Life at Lake X in the '60s

[bulleteer]

Man all this racing history is truely great. I have one stupid question though. My dad owned some inline 6's when I was younger but I never heard of the twister before. What was it and why did it have the plates on the side?

Thanks, Gary

[Mark75H]

Maybe there should be a separate special thread about the tuned exhaust racing Mercs that explains all that.

Twisters were special race only Mercs with racing lower units that did not have neutral or reverse.

The big plates on the side were a tuned exhaust system that replaced the 3 large (and loud) megaphones formerly used on Merc's racers. Parts of the system were applied to the 1972 and later inline 6 Merc 90, 115, 140, 150 and 150XS motors.

Use this link to see the search results for Twisters on ScreamandflySearch for Twister on History forum There are over 450 references on that link

[bulleteer]

Thanks alot.



Gary

[warrior74z]

Lake X in its prime. Lets hear it again from those who worked or tested there in 60's and 70's. Shout it out guys.

[jlf56]

Steve, I am Joe FIelder, the idiot that crashed the Glastron T-74 at Havasue in 1970. What has become of Bill (your brother), Don Pruit, Tommy Posey, Johnny Sanders and others. I will try to learn this site to catch up on 37 years of gap-history. I am now 65 years old, living in Port O'Connor Texas. I never knew there was a site like this. Your thread is interesting. I made a trip or two to Lake X also. Gary Garbrecth (sp) was in charge of Mercury racing at the time. My best memory of "X" was Mr Karl's GoCart that had an inline 6 cyl. 120 c.u. I think on it. I wanted badly to get on it and see what it would do, but was sternly told that it would cost me my job even if I sat on it.
If you are in touch with any of the "old timers, please give them my E-mail address, I would like to hear from them.
Take care.
Joe Fielder

[seeroy]

Hi Joe - Sad to say Bill died in January 1997 as a result of a 5 year battle with multiple myloma. The only other that you asked about, that I know of is Don Pruett. Don also passed away a number of years ago. I think you will find that folks on this site are incredibly informative. Sam Cullis has an amazing memory for history of all things Mercury and spent a great deal of time with both Bill and Don. I towed a boat to Havasu for Bill in 1971. While there, Pruett arrainged for he and I to fly McCullough gyrocopters with a couple of their company pilots. We took off in formation then split to spend an incredible hour terrorizing desert wildlife from about 20' AGL. I spent all night after the 1st race day working with Angelo(?) Molinari repairing a sponson on Bills's boat. As I remember, he spoke no English, and I damn sure did not speak Italian. It was an interesting night. It was Bill's second win at Havasu but sadly Pruett was seriously injured in a crash somewhere around the right dogleg.

Best Regards - Steve Sirois

[T2x]

Steve, I am Joe FIelder, the idiot that crashed the Glastron T-74 at Havasue in 1970. What has become of Bill (your brother), Don Pruit, Tommy Posey, Johnny Sanders and others. I will try to learn this site to catch up on 37 years of gap-history. I am now 65 years old, living in Port O'Connor Texas. I never knew there was a site like this. Your thread is interesting. I made a trip or two to Lake X also. Gary Garbrecth (sp) was in charge of Mercury racing at the time. My best memory of "X" was Mr Karl's GoCart that had an inline 6 cyl. 120 c.u. I think on it. I wanted badly to get on it and see what it would do, but was sternly told that it would cost me my job even if I sat on it.
If you are in touch with any of the "old timers, please give them my E-mail address, I would like to hear from them.
Take care.
Joe Fielder

Don Pruett passed away. He had a number of health problems due to his crashes. I believe Tommy Posey and John Sanders are still alive. Gary Garbrecht died a couple of years ago, he had a massive heart attack on a golf course.

I worked closely with Pruett on a few projects and was a friend of Bill Sirois. I'm not sure if Sam knew them or not.

T2x

[jlf56]

Tx2 Thanks for the reply. Steve Serois already informed me about Bill and Don. Don and I went into the marina bussiness in 1973 in St Pete Beach. That was a trip. He had that idiot monkey, Flint, that liked to piss on people and of for sure Don gave him many chances to do just that. We parted company in 1974 and he took another partner, Bobby McNeely and changed the name from P&F (Pruett & Fielder) to P&M (Pruett & McNeely) Randy Raba was building boats there then and several other "interesting" characters. What name goes with the Tx2? Thought you might be someone that I knew back then.

Thanks, Joe Fielder

[jlf56]

Steve, Sorry I misspelled your name in the post To T2X and to T2X for copying his handle wrong. If it wern't for not being able to spell and inverting numbers and letters I would have no assets. About English and the Molinari's, I had a simulair thing with Renato at Havasu in 1971. I was trying to convey an idea to him about his V-bottom speed record setting hull over a few drinks. He finally stopped me and motioned to come with him to his room. That turkey spoke english, but only when he wanted to !! I was very surprised to see pictures of him in I think the late 70's or early 80's and he was 200# or better. He & I were always about the same size, 135#. That got me in trouble in the spring of 70 or 69 when he broke his neck in Austin Tx diving in the lake from the back of a boat after he tested it. We were setting up a wood 18' for him to drive at Miami in our Austin shop (Glastron) With him in the hospital we took the boat to Miami and they told me to drive it. I was the twin driver and really had no feel for the single. Scottie and I swapped the lead several times and finally I went over my head and gave the thing its head going out into the bay. Yep, Blew by him and then straight up for what seemed like a 100 ft. Harold reminded me that to win a race you had to finish, oh well, never did get that right.
Those were great days and all the old drivers were all great guys.
Remember at Grand Lake, Ohio, Bill Petty's home when Tommy Posey showed up with a sticker on his boat that said " Do Not Immerce In Water ". That was the year he blew over just about every time he got in the boat. Will write more later.

