The record
Cushman and its parent, Outboard Marine Corporation (OMC), announced the Trackster in a 1969 flyer for delivery in spring 1970, and it appeared in Popular Mechanics in June 1969. The factory manager, J. W. Creighton, drove the first production example off the Lincoln assembly line on 13 February 1970. By June 1970 the sales manager for all-terrain vehicles reported that recreational buyers made up about half of sales, followed by electric utilities, government, ranching and universities. Production ended in 1975.
The hull is a single moulding of fibreglass more than a quarter of an inch thick, with the colour moulded into the gel coat, on a welded steel-tube frame. An OMC air-cooled two-stroke flat-twin of 437 cc, rated at 25 hp (the club's specification sheet also gives 29 hp), drives two Sundstrand hydrostatic transmissions, one per track, with gear reduction at the output. A single T-handle controls steering, speed, reverse and braking; driving one track forward and the other in reverse turns the vehicle in its own length. Die-cast aluminium bogie wheels on rubber torsilastic mounts and steel springs carry one-piece rubber tracks developed with Goodyear.
The maker quoted 985 lb (447 kg) unladen, an 800 lb (363 kg) payload, 16 mph forward and 7 mph reverse, a 100 per cent (45°) grade, a 10-gallon fuel tank and a ground pressure of 0.47 psi unladen. It is 92 in long, 61 in wide and 41 in high, small enough to carry in a pickup bed. The watertight hull floats two people with the optional flotation ring. The price was about US$2,300. The number built is not published.