New snowmobile brings together highway and backcountry

WASILLA -- Alaska residents pride themselves on taking the utmost precautions for winter, especially when it comes to transportation. Snow tires, studs, chains, special antifreeze, remote starters and lock de-icers turn an ordinary car into a sort of snowmobile with wheels.

It only stands to reason that technology should reverse the process and dream up a snowmobile that resembles a car. Ski-doo is currently marketing a model called the Elite Concept, a machine that seems to bear more in common with the Beetle and the PT Cruiser than some of its more conventional brothers.

Nearly twice the size of an ordinary machine, the Elite Concept seats two riders side-by-side and is powered by a Rotax 4-TEC 1500cc four-stroke engine of approximately 155 HP. This gives the machine a huge amount of power, even when compared to other high-end snowmobiles.

"Out of all the muscle machines out there, the burliest ones have about a 145 horsepower engine, maybe 150," said Korey Cronquist of Team CC Inc. in Wasilla. The Elite Concept requires an engine of this size to achieve a significant acceleration with its greater load.

The Elite Concept was originally introduced in 1972. The older model followed roughly the same design of seating two riders side-by-side, but lacked the benefit of modern technologies and sold poorly. According to Cronquist, the new Elite Concept represents a distinct improvement over the previous model. "[Previous Elite] machines were too slow, they didn't handle as well, and had bad acceleration," he said.

The company has revived the model in hopes that some of the newfangled perks offered by 21st century designing can drum up sales, and Cronquist believes that its time has come, "Over the years, technology improved to the point where the machine could deliver a good ride."

Among the new features offered by the Elite Concept are twin SC-10 III rear suspensions with comfort-calibrated Variable Rate shocks, heated handgrips for both driver and passenger, adjustable individual seats, a partially enclosed cabin with removable doors and roof, a unique steering wheel inspired by aircraft steering apparati, a lockable storage trunk in the front of the machine, and an exclusive Digital Encoded Security System.

The Elite Concept also features horizontal roll bars for safety and to support the removable roof, but in Cronquist's opinion the machine suffers little risk of rolling. "I've had it on side hills and it's not unstable at all," Cronquist said.

The suggested retail price for the Elite Concept is $17,999, and it is only being offered by Team CC in Wasilla.