Facts about Evinrude/Johnson racing outboards made my OMC

[BLisBack!]

The XP had square'd off ports, the 235 they were just round holes. The XP had the good tight 638 heads (although not as tight as the CCC heads but they were also small bore heads) and I think the power packs were unlimited from the factory but some 235's had those. The extra power was mostly from the smoother ports and higher compression.

[BLisBack!]

If I recall the XP had the half circle scalloped piston skirt and matching cyl wall cut-out also. Although I never found that to help much but it all adds up.

[lars strom]

Peter Switzer

For you OMC enthusiasts out there.
Here is an Evinrude marketing piece and manual featuring a new Switzer design. This is a 1978 GL-21, and it was designed to handle the new V6 outboards.

This photo shoot was on the Fox River/chain of lakes area. The fastest GL-21 that I’m aware of was owned and driven by Ed Tweed. He had it rigged with a 235hp and ran 94mph. Too fast for me! Ed lived down by the McHenry dam and my dad would take us down there all the time as he and Ed would would make tweaks, engine height adjustments, change props etc as they made spreed run after speed run trying to dial it in.

I believe this is my dad, Bob Switzer running the boat for OMC and the photo shoot. They had a lot of fun doing what they loved to do.

• Cathy McConnell
  
  Lol……. You won’t see that very often…….. Jimbo driving a V-Bottom!! Not for a race but only promotional photos on Fox Lake, Illinois……. Wearing his black Lifeline jacket.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

[lars strom]

Tom Percival in his JPS/Hodges/Johnson F1-V8
R.I.P my friend.

[lars strom]

The UIM F-3 start in Dunaújváros, Hungary. Not sure about the year (mid nighties) , but I raced F-3 there 1990.
Great place for boat racing.

[lars strom]

The UIM F-3 start in Dunaújváros, Hungary. Not sure about the year (mid nighties) , but I raced F-3 there 1990.
Great place for boat racing.

Ernst Rusing

Lars, this is 1996. Ian Andrews became WC in 1995, and used the number 1 on his boat in 1996.

[BLisBack!]

Lars (or anyone else on this thread) , what is your opinion on why BRP has not tried to sell the Evinrude name and/or IP (designs etc.) related to the Etec? Ater 2 years it does not seem the market is any more friendly to 2 stroke motors or another brand of 4 stroke motors (as they had hoped) so why not sell it? Why are they just sitting on it?

-BL

[lars strom]

Lars (or anyone else on this thread) , what is your opinion on why BRP has not tried to sell the Evinrude name and/or IP (designs etc.) related to the Etec? Ater 2 years it does not seem the market is any more friendly to 2 stroke motors or another brand of 4 stroke motors (as they had hoped) so why not sell it? Why are they just sitting on it?

-BL

Well..a very good question...only one person have the correct answer..his name is Jose Boisjoli..President and Chief Executive Officer of BRP.
Everything else is just guessing or speculations..!!
I tried for 5 years to get Jose to answer one of many text/email and phone-calls I sent him..without any success..
Time will tell..!!

[BarryStrawn]

Next stop for Formula One is Miami GP in two weeks..Its going to be very interesting to watch on TV..
I watched todays race from Italy..
Looks like the "political champ" is not so great anymore....or could it be the driver is no good??..His teammate finished 4th and the #44 car 13.
The winner lapped the 44 car..!!

You really like stirring it with the Brits! But lets see now, how many championships has hambone lost while driving a dominant or at least fully capable car? Three by my count. The drivers who can win championships without always having the superior car are the real champs.

[lars strom]

You really like stirring it with the Brits! But lets see now, how many championships has hambone lost while driving a dominant or at least fully capable car? Three by my count. The drivers who can win championships without always having the superior car are the real champs.

Well..in my opinion the very best F1 driver ever was Ayrton Senna. He could drive a car like nobody else and understood to stay out of telling the world his political opinion..The driver of the 44 car..not so much..
Today I really don't have a favorite driver..but love to see Ferrari back in the winners circle.
The 33 / 1 car driver is probably the one I support the most.

