Teaser photos

[AirborneX4Special]

[ziebellski]

Thanks for sharing these photo's! Can you tell us any history on how you received the photo's? Keep them coming!

The original photos aren't mine, but I wish they were! When all else fails, take a picture of the picture

[ziebellski]

Front view:

[TASKY]

In the ballroom at Waconia this year there was a Kawasaki with what looked like the same front independent suspension as this right down to the skis. It said Krazy Kevin on the hood.

[SS440-80]

They look very weak... thinking about how Yamahas TSS wear and get loose, and the Yamie TSS has much more material in the arms.

[AirborneX4Special]

I'm thinking this is a first generation prototype, very likely built in 1979 since they had an IFS machine in the works by the introduction of the 80 Liquifire. It has the 79 or 80 style console to go along with the decal scheme. No decal on the hood scoop...

[ziebellski]

This is the last one, but it is the best:

[Horicon Joe]

Todd ..... thanks for sharing the pictures!

It has always been said by Ed Kruel that there were 2 fan cooled and 2 liquid cooled IFS sleds built and tested.
This is first proof with under the hood shot of the Fan cooled IFS. I have a picture of the liquid being built in department 81 at Deere dated May 1980.
These pictures defiantly feel like marketing pictures. ......

This picture was dated 1980.
Joe

[sledhead16]

Unreal Todd!! Thanks man. Those original pics would make a nice display for the HOF!

[AirborneX4Special]

Notice the silver Sportfire has a build stamp decal on the tunnel but the black one does not, and all the working prototypes have an orange identification sticker on the side below the hood.

[AirborneX4Special]

This is a piece of literature from Deere entitled "Sneak Preview Of The 1980 Liquifire"

[JDCornFlakes]

This is the last one, but it is the best:

Where is this Sportfire today ?
Never survived?

[AirborneX4Special]

Very likely scrapped. The only reason the one or possibly two surviving pieces are still around is that the whole show was sold "as is where is" at the time Deere was abandoning ship. Every prototype previous to that date ceased to exist at the moment it was no longer useful.

[JoeRainville]

Hello Todd,

These picture are great! Love to see things like this. From Ed Kruel's pic's and stories to us, we knew Deere had prototype Sportfire IFS sleds in development, but no studio shots of it or the IFS Liquifire have come to light before these (that I know of anyway).

Thanks a ton for sharing them! What a cool sled to check out the details on, like the round headlight, painted tunnel, 'flat' muffler, Comet 102-C, etc. Funny, but it was seeing the Liquifire IFS at Waconia back in 2010 that kicked off my writing career with American Snowmobiler after posting about the sled on here.

Thanks again for sharing the photo's, would love to hear any more details you can dig up.

-Joe Rainville

[AirborneX4Special]

I just noticed the so called Sneak Preview LF has no "John Deere" logo on the front of the console. Did 79 Trailfires with gauges have the logo indentation? Many of them had the short console with no gauges, especially the 340's. The part number changed for 1980 on the gauge console and then again for 81, when they redesigned the whole assembly for the remainder of production to a more durable plastic with the hinge based concept.