Facts about Evinrude/Johnson racing outboards made my OMC

That's actually the first boat I spotted.

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Originally Posted by Lake X Kid

Per this 1973 article the OMC V6 debuted in Europe at the Paris 6 Hour race.
Did the OMC V6 race first in Europe or at a USA race?
What was the first competition race for the OMC rotary engine?

Apparently the V6 Merc T3 first competition race was at Koblenz Germany in 1973, prior to racing at the 1973 Paris 6 Hour and American races.




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Kind of a shame that these 2 American outboard powerhouses couldn't even debut their products at a USA race? (and no, testing at Miami doesn't count).
Same thing happened with the OMC V8? Introduced in Europe and FINALLY ended up in the USA. One thing for certain, Europe did a much better job in harvesting big business sponsors than the Americans did.

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Originally Posted by WaterZebra

Kind of a shame that these 2 American outboard powerhouses couldn't even debut their products at a USA race? (and no, testing at Miami doesn't count).
Same thing happened with the OMC V8? Introduced in Europe and FINALLY ended up in the USA. One thing for certain, Europe did a much better job in harvesting big business sponsors than the Americans did.

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I dont have the correct answer but OMC raced the rotaries the first time in Parker 1973. At that time all the winning boat builders was Molinari, Scotti and Schulze. All based overseas. OMC was not allowed to race the rotaries in Paris 1973 and used the first V6 instead.
The world debut for the racing V8 was in Germany 1981..
Same thing..Only Molinari and Velden was building boats for the new V8.
OMC at that time was extremely big in Europe running their own companies in more or less every country in Europe.
http://svera.se/blogg/f1-v8/forst-till-bojen/
Large outboard racing was also very popular in Europe with many great UIM races as Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Nottingham, Bristol, Como etc.


PS..Mercury is today the only factory building racing stuff..All UIM F1 races are overseas. Mainly Middle East.

Nice and thanks.

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Originally Posted by sharpeye Mike

That's actually the first boat I spotted.

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Thanks..you have a @sharpeye Mike ...:)

The pilot and his #8 Burgess/Aspen/Evinrude F1-V8.
1983.

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Originally Posted by Rotary John

The first OMC V-6 ran at Paris 1973 and won. The first rotary race was Parker 1973 and scared the **** out of Mercury. The rotaries were shown to the public a week earlier in Miami at a press conference.

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Did OMC ever race their new V6 and rotary together at a race? I would imagine that decision (yes or no) resided with Charley Strang and Jack Leek?

Paris 1974 @WaterZebra and St. Louis 1974. (Maybe other places also. @Rotary John knows.)

OZ Class racing St. Louis 1974. A mix of Merc V6, OMC V6 and 2 Rotary’s..

http://svera.se/blogg/oz-class-racing-st-louis-1974-a-mix-of-merc-v6-omc-v6-and-2-rotarys/

St. Louis 1974.

”Barry Woods in his Scotti boat powered by the Evinrude Rotary was by far the fastest boat. Won the first two heats but barrel-rolled in the third when he was leading handing the victory to Bob Hering”

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Sam LaBanco

OMC F1-V8 connecting rod forging not machined yet.

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Originally Posted by WaterZebra

Did OMC ever race their new V6 and rotary together at a race? I would imagine that decision (yes or no) resided with Charley Strang and Jack Leek?

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I believe St. Louis '74; Paris 74; and Pewaukee 75. St. Louis story above, Paris rotaries 1-2 until Posey hit the turn buoy and destroyed the boat. Woods/Jimbo Lead by as much as 15 min. until the engine quit with less than an hr. to go. Loose carbs, and Pewaukee, Strang wanted the V-6 to win as it was being released for production.

“It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas” onboard our Marathon Coach #1035.:cheers:

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Love it Lars!

F1-V8 pit 1985.

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Happy birthday Alan Stoker.

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