Bill Tenney's Class C Alky Twin Engine Couplers??

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

took apart and rebuilt 2 of least damaged of the 5 known engine couplers Bill Tenney used to couple 2 Anzani 250s to run C Alky? or D? in the NOA back sometime in the 1960s. I never seen anything like them. They again now run so smooth you can easily rotate them either direction with your thumb and forefinger doing the twisting. There is nothing inside or out indicating who or what company built these twin engine couplers though its obvious they look custom built. What is so cool about them is that you can set the twins to fire cylinders at whatever degree per multiple cylinders you divide by, right around the degree clock by gear measurement meshing points. With Anzanis there is no way to tell if he ran the twins firing each engine 180 degrees part in pairs or set them to fire alternating and firing at every 90 degrees of rotation?

What is really eye popping is the pre-cut and pre-punched for drilling 9/16 inch thick adaptor plate to fit 2 of some size of Merc 4 cylinder between 30 to 40 and 44 cubic inches as twins like the Anzani 2 bangers, but it was never drilled and finished. Eight cylinders of Merc with 8 stacks configued exhausting rearwards? Lifting an Anzani twin block C Alky is one thing! I was told by old hands that they were very heavy and went very fast. What about a 8 cylinder (twin coupled) Merc? Ouch! Class F? or old Class X?

Does anyone out there recall any information on these couplers Bill Tenney used?? Who was the daredevil NOA driver and on what?

[Fast Fred]

how about a shot of it. is it like a two into one, sidebyside or stack.:cool:

[Tim Chance]

Floyd Harris of Minneapolis ran the doubled up C motor around 1962, '63, or '64. I don't clearly remember it on a hydro but Floyd ran it on a 13' Desilva runabout. If it ever ran on a hydro Dick Pond of Keokuk, Iowa ran it. Floyd won US-1 as NOA National High Point a couple of times and I know I have a photo of the Runabout somewhere, but I think it has a Mercury on it not the Anzani(s). I also have a photo that I got from Bill Tenney of the twin engine somewhere. I remember that they used to take a lot of time getting the motors timed together, but later found it didn't make any difference and just put them on the lower unit. Jim Kolosky (eventually he became my pit man) was the only person who could crank the damn thing). Floyd would be about 70 years old now and I assume he still is in the Twin City area if you are interested in looking him up. And I saw Dick at the Memorial race for O. F. Christner a couple of years ago in Quincy and I think he still lives in Keokuk. I also don't think there was a D, and the C turned back into two A's. I think the Kaus brothers from Austin, Minn. ended up with one and I don't know about the other.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

In my spare time I have been overhauling the 2 coupler transmissions. I have and just dead reconing and some vague advice from some who seen or observed it that have been telling me the layout that I have to be able to mock setup the twin engine C the way it was "supposed" to be back then. Memories dim with age though. It would sure be appreciated if I could get some phone numbers and resulting some pictures copies or something similar done to do the eacting version from back in the early 1960s. I do know that I have all the parts and I have set versions together but the actual picture would setup the exact twin Anzani engine C Alky. I appreciate just how heavy the twin engine used to be.

The coupler transmissions are sure low drag, easy to turn. I wonder if Bill Tenney set the engines to fire a cylinder every 90 or 2 at each 180 degrees. Both are quite possible and would be had to tell apart because its all internal though one might think that the 90 degrees of firing one cylinder would be easier on the gearcases than a 180 setting for both Anzanis? The 180 degree firing order with 2 pistons firing at a time would sound distinctly different than 1 cylinder firing every 90.

I will be some pictures on here quite soon, its just a matter of polishing, painting, assembling but I would prefer to post it as a completed project the way it was as opposed to dead reconing imagination. I would be pleased with any knowlegeable healp and pictures you Tim or anyone else I can contact could give me.

When the twin is final assembled it already has more than 50% NOS Anzani parts and be able to start and run.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

I remember Dale Kaus the most. Both brothers sure could drive like mad. When I met Dale it was to discuss buying his Sidcraft hydro (still got its picture with the runabout stacted over top) and getting a A or B Looper at the time but got talked out of it by alarmed locals who were into stock outboard racing only, who finally turned loose some of their multiples of 30Hs and 55Hs loose so more people couild buy a boat and drive. It was either do it or watch people cross over or loose them. I then got my first 55H and 30H and that was already into the 1970s and the KG9s and 40Hs went to new drivers getting started on student's racing budgets. I still wish I kept 1 Merc KG9, 40H and the Asburn banana D-Alky runabout. There were/are classics.

