Hi John,
Gary Larson from the PowerCat group. Any idea where all these motors went and if they still exist. Are they able to be seen?
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Hi John,
Gary Larson from the PowerCat group. Any idea where all these motors went and if they still exist. Are they able to be seen?
This sounds like the photos I have. Each engine stand had a plaque with the engine name/info. What year would this have been?Quote:
Originally Posted by J. Sherlock
jeff
I'll try to post a picture in a few minutesQuote:
Originally Posted by J. Sherlock
stand by...
I guess you could say that this was quite a collection! This is a wide view showing most of the contents of the room. Like I said, the room was set up like an auditorium. This shot is dated 1969. If you look closely, there are drone engines and chainsaws hanging from the ceiling in the back.
jeff
OK, who was Mr. Kirchman? What was his job? You insiders all seem to know, but us mere humans are in the dark.
So John, when was Mercury officially and finally out of Lake X.
Gary
Sam - Here is Kirchman Obit from New York Times last year. I have removed all survivor references. Note Bold Print areas. - SteveQuote:
Originally Posted by Mark75H
Published: March 25, 2007
KIRCHMAN--Kenneth P. Kenneth Kirchman, a prominent <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comhttp://forums.screamandfly.com/forums/ /><st1:City alt=</st1:City>Orlando businessman and founder of Kirchman Corporation, died at his home in <st1:City w:st="on">Winter Park</st1:City> on Tuesday, March 13. He was 72. Mr. Kirchman founded Kirchman Corporation, a privately held banking software innovator, in 1968 and built the company into a multi-national corporation that served over 6,000 banking institutions around the world. Kirchman Corporation was a pioneer in the banking software industry and a leading provider of automation software and compliance services to commercial banks. It was acquired in 2004 by Metavante Banking Solutions. Mr. Kirchman contributed <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Stetson</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType>'s first $1 million gift to endow the Kirchman Chair of Humanities. His active and committed interest in the community led him to serve on Stetson University Board of Trustees and serve as President of the Alumni Association. He was also former Director of Public Radio and Television of Central Florida. He served on former Florida Governor Bob Graham's Economic Development Task Force and was a Trustee of Florida House in <st1:City w:st="on">Washington</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">DC</st1:State>. He earned a B.S. from <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Stetson</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType>, attended a business management course at <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Harvard</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Business</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">School</st1:PlaceType> and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law (LLD) from Stetson. He served as a First Lieutenant in the Guided Missile Branch of the U.S. Army and, prior to founding Kirchman Corporation, held positions with Sperry Rand Corporation, The National Cash Register Company and General Computer Services. The family will hold a memorial service for family and friends on Tuesday, March 27th at 11:00 am. The event will be held at <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Lake</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">X</st1:PlaceName>, the Kirchman's 10,000 acre ranch south of <st1:City w:st="on">Orlando</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">FL.</st1:State>
The mystery surrounding Lake X, real or perceived, is just so interesting. The stories everyone who was involved with the lake and Kiekhaefer Mercury are just great and it had to have been a pretty good time.Times like this don't happen very often and really do make some extraordinary memories. I am enjoying all of this throughly. Much of this was when Florida was somewhat wild and woolly and not artificial and glitzy as it has gotten now. Keep the stories coming as good memories are hard to come by and those were lot more fun times.
Gary Larson
Jeff - Great pic of the "Museum" on the second floor of the "New" building. Somewhere on S&F, I talked about when we moved the "Collection" from the 'Vault" to the "Museum". It is a very subtle difference but, as my fading memory remembers it, the "Vault" was actually a warehouse in the back of the Old Parts Room, which was located across the driveway from the "Old" Shop Building. I was only in the "Vault" for 2 events. The area was used as a planning and movie viewing room prior to the 1967 Bahama 500. We would go there to do the chart planning/studying. We also could view the 16mm movie that Mabry Edwards had made of the 500 course. The second event was when several of us went there to remove the crated "Collection" from that area, uncrate each piece, transport it to the "New" building, forklift it to the second floor, which then became the "Museum" that your previous post pictures. It was an amazing experience opening each crate to reveal a piece of history. We hung the drone engines & chain saw from the ceiling. That was the first time I realized that the company had produced them. I think that is one of the ways they survived the War years. If you zoom in on the picture you posted, you can barely make out some of the very first outboards in the left and center rear of the room. I think there was even a "Waterman" in the room. In addition to what is visible in that picture, there were several Mercruiser rigs, some 4 cycle race engines, and a couple of stacker outboards. I have attached an exterior picture of the West side & partial South side if the "New" building. The "Museum" comprised the entire second floor where you can see the round bubble windows. On the first floor you can see the entrance to the office. Further back on that wall is the entrance to the dining room. Thank You for the picture of the interior of the "Museum". I think the original setup included a large conference table. I am guessing that your picture is the setup for the Dealer/Press Conference that took place at Lake X during one of the years that I was there. That event is a story that I will try to post in the future. I am looking forward to your new thread and hope that you will also continue posting on this thread. :):):) Best Regards - Steve SiroisQuote:
Originally Posted by digital_jeff
http://i37.tinypic.com/iqlw0l.jpg
Hi Steve,
I have a few other shots of the room, but they do not show any MerCruiser packages. However, I do remember other shots from a different time where there were some MerCruisers. Later this AM i'll post a shot from the opposite corner of the room. Also, there is a close up of each section, i'll post a shot of the very early engines, no Waterman though - sorry.
jeff
:thumbsup::iagree: Good memories..
