Back in 2004 Bruce Codère, Jérôme Wubbolts and me engineered and produced a really cool side-by-side snowmobile for BRP, the Ski-Doo ELITE. It was the last snowmobile built by Bombardier inc * and the last unit rolled out of the assembly line in Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada on December 24th 2004.
During the development of the Elite project we were also ‘starting’ our families and it became clear that it would be a huge ‘plus’ to design a machine on which we could bring our kids too. That’s when we got creative… We designed, in parallel to the main project, a 4 seat prototype of the Elite.
Yves Bergeron from Maquina inc stretched one of our prototypes by 36 inch and we added 2 seats. We kept the 140hp four stroke Sea-Doo engine in it.
The ‘B4′ concept shown above is what I have in mind when I think about building a newer version of the Elite. (B4 stands for Bombardier 4 Passenger) This snowmobile could be powered by a 164hp Two stroke engine with direct injection (Rotax 800R) and the body would be made of plastic instead of fiberglass in order to save additionnal weight.
One cool feature would be a Ski & Snowboard rack bolted on top of the B4. It would make it possible for passengers to ski or surf downhill and spend extra time ‘freeriding’ on outbound trails… Each seat could also be heated by using the engine’s cooling system and fans could also divert hot air on the rider’s feets.
I would like to thank Arturo Arino who created the Design renderings of the B4!
*Bombardier sold its division in 2004 and it’s now a separate entity listed as ‘DOO‘ on the TSX
