Hot Singles ! - Pictures

[willabee]

I'll try this one again...Mike Downard driving a 17' Molinari Sprint. Maybe the "High and Dry" boat? The engine still looks to me like a Red Stripe 1250 BP Stacker .....

That stacker does look great .....

Yes, the driver is Downard. However, you kind of caught me on the boat.....I'm pretty sure that we sent that one from Oshkosh, but I didn't think to look close enough to confirm that it is High and Dry. If it is (and I think you're right), that would make it an 18' Molinari marathon.

As for the engine, let's zoom in on what is really kicking back there.....as I said initially, this is a wicked machine. Another hint might be that this is the Berlin 6 Hour, 1970.

Note: Looking at the center picture, I'm 95% sure the boat is High and Dry..... how did you come up with that name, I'm very impressed .

[warrior74z]

Extra carbs on the intake ports?

[peterse90]

The tower housing looks different...but I'm going to guess some kind of super-charging intake.

[Mark75H]

Barron hit it ... the 9 carb monster from the Berlin race!

[willabee]

Barron hit it ... the 9 carb monster from the Berlin race!

Yes, Barron wins the Kewpie doll, but you I.D'd it as the 9 carber. After Barron's post, I didn't want to mention the number of carbs until you had an opportunity to see the last photos posted. With our history of discussions about multi-carbed powerheads in Europe, I knew that you'd figure it out. I wanted to slowly bring the engine closer and closer to see when you'd say something like "I told you so" .....remember, I've already had my crow dinner on this subject .

I still find it .....maybe interesting is the right word, that I was right there, with those engines for 2 weeks and had completely forgotten about them. In the old film, we put the 9 carber on Renato's Paris boat at his shop on Lake Como before the Paris race. There I am, idling out to the middle of the lake with Don Clark, in the safety boat to watch him run and yet I had completely forgotten about it. It looked pretty good on the straightaways, but seemed to have some trouble getting back up to speed after a tight turn.

The other engine that was at this race was the first version of the C6. We put it on Billy Don Pruitt's Molinari. My recollection is that it didn't run very well or for very long. The 9 carber did run better than I remembered. It must have been in the top 10 for the first two hours of the race.....never in front though. In the photo you can see Dr. Ted Morgan is working on his baby with Jim Acheison. You can see one of his rectangular carbs above the boat cowl.

Bob V, you sly fox.....I think I just figured out how you came up with High and Dry.....

[willabee]

Been working on getting you a better look at this one of a kind engine. It was a Plant #6 (two-cycle engineering) project out of Oshkosh. Bob Johnson was the head man at that plant and he assigned or worked with or whatever the right word is, this project to Dick Lanpheer and Ray ------ (I just can't recall his last name).

All three of them came to Italy for the test on Renatos boat. I wasn't privy to what they discussed with Renato, Charles Alexander and Gary Garbrecht after Renato's test, but it was decided to not run the engine at Paris. Apparently it didn't offer enough to outweigh the longevity concerns. It was "saved" for Berlin, and after OMC won Paris, they decided to give it a run.

One other thing I can't remember is why it ran on the slowest boat we had in that race. All I can think of is that maybe all of the testing was done in Oshkosh on the 18' rocker (we didn't have any of the new 17's yet) and they liked the way it ran. Since Renato didn't want to run it on his new 17', the boat used for the tests was sent over just for that race.

Hpoefully you can see the six carbs and note is has a special cowl. It also had three more carbs where you are used to seeing them and it ran a silo/Twister exhaust system. Don't know why, but I don't think those carbs were Tillotson's.....for some reason the name Walbro sticks in my head, but I could be dead wrong about that .

Anyway, here is another look at that thing.....I think it's really impressive

[BrianSmith]

I see what you guys are talking about, but it's just one guy with a big collar Gentex life jacket driving the boat really hard..... he is as they say "up over the wheel". Let's zoom in a little more so we can clear up the driver issue.

Awesome pic! I believe this might be back in the days when the Molys had ballast tanks in the bow. From what Dick told me of driving one; as he was a pretty tall guy he used to put his left foot on top of it to get his weight forward (as this driver seems to be doing). Unfortunately if you blew over your leg was then caught as the boat tried to eject you.
As a result you could end up a few pounds lighter as Dick did. A terrible accident. Italy somewhere I believe in about 1970.

[willabee]

I believe this might be back in the days when the Molys had ballast tanks in the bow. From what Dick told me of driving one;

As I recall it, this was the 1st generation without the ballast tanks. Do you know if Dick had an 18' Molinari rocker that was red/orange and had yellow lightning bolts painted on the rear cowl and decks.....1970 maybe?