[lars strom]

April 30 1975 I started the craziest boat race of them all.
One day later we where in the Rouen 24 hours winner’s circle..

(This was my first race as an Evinrude factory driver for OMC 1975)


The racing season in Europe normally starts with the Rouen 24 Hours, but I was invited to South Africa earlier 1975 and drove the famous BP 200..(PB 200 story here)..https://svera.se/blogg/racing-historier/1975-2/
I was not crazy about being part of the Rouen race but it was part of my contract with OMC
I flew to OMC in Belgium a week before the race to help out rigging the boat.
Important for me to have power trim buttons and some other things my way.
The rules said three drivers per boat and OMC recommended using two OMC test drivers who where my size.
Two SE class Clerici boats was prepared at the OMC factory. One for me and one for Roger Jenkins.
Roger was a fun man to hang out with..strong personality and Roger was in racing to win..but so was I.
We installed head lights and other “funny things” on the boat. Racing non stop for 24 hours means driving at night in the darkness and the commercial barge traffic was in business 24/7.


When we got there, it was a lot of boats and most of them were thick fiberglass cats run by local French people.
The next surprise was that the race was run clockwise
around the island!!!!
I was not used to right hand turns but raced and won the 2-hour of Duvnäsviken, Sweden the year before.. that was my only experience with right turns in boat racing.
As usual in France were all info in French only, and I understood nothing of what was said at the driver’s meeting, which lasted over an hour.
Paul Kalb..the new racing boss for Europe did not understand anything either but told me that I was responsible for the entire race planning.
Paul wanted me to start the race and hopefully drive the last hours to finish the race.

My plan was 2-hour shifts because lots of incidents happen in the pit.
The Clerici boat turned poorly when heavy but to many stops with 1.5 hour shifts.

We were out testing a number of times at practice..the waves from the commercial barge traffic was bad bad..but one side of the island the water was little bit smoother.
Well remember that famous Leif “Honken” Holmqvist of Sweden drove a V-bottom boat in the SD class and he came and asked me about the crazy water conditions.
His Volvo Penta powered V-bottom behaved strangely on the rough side of the island.

The start was sometime during the middle of the day and lots of boats took off at the same time. I got a great start and was one of the lead boats but on the other side of the island..all the heavy fiberglass cats came flying by in the extremely rough water.
Wow, I needed to slow down and save the equipment for the last hour instead of try to lead in the beginning of the race. Next thing in my head was..I am pretty stupid to be part of this 24 hour race.
Time for cruise control, we refueled and changed drivers a few times in daylight before it got dark, cold and rainy…!!
One of my shifts in the middle of the night went well .. but the next one like 4 a clock in the morning began with a flying experience from a big wave that I could not see on the back of the island.
I landed on top of one another race boat..the driver of that boat was OK but his boat sank..
that was good for me because I could get back to the pit .. where we took the boat out of the water..
Repaired the damage and replaced the gearcase/ propeller and then we went back on the water to race further into the darkness…!!
At dawn we were a few laps behind Jenkins and the other SE class leaders.
Jenkins now disappeared from the race..his time for trouble and had to spend sometime on the trailer for repair.
Now there was a chance for us to win, so I drove like a mad man for the last hours of the race.
A Rouen 24 Hours SE class victory was now reality..extremely fun and a perfect start as a factory pilot for Evinrude.
After the race we return to the OMC Bruges to rig a new Burgess boat for the OE/Formula 3 World Championship race in Aix-les-Bains also France.

https://svera.se/blogg/racing-histor...24-hours-1975/

[lars strom]

April 30 1975 I started the craziest boat race of them all.
One day later we where in the Rouen 24 hours winner’s circle..

