Customer Reviews

Evinrude Johnson and the Legend of OMC

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Rodengen's facts are accurate and interesting, but I find the style of connected magazine articles to give too much redundancy. Background that was necessary for each magazine article is included over and over again in this book. The same point could be delivered with a book 60% to 70% the size. A lot of interesting information especially if you know little or nothing on this subject.

It is hard to write about a company with roots 90 years in the past and not have it be a Legend. The Evinrude and Johnson Families were pioneers in an era when people with autos were a minority. People today who can't imagine life with out television, think an outboard motor has always been on the back of a fishing boat. Jeffery Rondengen takes you from these early days with the people who helped define summer recreation for many around the world, to the dependable, quiet, easy to use outboard of today. I was fascinated to see how the motors evolved, though at times it was like looking at an advertising brochure. It was obvious OMC was involved in the production, but what would you expect of a book about there company. I found it to be an easy read and profusely illistrated, But I found a few cases of confusion with what motors were being written about. A section about a three cylinder outboard was illistrated by a V-6, In the Outboards at War section, the 50 HP Army Storm Boat Motor was illistrated by a nine point seven, and a twenty two horse power outboard.

These minor errors aside, I enjoyed the book because it brought back memories of summer fun I had with several of the models mentioned. The pictures are great, it may help some find out just how old there Johnson, Elto, or Evinrude really is.

There are more pictures very nice ,the text it's clear and interessing book for history of Evinrude and Johnson motor outboard and other products.

Rodengen's 'Iron Fist' is a first rate biography with nothing kept hidden, but this book reads as if it were commisioned by a very weak OMC PR guy, it's really not up to the standard. Webb's old book, which was written by an OMC person, has far more interesting photos of old motors. What really irritates me: calling the fat 50 the most technologically advanced outboard of its time. Where did that ridiculous notion come from? I can't imagine that an informed PR man like Jim Jost, or good engineers like Edgar Rose and Charlie Strang, could have made such a laughable claim (they were all three at Kiekhaefer Corp. around the time the fat 50 was produced). The most technologocially advanced outboard made by OMC was the loop charged 3 cyl. model in the late 1960s, which dominated OPC racing in the 1970s and '80s in its class (and beyond) and was a pleasure to run. Unfortunately, OMC produced old style V-6s while Mercury produced the V-6 looper and was the motor to beat in Mod-VP and the corresponding tunnel classes. The 3 cyl. loopers had the problem of rapid cyl. wear into an egg shape, requiring ball honing abnd new rings frequently to keep the compression at a peak of 150-155psi, and reboring once the wear hit .002" I know because I kept 2 powerheads race ready, and rebuilt each one 1-2 times per season. But the fat 50?! Don't make me laugh!

What I missed most in this book: any technological description of the old opposed twin and four racing motors, with photos of winners like Bill Tenney, whose name and photos can't be found on the web although he dominated several classes as late as the 1950s. For the description of how OMC set world outboard speed records from 1959-1991, you'll have to see the Kiekhaefer biography by the same author.

How about a book describing Dieter König and Robert McCullough and their racing efforts? The big Scott move in the late fifties eventually flopped, but was strongly supported and interesting. Few people today know about the factory's attempt to break the NOA record ca. 1958 with twin Scott sixty powerheads bolted to an extended downhousing (I first saw it displayed before the record attempt at the Chicago Boat Show, and Sam Cullis has informed me that it was a Soriano-Dupuy unit). The hydro was driven at the Knoxville Boat Club, where most NOA speed trials took place, and I seem to recall (?-can anyone correct me) that the driver was Buddy Mallonee, the main Scott driver for Gateway Sporting Goods in Knoxville. Gateway, run by my father's nemesis J.C. Leatherwood, was basically the Scott-Atwater Team in that neck of the woods (we drove Mercurys). The record attempt was abandoned due to technical problems (Sam Cullis, who is extremely well informed, told me that the hydro porpoised). In the 1958 NOA nationals on Old Hickory Lake in Nashville, I watched while one set of Scott clamp brackets after another broke (the motors simply fell sideways), and McCullouch flew in parts from the nearest distributior, or from the factory.