Outboard ultimate speed record

[Mark75H]

Individual class records will be bounced out to their own threads, this thread is the top speed record only.

I have never seen a listing like this in any magazine or book. To my knowledge it is the first and original outboard speed record list.

The earliest recorded official outboard race I have found documentation on was held in Monaco in 1905. The winner was a French made Motogodile.

The next official race was won by another French made motor in 1913, a Lutetia

Next I will include a very unofficial but obvious event ... few people know that the first outboard to push a boat over its planing wake is a known event. In 1921 Clay Conover was test running a new motor for his father on a small boat, went completely over the hump and probably went a scorching 14 mph.

The officially recorded & recognized, timed, measured course events start here:

1924 11 mph
1925 16.68 mph
1925 23.32 mph
1926 25 mph
1926 32.14 mph
1928 37.3 mph
1928 41 mph - last record before the 60 cubic inch era
1928 48 mph set by Passarin with a Laros motor
1930 49
1930 50.799
1930 52.09 Charles Henry Harrison of the UK, Elto motor, boat named Non Sequitor
1931 52.564
1931 54.6
1931 55.336 Soriano 4 cylinder (smaller than 60 ci)
1931 55.4
1932 58.91
1932 59.462 first record by a Soriano 6
1934 65.21
1935 69.383
1936 72.05
1936 74.39
1938 78.121 Bedford Davie with the Draper X motor
1939 78.44 Clint Ferguson with the Eldredge motor
1939 79.04 Soriano 6
1953 83.474 Soriano 6 on a Molinari built Swift 3 point
1954 100.387 Lesco 4 on the same boat
1958 107.82 modified Mercury Mark75H prototype Hu Entrop, prop riding hull
1960 114.65 Hu Entrop with V-4
1960 115.547 Burt Ross modified production Mark75H Jones hydro, last 60 cubic inch
1960 122.96 Entrop with V-4
1966 130.929
1966 131.051 Walin in Entrop/MacDonald with V-4 (one way 133+)
1973 136.381 Merten with 99 cubic inch Merc 6 carb 2 pipe
1982 137.96
1982 139.66
1983 144.16
1986 165.338
1986 169.531
1989 176.556 Bob Wartinger Evinrude V-8

If you know some of the details of each record or errors please help me out

PS: to those who copy this without attributing it to BRF and me ... there may be deliberate errors that show it is not your original research and what is the original source ... I do not want to see this elsewhere without credit ... it was a lot of work to compile from a ton of sources.

[seacow]

Very interesting info. Thank you. It would be fun to see photos of as many of these record rigs as possible. Looks like the 460s did not make quantum leaps in velocity like the Italian machine the Merc sixes and later motors did. Do we know which record represents the advent of the three point hydro and which of these are tunnel hulls thereafter?

[Mark75H]

The 1953 record is the first 3 point, but it was a tail dragger, the 1958 record was the first 3 point prop rider.

I think there is only one tunnel hull, all the other modern records are 3 point prop riders.

I think the 65 thru 79 mph records may have all been set with Jacoby single step boats, holding the records from 1934 thru early 1953 ... pretty impressive.

[JohnsonM50]

The 1953 record is the first 3 point, but it was a tail dragger, the 1958 record was the first 3 point prop rider.

I think there is only one tunnel hull, all the other modern records are 3 point prop riders.

I think the 65 thru 79 mph records may have all been set with Jacoby single step boats, holding the records from 1934 thru early 1953 ... pretty impressive.

The last record of Bob Wartinger's has a cover video I think. There was gear case longevity issues & they were attempting to make 200+?:eek:

[Mark Poole]

1982 139.66 was Bob Spalding Hodges/V-8 Johnson
1983 144.16 was Rick Frost Burgess/V-8 Johnson
1986 was Bob Herring Karleson hydro/V-8 Evinrude

Was either 1984 or 1985 George Andrews set the record in a Merc V-6 Hydro, 157 mph, and was killed trying to up his own record with another set of passes.

The 137.96 in 1982 may have been John Sherlock, but I think he set a record faster than that in a Merc powered hydro.

[Mark75H]

Think you are right.

Here is John in the 137.96 boat. It seems to me there was a 156+ record that belongs in there somewhere, either John or George in O'Dea's boat.

[Boat20]

I'm almost sure in the fall of 1983 on the Wellen Canal in Canada George Andrews set the speed record of 144+ . He drove Dick ODea's 20' Black Hydro with a Dick O'Dea modified Merc. V6 on gasoline. That was even with water washing one cyl. due to a leak through the head bolt. The next spring in Fla. They upped the record running alcohol. George thought he could run faster and that's when he met his demise.

[Skoontz]

Didnt Wartingers boat use a two speed gear box, or was it when he hit the nitrous when the boat started getting squirley before it smoothed out?
?

[Mark75H]

Single speed box, that was the nitrous

[Watermark11]

I'm almost sure in the fall of 1983 on the Wellen Canal in Canada George Andrews set the speed record of 144+ . He drove Dick ODea's 20' Black Hydro with a Dick O'Dea modified Merc. V6 on gasoline. That was even with water washing one cyl. due to a leak through the head bolt. The next spring in Fla. They upped the record running alcohol. George thought he could run faster and that's when he met his demise.

The Dick O'Dea / George Andrews Jr. record is on the Canadian Boating Federation's books for FU ( OZ ) class at 132.029 mph, set in October 1983 at Welland, ON. Canada.

[Powercat]

Was John's 137 record under Canadian sanction? APBA shows John and that
boat for a Mod U class record of 135 in 1983 in Florida, but no other record.
It gets confusing when a hydro is used to set a class record for straightaway
in what you normally would consider a tunnel boat class, F1, Champ, Mod U.
Hydros are legal boats in those classes, they just don't compete with them on
closed course competition. I would guess they entered the kilo runs in those
classes rather than do the "special events" thing.
For true tunnel boats, I see a 143 by Todd Bowden in 1996 for Champ in APBA
and a 159 by Guido Cappelini in 2005 for 2.5litre F1 in UIM.

[Mike Ward]

Below is my version of the Outright Speed Records for Outboards which I obtained from the original documentation deposited in the UIM archives. These are virtually complete although many of the racing archive was destroyed when the office relocated to Monaco.

I also hold information on all 3600 UIM world records homolgated since 1923.

[LIQUID NIRVANA]

The Worlds Fastest OUTBOARD - This is the FULL VERSION

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLDM1kE8pVw

[Cajun]

Here's Jim Merten Sr.'s old rig. I just casn't se me knee riding, face into the wind at 136.381 mph.
D http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p95/1995US1/merten.jpg