[jackie wilson]

Berlin 1970, Sirois was driving the 9 carber and lying 2nd to Sanders after 1 and a half hrs. I was twiddling my thumbs when Doc Morgan says to me-----"hey Jackie -you think you can drive the Sirois boat? Well, i can drive anything that floats, so he gave me a 2 minute rundown on how and what to do. Make sure you take off on the front six------when you get to 5500 RPM switch the 3 side carbs on,-----keep em switched on until you come to a turn,---switch the side carbs off-------or the engine will bog down-----after the turn when the engine is at 5500 Revs-----switch em all on again. Now that's fine in theory, till you hit a big one, and you involuntary back off ----- the damn thing is flooded and you wonder whether the switch is on or off ?? took me 3 laps to get used to it and another three to realize i could never be a Concord Pilot. Wet and cold on a 7 mile circuit of the Wansee, [where a Russian destroyer is considered normal] i was rendered down to a gibbering idiot who did not know his a--hole from his elbow by an invention of the mad Doc Morgan. Was called in and Sirois took over ,but the motor mercifully drowned in its own fuel and i'm sure was buried with full Mercury honours and lays in an unmarked grave somewhere in East Berlin. Maybe this was another cunning plan by Mercury ,to test the mentality of would be racers. I never heard about this motor again until this thread, and am still haunted by the memory of Morgans Madness. jw

[willabee]

Berlin 1970, Sirois was driving the 9 carber and ........... i was rendered down to a gibbering idiot who did not know his a--hole from his elbow...... jw

Must be Happy Hour on your side of the pond! The only thing you got right in that entire story you just told was the part about you being rendered down to a gibbering idiot.....and you didn't have far to fall to accomplish that.

Now, think hard, maybe you'll remember.......I was thinking that Renato's test of the 9 carber on Lake Como showed that it had some trouble getting back up to speed after a tight turn. Looking at the film, I was reminded that Berlin was a several buoy turn as opposed to the single buoy turns of Paris. Maybe it was decided not to run the powerhead at Paris for that reason. Then, at Berlin, it wasn't put on our best boats due to longevity concerns. It obviously ran on an older 18' marathon Molinari, I'm just trying to recall why.

[jackie wilson]

as i was writing the last article ,l thought to myself ,-lets leave the gate open for Welch, and sure enough you came charging through like a long dog on heat, guns a blazing and wailing and bitchin'. Did you have a very unhappy childhood, A wicked stepmother,!!!! or just a bad day at the office????? or were you just born sucking a lemon.!!!!! Lighten up Willa, life's great if you give it half a chance. BACK TO BERLIN I was not privy to what Renato tested, so i couldn't tell you whether or not his test of the 9 carb was good , bad, or indifferent. What i can say, is, if the thing had half a chance of being quicker than anyone else, he would have run it. But to make doubly sure no one else got a chance with it, he would have insisted it ran on a goat. The course was a 3 buoy triangular [if i remember right] with the first leg heading straight out to sea, with the russian sector marked off. head back to land and run along the shore . if you have the results and look at the number of laps you will have a rough idea of how long the course was. It's one of the few places where we had all the room in the world to run as big a course as was wanted.
Did you ever see the 9 carb again after Berlin , ????? But i tell you again Willa, that thing was a stone bitch to drive. I was such a lovable, happy go lucky person before i got into that damned boat. Just an afterthought-----you drove most of the trick s-it at Mercury, DID YOU EVER TRY THE 9 CARB? JUST ASKING !!!!!

[Bob V]

as i was writing the last article ,l thought to myself ,-lets leave the gate open for Welch, and sure enough you came charging through like a long dog on heat, guns a blazing and wailing and bitchin'. Did you have a very unhappy childhood, A wicked stepmother,!!!! or just a bad day at the office????? or were you just born sucking a lemon.!!!!!

Jackie...After saying all of that, I hope that you, at least, sent Bill a Valentine's Day card.

[jackie wilson]

Hiya Bob,

[jackie wilson]

Hiya Bob.
Willa knows full well i love him madly, so there's no need to send him soppy valentines.!!!!!!!! He's just such a caustic old bastard when his memory fails him a little. OR GET'S OUT THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BED I'm sure all his marbles are in the pouch, but he's probably like me nowadays-----afraid of losing them-----BLESS 'IM. jw

[Bob V]

Hi Jackie...

You and Bill are like a comedy act...always challenging each others memory. It is nice that you two can still trade blows after all the years. Always makes for enjoyable reading.