[Tim Chance]

I remember Dale Kaus the most. Both brothers sure could drive like mad. When I met Dale it was to discuss buying his Sidcraft hydro (still got its picture with the runabout stacted over top) and getting a A or B Looper at the time but got talked out of it by alarmed locals who were into stock outboard racing only, who finally turned loose some of their multiples of 30Hs and 55Hs loose so more people couild buy a boat and drive. It was either do it or watch people cross over or loose them. I then got my first 55H and 30H and that was already into the 1970s and the KG9s and 40Hs went to new drivers getting started on student's racing budgets. I still wish I kept 1 Merc KG9, 40H and the Asburn banana D-Alky runabout. There were/are classics.

Yes those brothers could drive. I had a C runabout with a real good Quincy deflector. The schedule worked out that I could run C and then leave the motor on the boat and later I would have Loren step up and run F. He used to win on a regular basis. Would just smoke the 44's. That Sid Craft. It was John Wood's old D Mod boat and Dale ran A and B flatheads on it (Loren ran runabouts). A co-worker of mine bought it when the Kaus' quit, for me to run. I can't remember where it went after that. And the Ashburn runabouts. I was 11 years old when I saw my first race. I still remember 2 Ashburn's going at it side-by-side with 4-cyl Mercs. Thinking back it had to be Stan Doseth of Minneapolis and Bruce Kline the Fire Chief of LaPorte City, Iowa. As to the photo of the 4-cyl Anzani that I got from Bill Tenney. I have it in a box marked "Boat Racing Memroabilia". The box is in a safe place. So safe, I can't find it. But I will and when I do I'll send it to you if you'll send me your address. My e-mail is timchanceracing@yahoo.com To Fast Fred: the motors were side-by-side.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

To be able to scan some Anzani twin and single picts you have would flesh out the display and some history of the 3 Anzani collection waiting to be completed by the Anzani twin C here.

I used to have a brand new Anzani B Stock Gas racer that now would have been a nice part of what a gaser was with the engines transition to what Bill Tenney and some others in the North West did to them to get some runs into the 107 mile per hour range. My intent with all this is purely alturistic, to see the collection of engines put on public display in the evolving small boat museum section of the Selkirk, Mb. Park Marine Museum. Some day, I won't be on this earth and those engines in the museum will perisist for the public to see and approeciate them. Those Anzanis and some Harrisons sure made some impressions on the crowds of 10/12,000+ per day that came out yearly to see the annual races with sometimes Alky versus Stock Can-Ams in B and D hydro that went on at the time.

When you find that box, give me a phone call at (204) 667-3815 so we can go over arrangements and return of the pictures collection once I have it scanned for reproduction and display work.

My Address is: John Taylor, 111 Reay Crescent, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R2K3R2. I am only 50 miles north if the Can/USA border 400 miles north of Minneapolis in this town of 670,000 people. Selkirk is my hometown.

The stuff is really hard to find and much appreciated in your offer to share in this way.

We had quite a few Sidcraft hydros here from A through D stock of which many were former Alky boats bought by stock outboard drivers. Some had the older long cowl and others the newer shorter versions. Sids were sure known for high but level flight as stock racers and kinda scared the beeejeezuz out of some of us just how high they could be flown as Alkys that sure qualified for lower flights as stocks! We had a smattering of Swifts, Marchettis and other local or eastern Canadian designed hydros like the Ogiers (my favorite). With runabouts it was Coppers, DeSilvas, Banshees and some Hal Kelly designs. I was one that ran the lone Asburn and then a Banshee. I preferred the Asburn, you could turn it on a dime full throttle around anything, never spin out or broach after I lightened and "stockized" the bottom to marine grade plywood away from the planking and thick coat of fiberglass it used to have.

