Post by mooreperformance on Feb 6, 2012 19:15:13 GMT -5
In the summer of 1970 I persuaded my parents to spend the weekend at Brainerd International Raceway (then known as Donnybrook) watching the Formula 5000 series race.
It was the first time I had ever watched a professional car race in person. As we entered the race complex I could hear the cars shifting gears and the engines screaming. Obviously it was a day I remember well (42 years later I can still recall it vividly). The race was over by mid-afternoon and we drove to Crosby to spend the night (Crosby is not far from Brainerd).
The next morning we got up and drove to the Scorpion factory where a man was waiting to give us a personal tour.
My first impression was how small the factory was. Although it was a fairly large building I was expecting something much larger.
The assemby line was very short and not impressive at all. Everyone was working hard and the amount of manual labor to manufacture each piece was really an eye opener. Not much automation at all. The latest piece of high tech equipment was an optical comparitor magnifying machine to inspect clutch components for hairline cracks. This was the most sophisticated machine in the quality control dept.
The most remarkable part of the factory was the ability of the employees to manufacture so many parts of the snowmobile without relying on outside vendors. They were a very ingenuis bunch of people who were obviously proud of the fact that they did everything themselves.
The thing that I came away with that summer day was that Scorpion was in competition with the big three (Skidoo, Polaris and Arctic Cat) and as a much smaller factory, with much more limited resources, was in a David and Goliath battle. This seemed to be a battle that they enjoyed and where very proud of!
As a 16 year old snowmobile fanatic I will never forget that day.
It was the first time I had ever watched a professional car race in person. As we entered the race complex I could hear the cars shifting gears and the engines screaming. Obviously it was a day I remember well (42 years later I can still recall it vividly). The race was over by mid-afternoon and we drove to Crosby to spend the night (Crosby is not far from Brainerd).
The next morning we got up and drove to the Scorpion factory where a man was waiting to give us a personal tour.
My first impression was how small the factory was. Although it was a fairly large building I was expecting something much larger.
The assemby line was very short and not impressive at all. Everyone was working hard and the amount of manual labor to manufacture each piece was really an eye opener. Not much automation at all. The latest piece of high tech equipment was an optical comparitor magnifying machine to inspect clutch components for hairline cracks. This was the most sophisticated machine in the quality control dept.
The most remarkable part of the factory was the ability of the employees to manufacture so many parts of the snowmobile without relying on outside vendors. They were a very ingenuis bunch of people who were obviously proud of the fact that they did everything themselves.
The thing that I came away with that summer day was that Scorpion was in competition with the big three (Skidoo, Polaris and Arctic Cat) and as a much smaller factory, with much more limited resources, was in a David and Goliath battle. This seemed to be a battle that they enjoyed and where very proud of!
As a 16 year old snowmobile fanatic I will never forget that day.