Thanks, Joe Fielder

[seeroy]

OK Brownie - No stories yet but I will post a few pics to test my skills. Yea, that's me at the Siesta Key test station when I was young, skinny, bulletproof and invisible.
-Steve<O</O

[gofish7070]

Keep in mind everyone this was in the late "60's,,,,,,,,,,After working out of Lake X for a couple years somehow wound up at the FDL boathouse,where just a handful of guys worked but its where Wayne Mayer ( Engine Builder Extrodinare) built the majority of the 4-cycle race engines,,,,,,,,, It was were Mr. K used to come when he wanted to get lost from the main plant,,,,,,,,, Anyway one day he came in and talked to Phil Schenk and myself and explained he had a project for us,,,,,,,,, It seems a company in California was developing ground effects machines (hovercrafts) and he was having them sent to the boathouse where he wanted us to become experts on operating them, it seems the company wanted Mercury to build and develop lightweight hi-horspower engines for this project. Within a couple of weeks we were to give a demonstration to a group who was to determine market feasability for this program,,,,,,,,,, When these things arrived,,,,they were a tad crude,,,,,,, we were sitting on top of a modified Volkswagon engine with a stick coming up between our legs,this engine drove a fan in the front which of course gave us lift,as well as the fan behind us which gave us speed and maneuverability,, we had a rocker swithch on the throttle which dropped a brush on the side which trapped the air,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,OK this was our project,,,,,,,,,,,, On a road you could get it to about 30MPH not bad On water Maybe 20 MPH and on Grass maybe 20MPH depending how tall the grass was as it created resistance,,,,,,,,,,, After a week or so of playing with this thing we became somewhat efficient,,,,,, However we also discovered we could only sit on the seat about 15 minutes at a time,as that VW engine was like a blowtorch blowing up your A--,,,,,,,,,,, Any way after acouple of demonstations The Execs at Merc agreed that it was a limited market type of thing,and went off to do their snowmobile thing,,,,, Not thinking to much about it one day received a call from Ms. Rose Mr K. wanted to see me,Going to his office he explained that the Mercury Distrbutor in Canada ( Sorry forget his name) had taken on this product and he wanted Mr. K to re visit the item,,,,,,,,,,,, He than sent me and John Hull a exec with the company to Winnipeg Manitoba to drive the new and improved version of this thing,,,,,,,,,,,, Well please understand that early in the month of May it is Cooooooooooold in Canada,,,, They asked us to meet them at some lake their,,,,,,,,,,,, Their are no lakes their that time of the year their are ICE CUBES their,,,,,,,,,,,,, We are standing on ice and they bring out this machine, which after seeing it was just like the crude version we tested,,,,, however about 40 more Horsepower, John looks at me and says well go Check her Out,,,,,,,,,, I than put on every piece of clothing I had and fire it up,,,,,,,,,,,, Keep in mind this thing came from California I came from Lake X,,,,,,,,,,,, One thing they forgot to tell me,,,,,, No one has run this thing on ICE,,,,, Their is no resistance while it was designed to go max out around 40,when I flew buy the group on the ice it was estimated around 70 with no resistance no chance of slowing down,,finally I see a patch ahead of me This is fluffy snow,,,,that means a lot of resistance,I aimed for that and when hitting it threw up a huge snowball it was like throwing out a 1000 lb anchor,launching me off this thing,,,,,, , No It did not get my endorsement and The project ended,,,, Later on these things did get deveoped and were awesome for rescue work,,,,,,,,but back oin the 60S That was my wildest Ride..............

[seeroy]

Come on Jim. You're originally from snowbird country! Surely you could have handled a little run on the ice followed by a quick refreshing dip in the snow . Sounds like a good reason to follow up with a little Schnapps. I enjoyed the story....Good fun. I haven't written anything over here in quite awhile, but have had alot of fun over on OSO and have enjoyed you being there as well. I love this site, but Brownie is so damn much fun over on OSO, that I've spent alot of time there. Best Regards - Steve

[gofish7070]

Thanks Steve, OSO is good stuff,enjoy it a lot thought I would try to revive this site a little bit, Loved your Gene Berg story as I know you and I and Gene were on the midnite shift a long time to-gether,,,,,,,,, I Think we had George in the tower,and Ed Luthie in the shop,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,as I think back,,,, Its hard to believe they paid us for all the experience we collected,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Would love to hear of your wild ride, Maybe in a fighter jet????????????????????? Come on down,,,,,,,,, Fishing tournament this week-end,,,May-be sometime OK

[seeroy]

Warrior74z - I took your Lake X picture and added some titles to it. Current Google Earth image shows that the old building and the motel are gone. - Steve Sirois

[lilabner]

Looking at it on Google, looks like you can see the boat fire pit..where a lot of those missing wonders are.

Butch