(This was my first race as an Evinrude factory driver for OMC 1975)


The racing season in Europe normally starts with the Rouen 24 Hours, but I was invited to South Africa earlier 1975 and drove the famous BP 200..(PB 200 story here)..https://svera.se/blogg/racing-historier/1975-2/
I was not crazy about being part of the Rouen race but it was part of my contract with OMC
I flew to OMC in Belgium a week before the race to help out rigging the boat.
Important for me to have power trim buttons and some other things my way.
The rules said three drivers per boat and OMC recommended using two OMC test drivers who where my size.
Two SE class Clerici boats was prepared at the OMC factory. One for me and one for Roger Jenkins.
Roger was a fun man to hang out with..strong personality and Roger was in racing to win..but so was I.
We installed head lights and other “funny things” on the boat. Racing non stop for 24 hours means driving at night in the darkness and the commercial barge traffic was in business 24/7.


When we got there, it was a lot of boats and most of them were thick fiberglass cats run by local French people.
The next surprise was that the race was run clockwise
around the island!!!!
I was not used to right hand turns but raced and won the 2-hour of Duvnäsviken, Sweden the year before.. that was my only experience with right turns in boat racing.
As usual in France were all info in French only, and I understood nothing of what was said at the driver’s meeting, which lasted over an hour.
Paul Kalb..the new racing boss for Europe did not understand anything either but told me that I was responsible for the entire race planning.
Paul wanted me to start the race and hopefully drive the last hours to finish the race.

My plan was 2-hour shifts because lots of incidents happen in the pit.
The Clerici boat turned poorly when heavy but to many stops with 1.5 hour shifts.

We were out testing a number of times at practice..the waves from the commercial barge traffic was bad bad..but one side of the island the water was little bit smoother.
Well remember that famous Leif “Honken” Holmqvist of Sweden drove a V-bottom boat in the SD class and he came and asked me about the crazy water conditions.
His Volvo Penta powered V-bottom behaved strangely on the rough side of the island.

The start was sometime during the middle of the day and lots of boats took off at the same time. I got a great start and was one of the lead boats but on the other side of the island..all the heavy fiberglass cats came flying by in the extremely rough water.
Wow, I needed to slow down and save the equipment for the last hour instead of try to lead in the beginning of the race. Next thing in my head was..I am pretty stupid to be part of this 24 hour race.
Time for cruise control, we refueled and changed drivers a few times in daylight before it got dark, cold and rainy…!!
One of my shifts in the middle of the night went well .. but the next one like 4 a clock in the morning began with a flying experience from a big wave that I could not see on the back of the island.
I landed on top of one another race boat..the driver of that boat was OK but his boat sank..
that was good for me because I could get back to the pit .. where we took the boat out of the water..
Repaired the damage and replaced the gearcase/ propeller and then we went back on the water to race further into the darkness…!!
At dawn we were a few laps behind Jenkins and the other SE class leaders.
Jenkins now disappeared from the race..his time for trouble and had to spend sometime on the trailer for repair.
Now there was a chance for us to win, so I drove like a mad man for the last hours of the race.
A Rouen 24 Hours SE class victory was now reality..extremely fun and a perfect start as a factory pilot for Evinrude.
After the race we return to the OMC Bruges to rig a new Burgess boat for the OE/Formula 3 World Championship race in Aix-les-Bains also France.

https://svera.se/blogg/racing-histor...24-hours-1975/

Here is the second page of the OMC letter dated April 15 1975.

[lars strom]

Another picture never seen before from the Arizona desert in the winter of 1987/88 and the Worlds Fastest single outboard run by the UIM book.

Pilot: Bob Wartinger..

Still the fastest outboard in the world. The Evinrude F1 racing V-8.

https://svera.se/blogg/still-the-fas...f1-racing-v-8/

[lars strom]

24 Hours de Rouen 1986.

UIM SE Class 11 years after my 24 Hour experience..!!

[lars strom]

24 Hours de Rouen in the late sixties and early seventies..

The UIM SE class pictures is from 1970.