gorski

Gorski

This six-passenger sled weighed in at 500 pounds.

Ray Gorski began manufacturing snowmobiles at his Gorski Engineering plant in Corry, Pennsylvania way back in 1971. He built sleds that were revolutionary at the time- if you took him seriously. He claimed to have received a patent on his "gyro controlled sled" which was nearly impossible to tip over.

At one time he had applied for a patent on his own engine but I have never seen the engine or the patent- and this is 28 years later. Maybe he ran into some unforeseen development bugs that needed ironing out. Anyway, his sleds were powered by engines of 295cc single cylinder configuration as well as a whopping big 650cc twin cylinder model. His sleds were available in single passenger models as well as two passenger and six passenger models. The six passenger model weighed in at a great big 500 pounds. This model used a cleated track (some claim it was an Arctic Cat track) which was twice as long as a Cat track. This must have been a special track as there has never been a track this long since I have been covering snowmobile history. His talents led him to build two versions of racing sleds. One model was the 440cc weighing only 198 pounds and the second was a 650cc weighing only 208 pounds. His suspension system was named "Ultra Trac" and most likely used the Arctic slide rail in conjunction with the Arctic track. During a 1992 visit with Ray (in Findlay Lakes, New York) he told me that he was presently working on a "revolutionary" rotary combustion engine. Here too he must have had some problems as I have yet to see mention of this engine in any trade magazines. During my visit he told me that he intended to get back into the snowmobile business, but seven years later, I still have seen no "Gor-Ski" sleds on the trails. "Gor-Ski" manufacturing bit the dust after 1975.