Here is the opposite view and a close-up of the early engines. In the wide shot, if you look to the right of the podium, there appears to be a stacker and a few other race models. The front of the room appears to have the current production models for that year (1969). Actually, the way marketing goes, since this was shot in '69, those could very well be the '70 line-up. Cropped out of this image is a drone starter engine hanging from the ceiling.
Also - if you look closely at the first collection shot, there is a board leaning against the wall on the left that has a bunch of race gearcases attached to it.
jeff
On occasion, I have seen these duck foot stands listed on ebay. I imagine they can fetch a pretty penny.
jeff
Greetings....
I am at Carl and Jeanne's for the nite and will be in Fla for a couple of weeks. Is anyone out there??/ We have talked with Odell and Gene Wagnor and would like to talk to more. My phone no. is 281-222-2828. Carl, Jeanne and I have had a blast talking about all of you.
BobbtR
HJ is still there, the bar is history.
That all you have to do on a Friday night? Come back up to Iceland and shovel fricken snow. 1 degree out this morning, warming up to 4 tomorrow AM, a regular heat wave. Did you make it to the Packer game? If this weather doesn't change, I grabbing the camper and going South - see if I can park out at Dale's ranch for a month.
Bernie
You should not have left Fl in the first place. In the 50's know
Mike R:cheers:
Jeff,
The latest photos of the museum were awsome. A veritable candy store for big boys. I would have loved a couple of hours in the room. Probably would have had a bib on so I wouldn't be drooling all over myself. Steve, did any of the "experimental" motors ever get into the collection? I assume that most were used in racing and many ended up in private hands. I know that the dealer I worked for always seemed to have some non production Mercury motors around which he let us "kids" beat the crap out of and go fast. He himself would get in our boats and make them go even faster with some fine tuning. I also know he did talk to Carl K from time to time and they were on first name basis. I guess Wisconsin Germans got along with New England Swedes.
Gary Larson
John - I particularly liked the part about "Please do not litter". I assume that means, if you crash your boat, please do not leave it on the bottom of the lake. :) - Steve
Back in post #31 (1/27/05) I talked about draggin for the body of Jim Prey. We pulled many logs from the bottom during that 3 day search before we got Jim out of the lake. Surprisingly to me, most of that was out in the middle of the lake on the North end. I don't really know how deep it is/was in most spots or what the bottom consisted of. The water was very dark from the cypress tree release, so that one could not see very far down. I would imagine that there are alot of boat and motor parts on the bottom. There may even be a few catfish traps left from an interesting entreprenurial enterprise that took place in the '60s (see post #43). What I do know is that the Lake consumed several hats blown from my head as well as all kinds of missles (wet rags, bananas, apples, oranges, water balloons, etc.) that we threw at each other.:p -SteveQuote:
Originally Posted by J. Sherlock
I know of at least one prop.......and half a prop shaft....:DQuote:
Originally Posted by seeroy
T2x
I want to see if anyone has any info on this picture. Pretty sure it is at the lake from some items in the background - but where? I don't remember the part of the building at the top right of the picture.
jeff
I lost a large lens hood about 50 yds east of the tower - that's the best I can do...
Use to wrench with a guy in mid 70's in Orlando who worked at the lake as a mechanic. Think his name was Steve McKinney(?). He told a few stories , one about late night boat loads of parts that were taken out and dumped in the lake so no one would know they ever existed. He worked there for several years. Just another story that gets better with age i guess
John - That is also where I thought it was, however there are other shots showing windows that don't match what I remember.
