Facts about Evinrude/Johnson racing outboards made my OMC

[AZMIDLYF]

[2us70]

Boat builders and designers often think they have built the next big thing. When they get it wrong it is the test driver who finds out first. I tested a couple of those next big things neither of which were ever seen again. Both were evil. I was fortunate not to have gotten hurt in one of them.

[powerabout]

Boat builders and designers often think they have built the next big thing. When they get it wrong it is the test driver who finds out first. I tested a couple of those next big things neither of which were ever seen again. Both were evil. I was fortunate not to have gotten hurt in one of them.

you just have to keep working on it, some steps might be backwards but thats the nature of the beast, design, built, test.
Takes deep pockets in most cases

[Mugs914]

Boat builders and designers often think they have built the next big thing. When they get it wrong it is the test driver who finds out first. I tested a couple of those next big things neither of which were ever seen again. Both were evil. I was fortunate not to have gotten hurt in one of them.

Can you tell us about them or are they classified? I for one am fascinated by the "next big thing" attemts.

Thanks,

Mike

[lars strom]

Evinrude V6 2 liter Super Strangler cross-flow 1974. Jimbo McConnell is driving the #191 boat.
Picture by Mark Nelson

Update..this is not a 2 liter cross-flow V6 SuperStrangler..
Its one of the first 2.448 liter cross-flow V6 SuperStrangler..!!

Thanks Cathy McConnell for the info.

Cathy McConnell
After doing a little research......There is a Pit Stop article in the September 27, 1974 Evinrude Dock Lines about the race. The race where this Goat Boat photo was made was Saturday, July 27, 1974 on Lake Monona. The motor is a first generation 150 cubic inch V-6. The Mercury factory team withdrew and was not there but some independent Mercury’s were there. Jimbo won the North American Championship in the X-Class. The next day he ran a 2-liter V-6 and won that class also. Tommy Posey ran a Johnson Rotary and Barry Woods ran an Evinrude Rotary. Mercury had several engines but none were using Mercury’ latest engine.

[lars strom]

A 1985 Second Effort poster.

[lars strom]

A 1985 Second Effort poster.

Tim Thibodaux
That's my dad racing the helicopter at Second Effort.
This is the boat he won Sacramento 1985 and then it was painted NAJU white, red,yellow and orange stripes and he finished the 85 season driving it. Boat is a Velden sprint boat pre-capsule

[2us70]

If you look at the variety of boat designs in the late 60s and early 70s you can see that most everyone was guessing. Boat builders of that period tended to be craftsmen not scientists. So I am not going to throw any of those guys under the bus.

Can you tell us about them or are they classified? I for one am fascinated by the "next big thing" attemts.

Thanks,

Mike

[lars strom]

Nice, three "anonymous" Evinrude G2.

[lars strom]

Probably the coolest boat racer ever.
Always fun the meet Reggie Fountain.

[Instigator]

If you look at cost/effort involved in a clean sheet or major mod program, and the owners/financiers acceptance that it may be firewood if it fails........., thats why everyone splashes plastic boats.
I always dreamt of racing OPC but barely afforded to race Stock/Mod kneel down.

I did live to experiment and was OK w/being wrong.
Even then......, ALL of my "disposable income" and time, only to burn it at seasons end??
I did that multiple times. That challenge was bigger to me than actually winning races.

My last clean sheet attempt was a tunnel boat for Stock/Mod 2 banger classes.
Never been successfully done before so had nothing to copy. EVERYTHING was a guess.

I screwed up on OAL and didnt have enough surface area to build the lift I needed at the speeds we were running.
In BSH at the time, you had to run 65 between the pins to be competitive.
My new invention blew over at 64 1/2.
Three times, and once I crawled on the front deck (at 64 1/2) and saved it but put my face through the plexiglass windshield, shredding it and my face.
On of my buddies called my an idiot when I got back to the pits

So there was a couple grand, a winters work, spring testing, summer of racing/travelling for a 9 1/2' boat.
End of the season I stripped the hull, cut it in 3 pcs and drug it to the curb.

Now do that w/a 16/17' tunnel boat, and its rigging w/the motor mfg/your sponsors watching.

Those guys are my heros.

If you look at the variety of boat designs in the late 60s and early 70s you can see that most everyone was guessing. Boat builders of that period tended to be craftsmen not scientists. So I am not going to throw any of those guys under the bus.

[2us70]

The boat in this picture was originally built as a B alky hydro. The builder/designer/racer could not make it run with his Koenig on it. Action Marine wound up with the approximately 11' tunnel boat. I was tasked with converting it into an OPC boat. I managed to "stretch" it to 12'6" for SD class. Surprisingly it worked pretty well with a Merc 500 on it. In 1973 we decided to take this boat to Nationals in SE. I then "stretched " the bow a little more and put my 3cyl 650 on it. We tested a couple of times and took it to Eufala. The picture is from the first of the SE finals in which we broke the 5 mile record. The record only stood until the second heat when it was again broken by the eventual winner. Still second place at nationals wasn't too bad. We ran the boat in this configuration two more times and won both times. The moral of the story is "sometimes you just get lucky". Also this was the last time Mercurys were competitive in E class. The following year the OMCs pretty much had the E classes to themselves and I went back to running a 500 on my old McCall in SD.

[lars strom]

Evinrude F1-V8 racing designed by Lars Strom.
A 4.5 liter Evinrude E-TEC powerhead mounted on the 6 inch OMC racing mid section.
It's a 3.4 liter V6 G2 with two more cylinders. Same pistons etc.

[Instigator]

Way cool.
A temporary record and 2nd at a Nats???
Sign me up!

A saw a guy at an OPC race in Cols Oh in the (mid?) '70's running a similar kneel down tunnel boat w/an in-line six in one of the tunnel boat classes. SJ maybe.

The boat in this picture was originally built as a B alky hydro. The builder/designer/racer could not make it run with his Koenig on it. Action Marine wound up with the approximately 11' tunnel boat. I was tasked with converting it into an OPC boat. I managed to "stretch" it to 12'6" for SD class. Surprisingly it worked pretty well with a Merc 500 on it. In 1973 we decided to take this boat to Nationals in SE. I then "stretched " the bow a little more and put my 3cyl 650 on it. We tested a couple of times and took it to Eufala. The picture is from the first of the SE finals in which we broke the 5 mile record. The record only stood until the second heat when it was again broken by the eventual winner. Still second place at nationals wasn't too bad. We ran the boat in this configuration two more times and won both times. The moral of the story is "sometimes you just get lucky". Also this was the last time Mercurys were competitive in E class. The following year the OMCs pretty much had the E classes to themselves and I went back to running a 500 on my old McCall in SD.

[2us70]

That was the second time I broke the 5 mile record. The first time it went unrecognized due to weighing problems by the race organizers. I did finally get in the record book in 1974.