1962... The first black Mercury outboard engine was the '62 Merc 1000. The worlds first production 100 horse power outboard. But, there is a very interesting reason why it was painted black. Carl Kiekhaefer's chief engineer and right hand man was Charlie Strang. Strang had a brilliant mind and was a graduate of MIT. Many, many of Mr K's inventions, inovations and patents were Strang's ideas, but Mr K took all the credit. Mr Strang was single and was very close to his mother. She would even come looking for him at the plant if he was too late getting off work.
With the new styling of the Merc 1000 it looked mighty big when they painted it white. Strang and Mr K were at the factory late one night trying to decide what to do about the obvious size of the engine. Well, in came Mrs Strang looking for Charlie, so they told her of their delima. Mrs Strang said, "Well, when a lady wants to appear a few sizes smaller, she wears a black dress". The next day they showed Mr K the new Phantom Black Merc 1000, and the rest is history. A side note though, the 1000 was the only black engine in the '62 line up. The rest were white.
For the complete story read "The Iron Fist"
Any corrections to this story are welcome.
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