I suppose your not quessing anymore that I inherited the remainder of Bill Tenney's stock of Anzani fire damaged, used as well as NOS parts to build a few more for posterity. There is a large section and pictorial on this site featuring the many parts and assemblies I am using to build at least a couple more after the twin block version is built. You can search for those easily here. Those 2 more, an A and B alky, I may take out for displays and some runs elsewhere, but those will require adaptive parts non-Anzani to complete them to run again though I am trying to keep the look the same. Like using Fairbanks Morse magnetos on them as they are kind of near look alike to the Lucas units Anzani normally had and so on. It is all one long spare time process in the evenings and weekends for me and the results have been good. I have been posting here as things go along from time to time. Its neat and interesting history.

[Tim Chance]

I think Dave Berg's A had a Bosch mag on it. It could have been retrofit as his motor didn't have an Anzani lower unit, it had a Merc. I know the Konig's of that era first had a Bosch and then a SEM. When I find that box of stuff there is a photo of Dick Hoppenrath driving Tenney's C Neal with a B Anzani on it. Ray Ogier. I think I met him. I remember Selkirk, I ran there in '62 and '63. One year I was pitted way upriver, South, towards the first turn past the end of the loudspeakers. I had no idea what was going on. So I got quite a start when the Canadian version of the Blue Angles came eyeball high off the water right in front of me at 600 some mph. Selkirk: What a great race site - what a great town.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

From around 1963 I was E.J. Coates (deceased in 2006), a Selkirk local's pitman at 13 years of age. He was my neighbor and he was a C-Service and C-Racing enthusiast. He ran his Elto against the Merc 30Hs in their combined and his Johnson P-50 racing against the Merc 55Hs in hydro and runabout. He was an excellent hydro and runabout builder in making Ogiers copys and his Banshee series of stock runabouts that looked similar to DeSilvas that ran real well against them and some Hal Kelly designs of that era, It really blew one's mind to see Ted wacking 2nds and 1sts off with the Elto and the P-50 against the Mercs and they didn't like that much!! LOL! It was during those early 1960s that Ted took me around to meet people like Bill Tenney and a whole host of others, greats like yourself and others that raced there like Bill Seebold, Gene Minar and many many more. For all I know we probably met there too at the time. By the later 1960s I was already in D stock with a Coates built Ogier C-D hydro and a KG9(H's) for power and the rest just happened pling on more classes and newer engines by 1984. By 1971 I was taking over running the faltering MORA with a new generation of drivers, pulled her up and kept the club going locally until 1984 where after that lack of Mercury racing parts and the local will because of that saw powerboat racing stop here as well as out west in Calgary, Edmonton and even down into Montana in SO and Alky.

I remember Dave Berg. When that Anzani started it fkew. Its tragic that he died. THere used to be a Dave Berg Memorial trophy, that would be quite a keepsake of history today. Amongst the parts that I inherited there were some, a few Konig magneto parts that are still here that looked like some kind of adapters for shafts or gears but nothing that can come to even start to make another up. People think me weird just hunting down parts for those gawd awful Lucas magnetos (princes of darkness!). I wonder why Mercury ignition parts didn't find their way sooner on Anzanis than they did and those first turned up in the North West along with using OMC fuel pumps and fuel return to tank floatless systems for the Vacturis. The parts I got here included several twin and well as single DelOrto remote fuel bowls so the Vacturis could retain floats with needle and seat with the DelOrto mimicing a gravity flow unit with crankcase pressurizing the fuel tank a bit.

It was said that Selkirk when it came to Anzanis seen the most ever run at one meet and over several years. I can remember there were lots of As and Bs running with their classic crescent shaped and supported pipes. They pretty much ran everyone else down (Konigs and Mercs) until the Quincy Flatheads came along. Even the big inch guys just stared when Anzanis were practice running down the course straights, they were that fast then. The last time I ran an B Anzani there was around 1986 and the local cops were very upset. The last time Anzanis hit the water west of here in places like Calgary and Edmonton as pre 1980 so abscences were great. I ran Roger Wendt's (Montana) 2 carb hybrid Anzani (block/crankcase)/ Harrison (crankshaft & ignition (Phelon) aluminum flywheel and Harrison rope plate)/ Merc (clamps, saddle, co-pilot & Tillotson HL snowmo 2ndary carb) / Konig (connecting rods & lower unit/gearcase) and OMC (fuel pump and Vacturi primary carb) a couple of times in 1987 but its rods were pretty rickety from 40%+ nitro fuel additive loads, so it is also a museum piece. It was reputed to be one of the quickest Anzani hybrids Jim Hallum and his co-conspirators (LOL) engineered outside of their 4 carb versions that set some speeds in the 103 to 107 mph range that also showed boat lengths too short at that point too. All that before 1980 in the North West long after Selkirk and those formative 1960s that saw those engines wack into the 80+ mphs the big inchers necks twisted at! :) Those were interesting years for them. I remember your Alky Deflector Merc and Runabout when I went south to some races, it was very quick and to some unusually so with some real questions on their minds at that as to how much nitro you threw in to club out some larger engines that you did!!! To me KG9s and 40Hs on gasoline were affordable first and foremost and easier to start on gas! You guys were quite the show though, the pipes, smell and speed demoed that real good. :)

