Hot Singles ! - Pictures

[jackiewilson]

Me too that weekend. It wasn't old then and neither were we.

COBBLERS,!! We are still not OLD-----only experienced .

[willabee]

Sorry about the time lapse between posts about this motor, but there was one other thing I wanted to point out about that picture of the C6. As mentioned earlier, this is Havasu 1970 and it had first appeared at a race just one month earlier in Berlin. Not only was it running with no bottom pan, but it also didn't have the electrical plate you are familiar with that was mounted on the TII and TIIX.

The coil, switch box and rectifier were in a box that was bolted into the hull. You can see the long coil wire coming from the distributor to a location hidden behind a bulkhead. When they first put those components on a plate the next year, it was so thick and heavy you had to be built like Dick the Bruiser just to lift it!

Sidenote - didn't mean to kill the talk about the demise if OB racing, sorry if I came across a little bit crabby

[T2x]

Sorry about the time lapse between posts about this motor, but there was one other thing I wanted to point out about that picture of the C6. As mentioned earlier, this is Havasu 1970 and it had first appeared at a race just one month earlier in Berlin. Not only was it running with no bottom pan, but it also didn't have the electrical plate you are familiar with that was mounted on the TII and TIIX.

The coil, switch box and rectifier were in a box that was bolted into the hull. You can see the long coil wire coming from the distributor to a location hidden behind a bulkhead. When they first put those components on a plate the next year, it was so thick and heavy you had to be built like Dick the Bruiser just to lift it!

Sidenote - didn't mean to kill the talk about the demise if OB racing, sorry if I came across a little bit crabby

Man! That motor was so ugly ....it was beautiful....ya old crab.

[jackiewilson]

Man! That motor was so ugly ....it was beautiful....ya old crab.

You have to tread a little twinkle -toed here Rich-----you saying Willa is UGLY?
Or Willas a CRAB,
Or Willa is beautiful?
With hand on heart, I can honestly say " two outa three" s not bad.

[jackiewilson]

If any of you out there ever wondered where I wasted most of my time, it's the double doors on the right. Her indoors has the door on the left ----her utility room containing fridge, deep freeze, washing machine, wine rack and a rake of my old creations, me I have just half of a double garage.

[John Schubert]

If any of you out there ever wondered where I wasted most of my time, it's the double doors on the right. Her indoors has the door on the left ----her utility room containing fridge, deep freeze, washing machine, wine rack and a rake of my old creations, me I have just half of a double garage.

I guess that you can say your are Lucky?

[jackiewilson]

I guess that you can say your are Lucky?

Yes I am indeed fortunate John, I live in a wonderful place with great neighbours , a shop that suits me, a reliable vehicle ----and all the tools I need, a great wife and a cat named "Murphy".

[GENE LANHAM]

Sorry about the time lapse between posts about this motor, but there was one other thing I wanted to point out about that picture of the C6. As mentioned earlier, this is Havasu 1970 and it had first appeared at a race just one month earlier in Berlin. Not only was it running with no bottom pan, but it also didn't have the electrical plate you are familiar with that was mounted on the TII and TIIX.

The coil, switch box and rectifier were in a box that was bolted into the hull. You can see the long coil wire coming from the distributor to a location hidden behind a bulkhead. When they first put those components on a plate the next year, it was so thick and heavy you had to be built like Dick the Bruiser just to lift it!

Sidenote - didn't mean to kill the talk about the demise if OB racing, sorry if I came across a little bit crabby

C6/Single pipe: Electric pump/primer, six carbs, lots of plumbing---didn't they have a problem with FIRE? Here is Gary at the Stadium---

[Old fiberglass]

Sorry about the time lapse between posts about this motor, but there was one other thing I wanted to point out about that picture of the C6. As mentioned earlier, this is Havasu 1970 and it had first appeared at a race just one month earlier in Berlin. Not only was it running with no bottom pan, but it also didn't have the electrical plate you are familiar with that was mounted on the TII and TIIX.

The coil, switch box and rectifier were in a box that was bolted into the hull. You can see the long coil wire coming from the distributor to a location hidden behind a bulkhead. When they first put those components on a plate the next year, it was so thick and heavy you had to be built like Dick the Bruiser just to lift it!

