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View Full Version : You Think You Have A Wild Ride???



largecar91
11-02-2004, 06:20 PM
THIS WAS PROBABLY BORDERING ON INSANITY.

2us70
11-02-2004, 07:07 PM
I had forgotten how big those Stylecraft cats were. Is that one of Jack Oxley's boats? And How long do you think that rig ran on that tank?

Mark75H
11-02-2004, 07:09 PM
Sort of. This boat was set up by Danny Snead for a customer. Danny worked with Jack for McCulloch back in their racing days (early and mid 60s). The boat is a Stylecraft made by Earl Palmer just for this set up. Unfortunately, it was built after both the boat and its motors were no longer actually competitive, maybe 1967 or so.

The motors are a collection of parts from various years and not true to the McCulloch racer. Probably didn't have optimum props either. There were problems with fuel distribution and spray.

Total horsepower: approx 375

When I asked McCulloch's chief of racing, Bob Kies, about it, he had forgotten it had actually been tested in the water. He best remembered it as a great attention getter at boat shows and open houses. Jack and Bob both remember that there were several Stylecraft and Powercats set up with 3 and 4 McCullochs, but only this one with 5. The 3 and 4 motor rigs were actually raced (unlike the 5). Jack won a lot of WOA OPC type events with 2 McCullochs on his boats.

I'll try to find the other pictures from the group of photos of this rig. I thought they were all on Screamandfly already, but I can't find them any more.

2us70
11-02-2004, 07:18 PM
The Stylecraft cats seldom made it to the east coast but I always thought they looked great in profile in pictures.

Mark75H
11-10-2004, 05:36 PM
OK, I spent a week looking for these .....

Mark75H
11-10-2004, 05:37 PM
Text under large car's first picture

Mark75H
11-10-2004, 05:38 PM
Top of second page

Mark75H
11-10-2004, 05:39 PM
The end ....:)

Mark75H
11-10-2004, 05:43 PM
I did sort of remember the year .... it was 1968, 3 years after factory production of the McCulloch race motors ended. If you knew the right people, like Mr. Snead, you could still get parts to build up stuff like this. Oxley and Kies each independently told me that these didn't all have 100% 630 parts and wouldn't have been the 85 hp claimed in the article.

largecar91
11-10-2004, 06:20 PM
DID THEY HAVE THEIR OWN SPEEDMASTER LOWER UNITS? ARE THERE ANY OF THESE ENGINES STILL AROUND??

lilabner
11-10-2004, 08:19 PM
In your amazing archive of pictures, do you have the sequence shots of Skip Talbot hitting the ferry cable in his cat? He was leading the Sacremento River Race at the time in 1967..it was just before the National Drags at Perris...we had to lift him in the boat because of his broken leg...the pictures were in a magazine on the west coast...


Butch

Mark75H
11-10-2004, 11:32 PM
Yes, I have that sequence in some magazine here, I'll try to dig it up. It might take me another week to find that one, too.:p

Large, McCulloch had their own racing lower unit. It was kinda funky with a pretty big bulge above the bullet, but that part doesn't go thru the water and doesn't need to be skinny does it? It also had some cool features that a Speedmaster doesn't have. Just under the water pump there is a set of gears that can change the ratio between the motor and prop shaft. Having seen how quick change rears helped drag racers on asphalt beat a particular opponent on a particular day they made it about as easy as changing a water pump to change the gear ratio. Each motor came with several sets of gears for different ratios 1:1 thru 2:1 at about 10% increments. I'd like to see a set of these gears in person, there is a rumor that they can even be put in backwards for overdrive.

As it turns out these motors are very rare. I only know of 5 or 6 relatively complete ones that survive (and most of them are pretty butchered). According to Kies, Oxley and folks who worked at the plant in Minnesota .... hundreds of McCulloch racing motors were made between 1962 and 1965. Oddly of the 12 or so serial number tags that I have seen in person or seen photographs of the highest known serial number is just under 120. Where are the other 280+/380+ motors? I haven't a clue. I've been looking for one since 1975 myself and have only been able to accumulate about 80% of one motor. With nearly all the Merc Mark75H stuff accounted for, you'd think this stuff would be easier to find. I know at least one went to Australia to a guy named John Hudson, but that doesn't help me much.

If anyone knows about the whereabouts of one of these or just some parts, I sure would appreciate being put in touch with whoever has them .... I'll even pay a bounty to a third party who can broker a deal.

T2x
11-11-2004, 09:44 AM
Sam:

Based on the races I went to at that time..... THere were virtually none of the McCullough's on the OPC circuit aside from the West Coast.( The only two I ever saw were at The NY Boat show, and Clayton 40 years later.) Unless they were racing in some outlaw hydro classes or they blew up by the dozens in factory testing, I doubt the authenticity of those production numbers.

T2x

dale robertson
11-11-2004, 04:24 PM
I worked for a McCullough dealer as a floor sweeper apprentice outboard mechanic in 1965. He had a Powercat with Twin 75H.P. Customs that his son raced. He wanted a pair of 630's and tried calling everybody he knew and could not get them. We couldn't even get any gears for the custom lower units.

He bought the boat from a guy in Portsmouth VA. that did have a pair of 630's on a newer Powercat. I am pretty sure it went to the Orange Bowl Regatta that year but its been a long time ago.
Lynn Lawrence was the driver.

Mark75H
11-16-2004, 10:37 PM
The distributor for the mid Atlantic area, Potter Equipment Company was owned by an anti racing guy. We ordered a Custom lower unit and it came in ... they opened the box, looked at it and sent it back to Minneapolis. :mad:

Here is the Skip Talbot crash sequence. I gather there was a cable drawn ferry across the river. I guess when the ferry was not in operation the cable just laid on the bottom, but when they wanted it to go one way or the other they pulled it tight and it came up just above the surface. Skip wasn't the first to hit it, just the worst.

Mark75H
11-16-2004, 10:38 PM
#2

Mark75H
11-16-2004, 10:39 PM
close up

Mark75H
11-16-2004, 10:40 PM
one more

lilabner
11-16-2004, 10:56 PM
Thanks Sam..that crash destroyed his leg...I got to drive the cat before the wreck..really sweet..I haven' seen those shots since 67..

Butch

lilabner
11-16-2004, 10:59 PM
The lower units looked like they had been cut off with a laser...