Reminiscing

[WARP TEN]

I was going through some old car photos and came across a bunch from a September 2014 trip to Mercury Marine (actually Mercury Racing) in Fon Du Lac Wisconsin. So I thought I would share a few here. It was a great trip and I would hope it could be done again. We brought I believe 10 ZR-1s carrying 13 folks (as far as I can tell from the pics). It was an especially moving visit because the folks at Mercury were so excited about the heritage of the ZR-1 and their involvement. They treated us to a tour of their factory (not the much bigger main plant), a big barbecue lunch and a car show that included not only our 10 ZR-1s but lots of cars owned by Mercury employees. We also got a tour of the Mercury Outboards museum, which showcases Mercury's history of outboard motors and also houses their '95 Black ZR-1 in the middle of the floor. We had a little ceremony in which we presented them with one of Lee (lgaff) Gaffigan's fine MAP sensor covers with the serial number of their '95 (Can't recall the actual number but I am sure someone can find it). Enjoy --Bob

[viper107]

very cool

[WARP TEN]

More pics. I especially liked the museum because I grew up with Mercury outboards. In my early teens I was a Mercury mechanic and we had a boat club in which everyone had Mercurys. Had a shop in my basement where I worked on them. Had an early 13' Boston Whaler with a 50 HP Merc on it. Actually more than one. Broke the transoms on three jumping waves at full throttle and the Boston Whaler company replaced each one saying it was bad advertising for them. But after three they said this is the last one. I then made some big mahogany braces for the transom corners and never had a problem again. --Bob

[Mystic ZR-1]

13 foot Whalers with a 50 Merc are/were crazy!!!
Rated for 40hp, they’d go over backwards on occasion!
Wake jumping can be fun but you better “stick” the landing...
Merc outboards sound great when at full throttle and airborne!

[Paul Workman]

Yeah, I remember that trip. Being this is an anniversary year, it would be nice if we could arrange a "re-do", provided this virus mayhem subsides in time (thinking maybe this fall????).

[WARP TEN]

13 foot Whalers with a 50 Merc are/were crazy!!!
Rated for 40hp, they’d go over backwards on occasion!
Wake jumping can be fun but you better “stick” the landing...
Merc outboards sound great when at full throttle and airborne!

You know your boats and motors. I spent my teenage years living on the water of Long Island Sound. On a calm day I could hear outboards running out in the Sound and could always differentiate between an Evinrude or a Mercury. With the 50 I could hit 40 mph--a big deal back in the '60s. On a rough day or in the wake of a big ship we could get the bow about 10' up and the prop about 2 feet out of the water. If there was a headwind you could definitely flip. I never flipped but came close a few times. Lots of fun for a teenager. Now they probably put 200 hp motors on a 13' foot Whaler! We also played around with a Merc 20H on a small hydro and on a 9' Skimmar dingy. Once tried a 35 HP Johnson on the Skimmar and it almost sank from the weight in the rear. Those were the days... --Bob

[SAHall]

Brings back many memories—I had a friend in the mid 1980s with a 13 foot Whaler and 40hp Mercury outboard—super fast on a flat days in Barnegat Bay NJ.


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[Stingray1967]

Thanks for sharing the photos!

[Top Toy]

And, interestingly, Mercury now builds outboards as well as crate engines based on the LT5 DOHC architecture. The Heart of the Beast lives on!12002

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[32valvesftw]

13 foot Whalers with a 50 Merc are/were crazy!!!
Rated for 40hp, they’d go over backwards on occasion!
Wake jumping can be fun but you better “stick” the landing...
Merc outboards sound great when at full throttle and airborne!

Oh man the memories, our first boat was a 19ft AMF Slickcraft with twin 115hp mercs. Yeah it would pull a wheelie and it got you offshore quick. We did crack the hull though by not sticking the landing.

[XfireZ51]

I arranged that "get together" w the MMR Product Marketing Manager Rick(forgot last name). Bob DeMarco also helped coordinate. The MMR people were very gracious and appreciative. don't think they'd ever seen so many LT-5 in one spot at the same time. Plus we had the opportunity to watch as one of the assemblers put together a QV4C. And they say our cylinder heads are big!!! At that time we were told that they were working on the automotive version of that motor which turned out to be the
SB4 built using an LS-7 short block but w MMR 4cam heads,ignition, and intake.
It was a beautiful day for a ride to Fond du Lac, and it was fun mingling w people who had a sense of pride for our cars.

[WARP TEN]

I arranged that "get together" w the MMR Product Marketing Manager Rick(forgot last name). Bob DeMarco also helped coordinate. The MMR people were very gracious and appreciative. don't think they'd ever seen so many LT-5 in one spot at the same time. Plus we had the opportunity to watch as one of the assemblers put together a QV4C. And they say our cylinder heads are big!!! At that time we were told that they were working on the automotive version of that motor which turned out to be the
SB4 built using an LS-7 short block but w MMR 4cam heads,ignition, and intake.
It was a beautiful day for a ride to Fond du Lac, and it was fun mingling w people who had a sense of pride for our cars.

Thanks for arranging it Dom! Rick's last name is Mackie and I have him listed as Senior Marketing Manager for Mercury Marine Racing. I have his (old) phone numbers if you want to try again, but I don't know if they would work today--Bob

[XfireZ51]

Yeah Bob, given that its the 30th, it would have been appropriate altho very unlikely this year. It took quite a few months to get MMR to ok having us come up there. It started because Mercury Marine was originally going to be celebrating their 75th and we were going to be invited to that but then they called off the anniversary festivities. So we ended up going to Fond du Lac instead.

[WARP TEN]

Yeah Bob, given that its the 30th, it would have been appropriate altho very unlikely this year. It took quite a few months to get MMR to ok having us come up there. It started because Mercury Marine was originally going to be celebrating their 75th and we were going to be invited to that but then they called off the anniversary festivities. So we ended up going to Fond du Lac instead.

Which worked out just fine as far as I am concerned.--Bob