1950's Merc prototypes article on EBAY

[mk30h]

Saw this on ebay at
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/MERCURY-OUTBOARD-KIEKHAEFER-BOAT-MOTOR-X-ENGINES-ARTICL_W0QQitemZ4588824587QQcategoryZ50439QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


One of you lads may like to buy it. My father was a merc dealer in the 50's and 60's and told me about seeing radial prototypes at Beaverdam. These are the first photo's I have ever seen of some of these engines.

"This is a reprint of a 3 page article on the future of the outboard motor from 1957. The cool pictures were supplied by Kiekhaefer and features some experimental in-line, square, V, opposed, & radial engines Merc X tried. The article is not very technical, but it does conclude that the future of higher horsepower outboards will come in the form of a V-2, V-4, etc. engine"

Interesting 1957 - V4 a year before OMC released the fat 4


:eek:

enjoy

[Mark75H]

Cool!

There were also prototypes of opposed 4's years earlier. Some of the opposed stuff has surfaced in the hands of collectors and is sometimes seen at AOMC meets

[Mark75H]

Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention ... some people here might recognize the seller ... Mike Downard :rolleyes:

[SCT]

I didn't know Mike was living in WA.

[25XS]

Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention ... some people here might recognize the seller ... Mike Downard :rolleyes:

Actually it's Michael Downing... His father was a fantastic Mercury Super5 J driver and Mike followed in his footsteps. I bought a Super5 steering bar duplicated in aluminum (weight savings) from Mike on ebay in 1999 and proceeded to buy many, many parts from him since that time, including several consecutive years of APBA Propeller magazines from the late 1960's into the early 1980's.

Tom

[Mark75H]

Actually it's Michael Downing...

You are correct ... I got my Downs backwards:o