[Tim Chance]

John - I never throw anything away, that's probably why I can't find the box with the photo - too much junk. I did find a small printed copy of it. It is printed in light blue and didn't scan well. I did the best I could in Photoshop. It will have to do until I locate the Original. About Dave Berg. I was suppose to be in that heat but my Konig wouldn't start. I always wondered if one more boat milling and making a run to the first turn would have made a difference.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

That is what the methanol version was? I am staring at the Amal Monoblock round slide carbs on it, where conversion Vacturi A0500s were put to use on As and Bs??? Did the Amal monblocks stay on it or were the Vacuris substituted later on this twin? They, the Amals I just don't have and would mean raiding the local British bike store for a suitable couple of side drafts but off of what British bike.

The block orientations are what others described but you would think that the whole top end would have been mounted on the earlier Anzani wide clamp tower as opposed to the newer standard narrow width version which are not as heavy duty as the earlier wide clamp version. The torque down tube and silver arrow LU/Gearcase are the same.

I don't see any pipes??? In the picture?? and I have about half a dozen variations of megs that are standard looking for one twin set streaming rearward and two other sets that would mount pointing spectator wise on a pass. What can you remember???

It all looks compact enough together but without weighing everything yet the motor probably exceeded 180 lbs in weight??? Groan!! I can see that only the biggest and fitest could start the behemouth all rite. I used to see real big guys rope Merc/Quincy padded block alks and almost have heart attacks after 6 tries. The Anzanis started off real fast as an A or B but firing a twin set at 90 degrees of ignition would have been not bad but heavy but at 180 degrees where a pair were firing???? Ouch!

So other than megaphone exhaust choice and not having 2 side draft Amal monobloc carbs are the only impediments to complete assembly.

I did have a weird idea that there were Vacturis on there with remote DelOrto fuel bowls??? Did that ever happen or did something else simpler develop?? I was told that the original gasoline Amal Monoblocks were with rejetting not a good carb for alky running, so the Vacturis.

That picture sure does give me major orientation though. Thanks Tim!

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Like most, you kind of wonder what if and if that life would have been spared in Dave Berg's case, if anyone would have done something different. I think in all cases, when the Lord calls your number doing what ever you were doing doesn't mean a thing and would change nothing. He was a nice guy and real good driver and it happened to him as it happened to racers after him and some again in the past month. There was nothing anyone could do different otherwise we could control fate and that we know, we can not do that, we are not capable of it. I think of what he did do and the tragic situation when his time and number were up, he would want to be remembered the way he was, a nice guy and dedicated racer.

[Tim Chance]

I only saw one stock Anzani and that was in the display room of Supreme Motors in Minneapolis. It had the stock Amals and a manifold that routed the exhaust down to water level. The C that Floyd drove was a full alcohol conversion with Vactuuri carb and the remote float bowl with standard Anzani pipes. Larry Swor ran an A Anzani on a Dubinski hydro where Bill set up both a set of expansion chambers and open exhaust. It was similar to sliding pipes today. The elbows had a butterfly valve and Larry would come through and out of the corner on the megaphones and then swith to the expansion chambers for the straightaway.

[jrome]

Tim,Glad you are with us here at BRF to tell us the stories and history of the past. I can not wait for you to break out the photos. Good job

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Tim:

That pure stock B Anzani was in sections with its wooden box covered with greased cloth. It was cleaned up. It had never been fired but kept well lubed in storage. It was cleaned up, re-assembled and sat on display in my recroom for about 5 years before it sold and there were at least enough parts for 6 more engines at that point. I never fired it and it probably was the last new Anzani left worldwide unfired/new and still may be. It is pictured on this site in the Anzani section. It had a distinct lower compression gasoline oriented head on it where Alkys had cast and machined high compression heads. I still have one un-machined high compression racing head casting.

