Mercury Through The Years...

[GENE LANHAM]

[bernie]

...and who made the forged Kiekhaefer labeled rods? Not Kiekhaefer.

I think Walker Forge out of Racine - they made OB steering arms for Mercury also. Connecting rods came out of Rock Falls IL, and Modern Drop Forge out of Blue Island IL. As Chief Inspector I made many trips to those vendors on quality issues - the Rock Falls people were bad - good price, which is what purchasing was always looking for, but scrap rates were horrid. Put the 622 and 624 rods over to Modern and our scrap rate went to just about zero. They were an excellent vendor, as was Walker. Quick side note - we sanded the I beams to remove the forging die lines -sanded after machining - they were sanded the length of the I Beam, not quite polished. One night some guy sanded a whole batch across the I Beam - stress risers everywhere! Ended up throwing a huge amount away as to resand them made the I Beam too thin. Paid dearly to get the vendor to get us new forgings so we could start over. Our plant manager Bill Page was furious - and of course inspection got blamed for it - I got blamed for a lot of stuff I really didn't have control over - hell, that job even had a visual reference posted how to sand them, but the operator thought he could do better and beat the job rate which I am sure he did - most of those jobs were known as "creamers" anyway, easy job rate so we could get a good part.

[velox]

Start of a Gold Coast, Pelican Harbor dock looking east Gene?

That is during the 6 Hour Grand National OPC race at Pelican Harbour.
How do I know?
Because it me in George Griley's Glastron, my buddy Keith Jobson that helped in our pit crew and Carl K looking on while we fueled and were leaving the pits. I think my girlfriend (now wife Bonny) took this photo.

[velox]

Pelican Harbor dock looking east---1964 Six Hour--

---and Leonard in the twin Glastron--

Man, you are good!
The young guy was Kieth Jobson a good friend of mine from Coral Gables. I talked to him a couple of years ago.
Carl was looking on and was pissed at me for running Michigan props. He told us we were running his engines too hard and we would blow them up and make Mercury look bad. We ran the 6 hour and a week later the 9 hour and never had to touch a motor other thn tighten one screw in a distributor cap.

[GENE LANHAM]

That is during the 6 Hour Grand National OPC race at Pelican Harbour.
How do I know?
Because it me in George Griley's Glastron, my buddy Keith Jobson that helped in our pit crew and Carl K looking on while we fueled and were leaving the pits. I think my girlfriend (now wife Bonny) took this photo.

Hi Leonard--

Pelican Harbor dock looking east---1964 Six Hour--

---and Leonard in the twin Glastron--

[Dave Strong]

This tread is the best ever, so much info and so many old co workers telling us so much cool stuff. Love all the motor and development info, racing pics etc. One thing that has seemed to be left out was the other stuff developed to make these boats run the way they do.
Rideguide steering, 101 grease, Powertune, fuel stabilizer, etc, etc.
Thank you guys for all you have done and all those that have helped.

Dave

[Dave Strong]

Oh ya forgot HP gear lube.

Dave

[2us70]

Pelican Harbor 63 or 64 maybe?

[pointer]

Thank You!

pointer

[lilabner]

Is Leonard wearing a helmet or did he just paint his head orange?

[2us70]

I was probably around there somewhere. I was a senior in high school that year and just getting interested in boat racing. I ran my first race a few months later at The Sandy Shoes race. I always loved running that course.

Pelican Harbor dock looking east---1964 Six Hour--

---and Leonard in the twin Glastron--

[FUJIMO]

Is Leonard wearing a helmet or did he just paint his head orange?

...Yes...

[GENE LANHAM]

I was probably around there somewhere. I was a senior in high school that year and just getting interested in boat racing. I ran my first race a few months later at The Sandy Shoes race. I always loved running that course.

Hey Jim---The Six Hour Grand National that was part of the Orange Bowl Regatta was run in three separate locations:

Miami Outboard Club--12/28/62

Marine Stadium---12/30/63

PHYC ---- 12/27/64

---and Leonard is wearing an orange shower cap---

[2us70]

I stand corrected. I was not around there. I was in the Army on that date.

[PARKER RABE]

whats the deal ? are the pics over , been checking every 3 hours for new stuff?