Life at Lake X in the '60s

[Scream And Fly]

Here are the two wings I mentioned awhile back. This looks to be in front of the motel.

jeff

This almost looks like one of the smaller buildings at Lake X. What a cool photo. imagine seeing that today? Just incredible.

Greg

[FUJIMO]

...and Elmers 1963 Chrysler Crown Imperial, parked in front of his room...the end unit.

[bernie]

[QUOTE=FUJIMO;3017316]...and Elmers 1963 Chrysler Crown Imperial, parked in front of his room...the end unit. Mike Ramsay (lives in New Smyrna these days, retired from Mercury) and don't know the red shirt - almost looks like Bill Marshall. The motel is history - spent a few nights there - solved most of the world's problems sitting under that veranda with a suds or two - or three.

[seeroy]

"Red" shirt is Odell Lewis

[Bob V]

"Red" shirt is Odell Lewis

[peterse90]

Feb 27, 2018
Mercury Marine, the world leader in marine propulsion, is reviving a piece of its history as the company has agreed to lease the property at Lake X in Central Florida. Lake X, a pillar of Mercury’s heritage, was designed and built by Mercury Marine Founder E. Carl Kiekhaefer in 1957 and later sold to the Kirchman Foundation, who still owns the property today. The facility was designed to be the most secluded marine testing facility in the world with 12,000 acres of land and 1,440 acres of water at Lake Conlin.

“Mercury Marine is closing in on its 80th anniversary (in 2019) and we have a rich heritage that is unmatched in the marine industry,” said Michelle Dauchy, Mercury Marine chief marketing officer. “Returning to Lake X is an opportunity to build an immersive brand experience around that heritage and capitalize on the popularity of the Mercury brand. We have been able to host customer and media events as well as take advantage of the lake to test product.”

The location, based in Osceola County, Florida, is roughly three miles long, one-mile wide and nearly six miles in circumference. Lake X was long used for performance tests of Mercury-powered boats, R&D, new product testing and endurance validation. Mercury Marine occupied Lake X until 2004 when it chose to not renew its lease.

The secluded freshwater lake is also known for one of Mercury’s most famous PR events that took place in 1957 where a 50,000-mile endurance run, featuring two boats running continuously on a closed 5.8-mile course, 24 hours a day, seven days a week made marine industry history.

“We hear stories all the time about folks who worked for Mr. Kiekhaefer and their wonderful experiences at Lake X,” said Dauchy. “We want to create new memories and build on our heritage of performance, reliability and to merge together our new Go Boldly brand cache with almost 80 years

[JP Love]

Lake X Stories is awesome .... Thank's buddy for this nice reading....JP love

[GENE LANHAM]

Sad news—-

I just heard that Steve Sirois passed away this morning —-

[GENE LANHAM]

For years I have wanted to pass along some of the experiences I had at Lake X from 1962 through 1970. This is going to take awhile and will be a living document. That means that I will add bits and pieces over time. Additionally, I invite anyone that was there to add their experiences. CAVEAT! Do not expect everything to be accurate and correct. It's not that I don't want to be correct. But, unfortunately, I will have to work from memory and the few items I still have as clues. Also, I have been known to embelish. If there is one thing I have learned in my life as a former boat racer, fisherman and fighter pilot; it is that boat racers, fishermen and fighter pilots are the greatest liars in the world. I especially know that is true about boat racers because we would always run every race boat through the measured kilo at Lake X many times as we tried new things and as Don Schwebbs banged on our props. We always knew exactly how fast our boats were running before we left the lake. The only significant variables were fuel loads, water conditions and whether we were running in salt water. SOOOOO...you would not believe how many times somebody at a race site would tell me that they were running at 75mph and I would walk past them in an absolute 62mph boat. Excuse me if I get names, places, dates and alot of other things wrong. Also feel free to correct me. I am Steve Sirois and my brother was Bill Sirois. Many of you may have heard of or known him. Very few of you will have known or heard of me. In my next post I will try to explain how we got to Lake X.

Rest in Peace—Steve

[transomstand]

Another great one lost.

R.I.P. Steve

[JP Love]

Another great one lost.

R.I.P. Steve

RIP MR.Sirois love your life

[olboatman]

S&F has lost a great member!
RIP Mr Sirois we will all miss you!
Gary

[willabee]

Sad news—-

I just heard that Steve Sirois passed away this morning —-

That is very sad news ..... As Steve has said of others before him, "another has crossed that final finish line" ..... RIP

[Speedfab]

Sad news—-

I just heard that Steve Sirois passed away this morning —-

Oh no. I kept meaning to ride the 20 minutes out to the beach and see him... damn.

Never put that stuff off.

Rest in peace, Steve. You will be missed.

[JPEROG]

My condolences go out to his friends and family. We are lucky that he took the time to start this thread and that all of the others have jumped in to share in the history lessons. We love racing for the thrill but its really the people that make it special.

Joe