The only time that Mercury was ever playing catch up was when the rotaries would show up and finish a race. Other than that, Strang was never given the freedom he wanted by the bean counters at OMC to let him build what he wanted during the factory team era. They built some specialty engines but were mainly used in Europe.

What I always thought OMC should have done was put a rotary on a 3 pointer and raise the world record. No doubt it could have gone 145+ mph. I am sure they were unwilling to do it because it was a prototype power plant. But, it would have had Mercury trying to figure out how to get the unlimited record back.

Even when Strang finally got what he wanted, the looper F1 V-8, Mr. Seebold would show up and out run them!