I'll post another in a few minutes.
jeff
Here are two other shots that may help. The first clue is the window, all the other windows on the property were either round, like on the big building, or louvered. Also, the lack of the horizontal stripe that is on all the buildings. Possibly the south side of the building looking west? You can see the nose cones in the background. Also, looks like a carpenter shop to the right.
jeff
OK - looks like we posted at the same time. That must have been torn down before my time.Quote:
Originally Posted by J. Sherlock
jeff
Now, what about the boat and the person pictured?
jeff
Dang ... not only a V-8 ... but a big block Chevy at that ... nothing else has valve covers quite like a 348/409Quote:
Originally Posted by digital_jeff
More great pictures of the facilities. The guy pushing the "Flivver" is Charlie Rush. He was at the lake the whole time I was there. I think he worked with Jim Emerson some of the time. Jim Hauser can add more to that. The "Flivver" was a fun thing. We had a fleet of them that were used with small motors to stage relay races at the Dealer/Press conference. We would hold the Flivver for them. The first guy would jump in, start the motor, haul ass out a ways and go around bouy. We would catch him at the beach and turn the flivver around for the next guy. The final guy on the team would run the boat up on the beach. Usually, when he hit the beach and the flivver stopped suddenly, he would literally fly out of the front. Luckily nobody got hurt and it sure was fun. As for the big block and stern drive in the Flivver, sometimes we did things like that for a great joke. Nowadays somebody would Photoshop it....I worked in the "wood" shop for awhile with Jim Harkins. There very well may have been a small square window in the rear sliding door to the shop. I think John and Jeff are correct about the location of the Flivver pictures. Every time I see another "new" picture on this thread it brings back wonderful memories. :rolleyes: Thanks to all of you for that and Best Regards - Steve Sirois
Photo was taken right outside the entrance to Charlie Rush Spotcheck Department, which was next to parts...... Guessing in the mid-60"s,,,,,,,, The amazing flivver races at the dealer meetings, were unbelievable, Steve described it perfectly, These guys would nearly kill everybody to I think win afree T-Shirt or something, for many years was on the receiving end of catching those damn things,,,,,, remember one year in Missouri Fred K. was next to me some guy came in unaware as to how to put his 4 HP engine in neutral,,, with spinning propellor was just able to shift take out of gear or Fred would have had a bad day,,,,,,, And you guys think Professional racing was HAIRY, Holiday Greetings to all,,,,,,,,,,:cheers:
One of these days i'll dig out some of those dealer meeting race shots. As I remember, they really looked out of control!:eek:
jeff
Jim - Great post. As to Charlie Rush and "Spotcheck", that's something I had completely forgotten about. I don't remember too much about it, but for those who are wondering....basically, engines were pulled off the production line at random and sent to Lake X for "Spotcheck" testing by Charlie Rush. On occasion, I would drive a truck to Sarasota (my home ground) on the weekend and pick up "Spotcheck" engines from the Sarasota/Bradenton Kiekhaefer Distribution Warehouse. I'm not sure where Charlie Rush originated from, but for some reason I thought he was a St Cloud/Kissimmee area guy. Also, I always thought the same of Jim Emerson. Hopefully, someone will either confirm or correct me on that one. - SteveQuote:
Originally Posted by gofish7070
Speaking of Jim Emerson, He was multi talented. he ran the fuel program at Lake X. He had an 18 wheeler/Tanker that he used to supply all of the fuel at the Lake. I don't know where he went for it, but I suspect it was Tampa. Anyone that was ever at a race site was witness to his expertise at fueling boats during pit stops. What most people don't know is that he was a masterful welder. Lots of people can weld steel, but aluminum is an entirely different matter. Jim was/is expert in the art of Aluminum Heliarc. To add to it, he was a really nice guy. Come to think of it, while there were a few stinkers, most all of the folks at Lake X were great to be around and work with. Here is a picture of two of the best. Don Schwebbs and Jim Emerson, affectionately known as "Schwebby" and "Emery" - Steve
http://i37.tinypic.com/o9o8bk.jpg
John - You obviously have some stories about Bill that I have not heard...but need to hear. Thanks - SteveQuote:
Originally Posted by J. Sherlock
JD is also Chuck Mercereau's first cousin.Quote:
Originally Posted by J. Sherlock
Steve do you have a copy of the video of my interview with Bill and Al Copeland before the Miami-NY race?Quote:
Originally Posted by seeroy
T2x
A little off of this thread,,,,,,,, But received my OSS schedule for next year and in October offshore racing returns to W. Palm Beach,,,, Wait a minute, I live in WPB, Very early planning stage of old farts party again,, but will try to give it a go,,,,,,, Plenty of S&Fers in the area,, Steve lets work on Bakos & Riggs,,,, OK back to Lake X thread, Tunnell Boat drivers of course:cheers::cheers: would be very WELCOME,,,,,,,,,, and for those that were @ The Aronow Memorial party, I'll try to get the girl in the Sea Ray to visit:cheers:
I'll be there and maybe if we are all real nice....... Sherlock and Willabee might take the invitation.....Quote:
Originally Posted by gofish7070
I'm going to drag Linder down kicking and screaming as well.
T2x
Rich - I did and probably still do have (somewhere) a video of Bill interview before Miami to NY. However, I am not sure it was done by you. Is that the one that also included Ben Kraemer and James Cann? - SteveQuote:
Originally Posted by T2x