nimble as it was quick.

The Range Whip's "buckhorn" style handlebars curved back toward the rider. Later a straight bar would be offered, but the buckhorn style proved popular and set Scorpion apart from the competition.

With its 399cc fan-cooled twin the Range Whip could power through the quarter-mile in less than 20 seconds and claim a top speed of over 60 miles per hour. It could also achieve more than 20 miles per gallon. Suggested retail for the 1976 Scorpion Range Whip was $1,395 (or, in today's dollars: $4,395.00).

For model year 1977, Scorpion created the Sting, a hybrid Range Whip with the Whip's wider stanced front end and a more powerful 428cc motor in essentially the lightweight Range Whip frame. On local Midwestern grass drag circuits, the Sting's combination of readily tunable clutch, relative light aluminum chassis, slippery polyurethane track, and optional low-friction Para-Rail suspension made it- along with the original Range Whip in the 400cc class- the racers' choice in Trail Stock drag racing.

In 1976 this writer claimed a class title at the annual Sno-Baron's HayDay event aboard a Sting. That's how competitive Scorpion was.
 
A Bogie/Slide Design That Worked
A unique concept devised in the early 1970s by Scorpion's Gerald Irvine who liked things about the bogie system and the slide design. Said Irvine: "We wanted a unit suspension that would give the ride of a slide rail suspension, would offer good acceleration characteristics, would be as dependable as the rest of the Scorpion components, and would work well with the polyurethane track."
 
When the Rockwell-JLO engine moved to Crosby, Minnesota in 1975 it was rebadged "Cuyuna" in honor of the local iron range in central Minnesota, home to Scorpion Inc.