brut snowmobiles 19721976

Bruts were strong. To show the strength of Brut’s aluminum tunnels, designers tested them by backing a flatbed single-axle 11,000-lb. truck with a ¾-ton van on its deck onto a ramp and then onto the twin tunnels. The tunnels held the entire weight with no side buckling whatsoever.

In their first season Bruts came with a radiator to cool the motor, but the radiator was big and costly. Through its race efforts the engineers developed coil tubes in the tunnel. That worked, but they had trouble with rocks penetrating the tubes. The engineers tried an aluminum extrusion to run the water through and it worked great. For the 1973 model year cooling changed to coils and an extrusion.

Bruts also had a fully adjustable progressive shock slide-rail suspension and one-piece molded reinforced Polytrack that worked well in all snow conditions. But the Polytrack had drive nubs for maximum propulsion, nubs that animals would eat off in summer. Gates, the track maker, then had to put something in the tracks to deter animals from munching on them.

For 1972 Brutanza made 580 Brut 440cc sleds at a list price of $1,595. That grew to 600 Brut 440cc sleds for the 1973 season at $1,745 and some 294cc twins at $1,545. For 1974 there were 299, 294cc and 25, 340cc models made. Not many racers were produced, but some enduro sleds were made with different pipes and seats for racing.

No snow and no gas
A lack of snow and an energy crisis during 1973-74 created a tough sales market. In January 1974 Scorpion Snowmobile Co. of Crosby, Minn., acquired Brutanza’s snowmobile line.

For the 1974-75 season Scorpion made about 500 Bruts with Mikuni carburetors for better starting and running. For 1975-76 Scorpion had a deal to make snowmobiles for Massey Ferguson. The Brut was renamed Cyclone and used a 340cc engine, selling for $1,898 and a 440cc version sold for $2,129.