Customer Reviews

The Golden Age of the Racing Outboard

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A very good book on the early history of outboard racing. Not too technical so no one will be scared off or bored with details. Peter Hunn's writing style makes it especially easy to read.

This book offers great reading, works as a fairly comprehensive reference material, and as always, Peter's anecdote's add much color to the names, places and dates contained. There is a nice mini-biography on Hank Bowman, and plenty of other colorful characters from the world of outboard boat racing. Lots of great information on the motors and boats, too. If you're a fan of the 1950s outboard boat racing scene, this book is a MUST have! If you're a collector of old Mercury outboards, this book is a MUST have! If the sound of a pack of Mark 20H Mercs going into the first turn sends shivvers down your spine, then this book is a MUST have! Well worth the money! Get your wife to buy it for you for Christmas! - Scott "112-N" Smith

As a former outboard racer, APBA Stock and NOA Am Pro and Pro, I found this book to be very well done. Mr. Hunn did his homework. Based on my experiences, I could add a few things but overall a great work.
The book was a real memory maker for me. I worked for Hubbell Motors and raced in California and Michigan from 1956 until 1969 and won one national championship in B Alky Hydro at Sanford Michigan in 1966. If you love racing outboards, you will love this book.

This book offers great reading, works as a fairly comprehensive reference material, and as always, Peter's anecdote's add much color to the names, places and dates contained. There is a nice mini-biography on Hank Bowman, and plenty of other colorful characters from the world of outboard boat racing. Lots of great information on the motors and boats, too. If you're a fan of the 1950s outboard boat racing scene, this book is a MUST have! If you're a collector of old Mercury outboards, this book is a MUST have! If the sound of a pack of Mark 20H Mercs going into the first turn sends shivvers down your spine, then this book is a MUST have! Well worth the money! Get your wife to buy it for you for Christmas!

I raced during this time period.
This book puts in perspective what was going on behind the scenes which I had not known about.
FANTASTIC !

I've read most of Peter Hunn's outboard racing books and this is by far my favorite. It's very informative and entertaining. Where else would one learn that Edgar Rose suggested the internal exhaust tuning that led to the 'toilet bowl' downhousing for the Mark 20H?! The first production not- specially-built-for-racing outboard with exhaust tuning in the downhousing was the Merc 500 (ca. 1961), Edgar and Charlie Strang were still Mercury engineers then. The Merc 500 was produced and raced in OPC until ca. 1985. By 1975 exhaust tuners had become the industry standard. Another motor presented by Hunn is the Scott 590/630, although I grew up running Mercurys against Scotts and OMCs in NOA I'd never heard of this one (it was produced until ca. 1964, but I'd quit racing for university studies three years earlier). The book quits where OPC racing took over. OPC racing began and exploded 1957-1961 around Knoxville, Tenn., in NOA (I ran 1959-60), was picked up relatively late ca. 1961 by APBA. To date, there is no good book on OPC racing. The only author who covers it at all (Kevin Desmond) wrote as if V-bottom racing never existed. Peter, I can tell you about the early history of OPC in NOA, of the golden age of OPC in the 1970s, and the history of Allison Boats (and other V-bottoms: Critchfield, Laser, ...), which I drove in 1960 and again 1977-1985 ... .

A correction and a note. On page 61 Hunn states that "OPC racing began to develop a following in the early 1960s". This is inaccurate, and is written as if OPC started in APBA. OPC (then called 'Pleasure Craft Racing') began in NOA from Knoxville to Nashville in 1957 and exploded there in the late 1950s. In this connection, my father (the only active eastern Kentucky Mercury dealer) had begged Kiekhaefer Corp. for at least two years to give us a gearcase other than the 2:1 clubfoot that came standard on the Mark 75 and 78, and on the 1960 Merc 700 and 800. In August, 1960, we finally received the Sportsmaster gearcase (mentioned on pg. 61; that gearcase was smaller than a 1975 Evinrude Hustler gearcase and was high-geared at .677 instead of .500) with 17" and 19" pitch props. In Oct., 1960, I ran the Sportsmaster on our 1960 Merc 800 on a 14' Allison to increase the 70-80 c.i. class record from 51.002 mph (my record with the club foot) to 56.690 mph and consequently won the Wynn Oil Pin and a hundred bucks for upping a record by the greatest margin. Paul Allison ran another 14' with a similar Sportsmaster/1960 Merc 800 to set the unlimited record at 61.5 mph. He, my dad and I were the first to break 60 mph in OPC (Paul has the NOA record certificate to prove it, I still have the 70-80 record certificate). That was all on 8 Oct. 1960 at Three Rivers Boat Dock, where the French Broad and Holston run together to form the Tennessee River. This was the beginning of the Golden Age of OPC Racing. Before 1961 both APBA and Kiekhaefer (as I wrote in my review of 'Iron Fist') were asleep, McCulloch and OMC were nearly stealing the show in OPC racing. The Golden Age had ended by 1983, because in Mod VP tunnels were allowed to run with V-bottoms while using beneath the gearcase-bullet water pickups (that started at the annual Havasu race in Nov., 1981).

In retrospect, I vaguely recall that we got two Sportsmaster gearcases from Oshkosh in Aug., 1960.
My dad was the first to race that gearcase. That Aug., he ran it with the Merc 800 on his 14' Aristocraft in Unlimited Class at the NOA race at Anderson County Boat Dock on Norris Lake. He went into the first turn way ahead, spun out (the Aristocraft had a dangerous keel and spun all too often) and was run over by two Norris-Crafts with Johnson 75s. The Aristocraft was destroyed.