PRE-1975 MERCURY RACING ENGINES

[SpiritOfSelkirk]

To start this thread fresh the following is my first APBA - MORA class C & D stock combo hydroplane of a 1965 Ogier (Canadian design) 3 point hydro with its 1953 Mercury KG-9, 4 cylinder 40 cubic inch stock racing outboard. The hydro was built fresh and engine restored in 1965 for me by my neighbour E.J. (Ted) Coates. It was capable of speeds to the mid 70 mph ranges and tangled with it competition were the the Mercury Mark 40H near look alikes well into the early 1970s. Total cost of raceboat and engine ready to run in 1965? Only $350.00! This picture is remarkable as it was taken on the Red River in Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada on November 20, 1965. It was about 20 degrees C that day. Four days later on my 16th birthday it snowed with 14 inches of snow accumulated a with temps of -10 degrees below zero C or worse for the rest of the winter. Winter with a bang!

Enjoy the picture.

[SpiritOfSelkirk]

Another view of the same raceboat with me running is where the backdrop is the Red River in Selkirk with a large opening type bridge over the river some 1/4 mile wide. During the 40 years of Stock, gas Modified and Methanol - Alky outboard competitions there British Anzanis shone brightly. Some years some 2 to 3 dozen class A and class B Anzani powered hydroplanes and racing runbouts would compete in an 8 class a day X 2 or more elimination heats competition schedule for 2 day mixed weekend compeitions. It is still one of the finest race courses in North America. British Anzani engines would come from the south where the bridge is located moving north through the middle of the course exceeding the speeds of 4 and 6 cylinder class D and class F Alky Mercs pulling speeds to near 90 miles per hour. Such speeds for the class D and F Alky Merc racers by a half the displacement Anzani was un-nerving for them. For people like me with my Ogier and Merc KG-9, you had to have a name in racing already to get an Anzani and Mercs were a plenty and quite inexpensive so as a future university student would have to do. These were the exciting golden days and years of outboard racing.

Enjoy the picture.

[SpiritOfSelkirk]

To kick off the Mercury powered racing runabout side of this thread in outboard racing the first picture is that of my class "D" - "F" combo class use USA built Asburn racing runabout. They called them the "flying bananas"! Some were painted yellow too. Pictured it is powered by a Mercury 40H Stock racing outboard engine for class D Stock runabout. This race boat could be turned so fast and so tight to the course corner turn bouys its lack of power against the later model Mercury 55H class D engines was compensated by its extreme raceboat turning ability. You could run second all season consistently and end up first for year end points with it time after time. I did prepare and ran a 1959 Mercury modified in 1971 Mercury Mark 58, 44 cubic inch open gas Modified on it putting it into class F Alky but a terrible hydro accident that year with the same engine sidelined the powerful motor until the later 1970s where it was re-awakened on another racing runabout of a newer design.

Enjoy the picture,

[SpiritOfSelkirk]

The final picture to start this pre-1975 Mercury racing engine side of racing runabouts is of a early 1970s series Banshee racing runabout built by my racing neighbour and racing mentor E.J. (Ted) Coates. It was an adaptation of a the current DeSilva type racing runabouts popular in North America made for Stock, gas Modified and Alky racing for class C,D & F racing. I re-awakened the heavily Modified Mercury Mark58, 44 cubic inch open piped engine I crashed with in 1971 with this new racing runabout raceboat and ran it successfully until 1983.

Enjoy the picture.

[SpiritOfSelkirk]

For those racing enthusiasts outside of the UK`s Bluebird world record breaking hydro that came to a sad end in the late 1960s, it was also one of the first pickelfork if not the first outrigger pickelfork hydro ever built. This aerofoil concept went huge in the 1970s with such builders like USA`s Tim Butts and his Butts Aerowing series of hydros leading the way primarily in USA Alky classes and in the world rated Crescent Super C - C Stock outboard classes. The following picture is the first pickelfork hydro I ever purchased. It is a 1978 Butts Aerowing Super C hydro that would see racing service in D Stock hydro powered by a Mercury 55H, In Modiifed in classes D and E Modified hydro and running a British Anzani class B Alky 322cc racing outboards in exhibition classes of classic Alkys well into the 1980s.

The picture includes the Butts Super C Aerowing hydro, a Merc 55H class D Stock racing engine and my wife, Karen (our relatives are from around UK`s Newcastle area there) then as now who also used to drive stock hydro so she knew my racing bug disease! The race site was Chestimere Lake at our host the legendary Gene Strain and family at the Calgary Yacht Club some 15 miles from the downtown core of Calgary. Alberta, Canada. The events there saw racers come from the North Western USA, the Province of British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba some 200 raceboats running in some 8 classes in all.

Enjoy the picture.

[SpiritOfSelkirk]

One more `cold`racing weekend picture taken end of September 1980 just south of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada at the Alberta Power Boat Associations private lake race site. It was so cold there was a light snow dusting on the Saturday night. Some 23 D Stock hydros and a host of over smaller race boats including one Super C Stock Crescent hydro from the USA`s Northwest states, British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba turned up to race on two days where the daytime temperature never got above 60 degrees F and at night went down to below freezing on the Friday and Saturday nights before all went for home late after racing on the Sunday. We were all in motorhomes and tents toughing it out and the pits from rains were plenty muddy. The highlight of the racing was the 3 lap Grand Prix consisting of 23 hydros on a 1 & two thirds mile long course of 2 heats open class entry. Most were D stock hydros, a couple of C Stock hydros and the Crescent Super C hydro. The results came in with the Super C Crescent lapping the entire field of mainly D Stock hydros and the Crescent was managing average speeds around the course nearing 80 miles per hour leaving everyone far far behind and lapped.

Pictured is my newer 1976 Gordon D-Stock hydro and compatroit Manitoban racer`s experimental aerofoil C-Stock hydro. Enjoy the picture.

[SpiritOfSelkirk]

What do members of the Commonwealth in Canada do all winter if they are raceboat fanatics. During our at times minus forty below zero C winters that take up almost a third fo the year, well some of us build raceboats in our house basements that can and do give all manner of problems getting them out sometimes.

This picture contains a made up kit hydro for class D Stock (Mercury 55H) and it also ran a 250cc methanol burning British Anzani racing outboards though with that engine it was a tricky hull to deal with being about 1 foot too short.

Enjoy the picture.

[Healey75]

Welcome to the CMBA forum and thanks for sharing those pictures and stories with us, hope to see more as time goes by. :thanks:

[SpiritOfSelkirk]

The following picture would be of a typical 1954 Mercury Mark 50 Modified Alky class D racing engine. The Mark 50, earlier Mark 40, KG9 and KF9 all Mercury 4 cylinder 40 cubic inch engines shared the same basis but steadily being updated engine block techologies. The results were that for 4 engines in a row some of the engine parts interchanged in couples like KF-9 to KG9 and the Mark 40 and Mark 50 and in some cases across all 4. In all cases these 4 engines could use the very same design and constructed open pipe exhausts engine for the engine the same one set of pipes. Not until 1955 with the coming out of the Mark 55 series was there embodiments in some form or idea from the previous 4 engines was used with some newer ideas that continued on in terms of basic block casting and inner parts until Merc stopped producing 4 cylinder 44 cubic inch engines in the early 1990s entirely.

[SpiritOfSelkirk]

The following picture is from the opposite side of the same Mercury Mark 50 Alky class D racing engine. The exhausts sounds these engines made is akin to some giant mosquito flying and on the hunt. Put a dozen in the water running and they can be heard for miles along a river or lake.

Enjoy the picture.