Facts about Evinrude/Johnson racing outboards made my OMC

**lars strom** · 04-30-2018, 09:41 AM

Originally Posted by lars strom

Yes Rotary John.. and how about the first V6 meeting in Paris 1973..The headline says it all..!!

This is from Paris 1973 when the new Johnson 2 liter V6 cross-flow won big over Merc's new V6 2 liter.
Yes..I was there racing.

**99fxst99** · 04-30-2018, 09:52 AM

What we need is a thread about the OMC engineering history such as the one RCK shared the Mercury V6 history with.

**lars strom** · 04-30-2018, 10:00 AM

I tried that, but very few people from former OMC engineering have any interest to do so.
Rotary John is the only one.
Ric McChesney is a no, so is Jim Nerstrom and a few more.

**lars strom** · 04-30-2018, 10:12 AM

The classic French boat race Rouen 24 hours is starting today. This is from 1975 when I was part of this kind of crazy race. We did 24 hours non stop.
http://svera.se/…/our-se-class-victory-in-the-rouen-24-hou…/

**FMP** · 04-30-2018, 11:55 AM

Originally Posted by lars strom

...

...and YES..this is a thread about Evinrude/Johnson outboards.

It seems to be drifting in that direction.

**nitro_rat** · 04-30-2018, 12:10 PM

Didn’t Strang start out at Mercury?

**msm** · 04-30-2018, 01:06 PM

Correct

**lars strom** · 04-30-2018, 02:25 PM

A quick stop at our local Evinrude dealer today to check out a few things. — at St. Lucie Outboard Marine.

**nitro_rat** · 04-30-2018, 05:47 PM

Originally Posted by msm

Correct

Would it be correct to assume that OMC got a big push in the performance direction once Strang arrived? Did Strang bring the HP to OMC or did OMC bring Strang so that he could deliver it?

**msm** · 04-30-2018, 06:32 PM

I don't know. That's a question for someone like Rotary John.

**lars strom** · 04-30-2018, 06:46 PM

Well..yes Charlie Strang was very good for OMC racing. If he was the man behind the horse power or not I dont know.
Fred Hauenstein did lots of work to develop the OMC 2 liter V6 looper Cees Van Der Velden won the ON World Title with in Cardiff, UK 1975.
As a race driver working for OMC engineering he got in conflict/trouble with OMC and left for Mercury racing around late 1978.
Maybe Fred gave Mercury a lot of OMC racing experience..!!

Pictures of the very powerful OMC 2 liter purpose built race engine.

http://svera.se/blogg/pictures-of-th...t-race-engine/

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**lars strom** · 04-30-2018, 07:02 PM

Charlie Strang a true legend in the marine business have left us.

http://svera.se/blogg/charlie-strang...-have-left-us/

I remember when I first met Charlie at the Paris 6 Hour race in the early seventies.
My Evinrude friends told me to go up to him and present myself.
Well..I was not sure if that was the right thing to do..
The CEO and President of Outboard Marine Corporation and the maker of Evinrude/Johnson outboards may not have any interest talking to a very young race driver from Sweden.
I finally did and to my surprise Charlie was very friendly and asked about my race boat.
If I remember right his mother was with him also.
My friends asked me what Charlie told me but I was so stressed out and needed to sit down.
Later I met Charlie many times as an Evinrude dealer and race driver. He was always friendly and its a big honor to have done a lot of outboard business with a marine icon like Charlie D. Strang.
The Evinrude Super Strangler was probably named after Charlie but I don’t know that for sure.
I spent a few hours digging up every picture I could find on the internet of the famous Evinrude Super Strangler race engine and here they are in a mixed order. (Close to fifty)
Starting with a few pictures of Charlie Strang.

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**powerabout** · 04-30-2018, 07:18 PM

Originally Posted by Rotary John

The HP race was in full swing in the early '70's. OMC V-4 @ 135 hp was about as far as it could go in a production mode. The natural progression with the least amount of development and investment was to add 2 more cylinders to the V-4. A line of 150,175 & 200 HP would expand the line and keep the HP race going. When word came back that Merc was going to race their new V-6 at Paris in '73 and was successful in getting the rotary ban, a crash program to reduce the displacement to 2l and have it ready for Paris was started. Sleeving the 2.5l sand cast block was simple but there wasn't time to get the new crank from production tooling so V-4 cranks were welded together. Clarence Blanchard shepperred the program and should get the credit for getting the 2 engines ready for Paris. They took 1 & 2 beating the new Merc V-6. The following week the rotary won Windermere beating the Merc V-6 for a second time.

Hi John
do you have a photo of the 2.0 xflow, I dont know that any exist?
Cheers

**powerabout** · 04-30-2018, 07:20 PM

Originally Posted by lars strom

I tried that, but very few people from former OMC engineering have any interest to do so.
Rotary John is the only one.
Ric McChesney is a no, so is Jim Nerstrom and a few more.

Did you try David Blanchard, he worked on the F1 v8 stuff, has helped me a few times?

**lars strom** · 05-01-2018, 07:25 AM

A really cool picture of Rick Frost in the London GP 1984.
His black #6 Burgess/Trimite with Johnson F1-V8 3.5 liter, looper carb model and the updated exhaust manifold.
You can also see a Merc T-4 in the picture. I believe its Billy Seebold (#7 second picture) but he lost to the powerful Evinrude V8 on the transom of Barry Woods #35 Molinari boat.
Photo credit unknown.