Vintage News
by Les Pinz Time flies in the vintage snowmobile world. It seems like yesterday that Brut introduced their water-cooled snowmobile to the industry.
Brut Snowmobiles 1972-1976
I was lucky to be at their 40th anniversary this summer in Brooten, Minnesota with over 45 Brut snowmobiles on display, with owners and old employees telling old stories and the friendships they had. It was back in 1971 that a group of ex-Polaris employees started Brutanza Engineering in Brooten, Minnesota. John Bohmer from Brooten asked Gerry Reese about buying a small snowmobile company in North Dakota. Instead, Gerry and his cohorts decided to build a snowmobile themselves. Their idea was to build a high-performance snowmobile using a three-cylinder, water-cooled motor. We were already using some water cooling in racing sleds which keeps a motor at a controlled temperature for max horsepower and durability. They figured to run the motor around 180 degrees in cold weather at 40 degrees below to 40 degrees above, they would lay the motor down for a lower center of gravity and for better cornering ability. Because it was water cooled it could be positioned like that and not need air flowing over cylinders. To test the strength of their aluminum tunnels, Brut backed a flatbed single-axle 11,000-pound truck with a 3/4-ton van on its deck, up a ramp and onto twin tunnels. The two Brut tunnels held the entire weight; no side buckling whatsoever. 26
They said if you wanted a snowmobile to be fastest on your block, buy a Brut. The three-cylinder inline engine came with breakerless CDI ignition for better starting and longer plug life. This threecylinder runs so smooth and has a very distinctive sound that can be heard for a mile. The Bruts were so fast that some race associations considered banning them from cross country races.
In 1972, Brut developed a radiator to cool their motor but it was big and costly, so they tried using coil tubes in the tunnel. It worked great but had troubles with rocks penetrating the tubes. Using an aluminum extrusion to run the water through worked great. On the 1973 model year, they changed to coils and extrusion to maintain constant temperature after warm-up. The Brooten engine was designed exclusively for Brut snowmobiles. Each engine was handmade at the Brooten plant from parts made in Japan. The owners had to come in at night and put together enough engines for the next day’s production of snowmobiles. It was very hard on these ambitious owners, but they had a dream to sell there engineering. Brut’s Power-Pac ties the engine, drive clutch and torque converter into a single power unit. This design eliminates misalignment of drive belts and effectively reduces vibration. Having a fully-adjustable progressive shock slide rail
Minnesota Snowmobiling