Sidenote - didn't mean to kill the talk about the demise if OB racing, sorry if I came across a little bit crabby

Do you recall how the Morgan carb'ed motors ran compared to the later tiltson C-6''s ?? I have been told that Morgan carbs were troublesome to adjust, but how were they once dialed in ??

[willabee]

C6/Single pipe: Electric pump/primer, six carbs, lots of plumbing---didn't they have a problem with FIRE? Here is Gary at the Stadium.

I don't recall ever having problems with fire, just didn't happen at Team Merc ......

[CNC_Guy]

Looks like the fire is working just fine.

[willabee]

Do you recall how the Morgan carb'ed motors ran compared to the later tiltson C-6''s ?? I have been told that Morgan carbs were troublesome to adjust, but how were they once dialed in ??

I don't recall trying to run one against the other in an "on water test" to see what was better. As we've already discussed, there was a big disagreement between the engineers in Fond du Lac (the C6) and those in Oshkosh (the TII) about how much horsepower they pulled, so that doesn't tell us if one was superior to the other. In my opinion, it was a tossup. I just don't recall any real performance increases when we switched to the TII with the Tillotson carbs.

The Morgan carbs did require frequent adjusting and that was a really big pain in the rear. The Tillotson's rarely had an adjustment issue and that is probably why Merc went with the Tillotson's for the TII build. It wasn't for a performance increase, but was due to dependability. If you bought Merc's new six carb "U" engine, you wanted to spend your time racing, not adjusting carburetors!

I remember being told that I'd be on my own getting our Team boats ready for the Miami 225, scheduled for February of 1972. I don't recall where Garbrecht and Merten had to be, but they couldn't make the trip to Lake X for our testing session or the race itself. This was the first race that the entire team of ten boats were going to run the C6. No TI's or stackers, just the Morgan carbed C6. Because I knew how temperamental those carbs could be, I decided to set the testing sessions up differently than we had done in the past.

Normally, everyone required for the event from Oshkosh would arrive at the Lake by the Sunday before the race. Most of the drivers that didn't work directly for Merc would arrive on Monday. We'd put their rigs together with the "engine of the day" and testing would begin. For this event, I scheduled only Bob Hering, Rick LaMore, Bob Hetzel and myself to be there Sunday. I had the rest of the Team mechanics come down during the middle of the week and had the other nine drivers arrive on different days during the week. We ran every one of the new C6 powerheads on Hering's boat on a course that duplicated that of Miami Marine stadium. Keep in mind that they had all been run across the dyno before we took them to the Lake, but I wanted to run each one on the water before the rest of the troops showed up. Sure enough, we had a few that didn't run well and required carb work. LaMore took care of the powerhead work and Hetzel banged on all of the props. By the time the others arrived, all the powerheads and new props had been run and were "dialed in" ready. All we had to do with the other nine boats was install the powerhead, run a couple of props and declare it ready for the "225".

When each boat was done testing, we removed the powerhead and put it in our parts truck for the trip from the Lake to Miami. I was concerned that all the bouncing they would receive traveling down the road on the boat trailer might knock some of the carb floats out of position again. That's how fussy those critters really were! We looked kind of goofy caravanning down the highway, ten beautiful race boats with no powerhead, but I think we looked pretty good when we had our picture taken Sunday morning.

[willabee]

Looks like the fire is working just fine.

It sure was .....

[GENE LANHAM]

I think we looked pretty good when we had our picture taken Sunday morning.

???Is that the '225' that never was run??

Bill, could you put a name on these eight guys?

[willabee]

???Is that the '225' that never was run??

Bill, could you put a name on these eight guys?

Yes Sir, big wind all day long, the race was cancelled. Look at everyone's hair, this picture was taken around 7:00 AM and the wind is already trying to blow us back onto the highway! I'll tell you one thing though, those boats in the picture were really ready ..... I mean really ready to run. If that race had not been cancelled, OMC would have been working on the rotary months sooner ..... a big rotary!

Eight guys - starting back row, left and going clockwise (that would be your right Jackie) ..... Georgio Molinari, Cool Hand Luke, Dave Beier, Greg Danfield, Ken Ballou, Rick LaMore, Bob Geary and your buddy Jim Emerson