Customer Reviews

Beautiful Outboards

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After reading this book I can say I share an eye with the author for beautiful outboards. Contained in this tribute to not only kickers of distinction is interesting historical information as well as discussion of restoration in general. Peter Hunn has a great love of outboards of bygone days, as is his many loyal readers and fellow enthusiasts. If you want to relive a piece of the past with a picture and accompany text, this was written for you.

The book was made for the admirers of antique outboards, but the value would have been better if the book was made in a larger "coffee table" style format. Nice pics, one to two page descriptive follow-ups, mostly in chronological order.
The sections that I found "odd" were the solid gold plated over-pretentious restorations. What the heck were the owners thinking? This was a bizarre augmentation of old outboards that made me want to laugh at the glitzy extravagance. It's like some gold toothed rap star wanted a photo spread to show how much money he could pour into a motor. Trashy glitz.
Using the same background/backdrop for most of the photo-shoots soon gets cheap & boring, a little creativity would have gone a long way. A bit more detailed pictures would also have helped this book to be a better value. A few more motors would have justified the cost.
The redeeming feature was the general cross section of motors. Hope Hunn's next attempt is bigger in scope, and less over-done in over-restored gold plate.

The pictures are very nice, the book is well-constructed, and there certainly are many beautiful outboards included. Beauty is subjective, however, and I would have deleted several (the Mercury Mark 6, e.g., I was a Mercury mechanic at age 14 when that motor came out) and definitely would have included others. Glaringly absent are the 1975 Evinrude 75 Hustler (the short shaft EP/SE racing model) and it's hotter twin the Mod 50 CC. The former was the most beautiful outboard ever produced. Also missing is the 1958-60 Scott/McCulloch 60 or 75. Those motors were way ahead in styling, and are still very beautiful. The Scott 40 was no dog to look at either. I would not have included any pre-1930 outboards.