As for the butterfly pipe setup. That is also pictured in the Anzani section on this website. I never knew nor did anyone say, until your clarified it, if it was to mount 2 megs of two different lengths or was some precursor of using megs to some effect on the racecourse with some other kind of new pipe or expansion chamber where the butterfly system switched back and forth between the types of pipes?? I have one section of what looks like the beginnings of developing expansion chambers plus a welded steel frame to hold/support lengthy pipes. That is a real heavy assembly.

I have since done computerized versions of expansion chambers for Anzani which also change with block/port timing specs etc. as you develop the pipe to turn on at a desired rpm. Back then it was slide rule, trig, cut and paste, now its TSR formulas on your Pentium computer. Those buterfly pipes still look awsome with the short meg and I slide on the longer tapered megs exemplified from other Anzanis I already had. I imagine the weight overhang on the aluminum towers got pretty fierce once you added the support frames, that butterfly valve elbo system and early type expansion chambers being that the block is cast iron to begin with. I have one neck snapped torque/engine mount tube fatigued from weight overhang and operating vibrations.

This stuff all still exists here but your the first one clarifying/demystifying things as we go along as we have with this thread. Your memory on this stuff is amazing.

What really burned into me when those engines first appeared was how frighteninlgy fast they started with rpms running away as the starting crews sort of dropped and threw the boat forward as the engine reved up. To me there was nothing close to their fast rev up then, or now in example from some other engine. They sounded like they were ready to rev to explode on drop and I remember many an anxious face when this was going on with the starting crews and drivers too fearing the engines might scatter themselves with a bang. So far I have only ever seen one do that and it was catastrophic, throwing shrap all over the place. Its block I still have (pictures are on this website) with some of its ports the block being cast iron, ripped out from the inside only, crankcase, crank, rods and pistons snapped and blown up and fragged. It was the nitro load in the fuel that flooded the engine that led to ignition/explosion that saw people in a radius of 30 feet get hit with the fragged metals. Crazy when they ran and downright dangerous on engine failure.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

I bought my first Anzani 350 from Gene (Pappy) Strain from Calgary, Alberta around 1977 or 78 and it was his second one that was built to twin carb specs much like Roger Wendt's (Montana) but almost all Anzani that blew up. Gene sold it to me for major parts, the exploded powerhead or what was left of it afterward was a freebee!

[Tim Chance]

John - Where do I find the Anzani site, Thanks,Tim

[Mark75H]

The Anzani site can be found here: http://www.britishanzani.co.uk/HISTORY3.htmWhen you are finished with that page click on "Next" at the bottom of the page for a little more on page 4

[Tim Chance]

Thanks, Sam for the route to the Anzani site. I have to say something right now. I'm in the printing industry, or if you want to get fancy the "Graphic Arts". Some years ago I was working at a place and I noticed that the control box for the light integrator on the big copy camera (20"x24" piece of film) had stampped on the serial plate "British Anzani". I called everyone over and told the story about boat racing, Anzani motors, Bill Tenney et.all... They all nodded politely, and I'm sure thought and still think - nutcase. Anyhow, John, my Mother lives in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and in a month or so, I'm coming north for a visit. Selkirk is only about 5 hours extra and I would love to come up and take a look at your collection and visit with you if it would be ok. In November, how do I get there: Dog sled, snowmobile, or you can't get there from here in the dead of winter. Also I have a photo of Larry Swor driving the Dubinski with the A Anzani ( only megaphones, no butterfly valve, no chambers) I'll post it.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

This fall is not a good time to visit and best be left till next spring. There is a new bathroom with heavy renovations happening to do so plus a new room being added to the front of the house making it all bigger still that was supposed to be finished last year but an accident and resulting medical problems damned near killed me and I mean just that so everything is backed up and with my writing/publishing schedules, tinkering with these engines for now is it otherwise my wife will chain me to renovations that need to be completed sans addition at least by Christmas! Sorry I can not be more accomodating but that is the present scene and not amenable to visitors until I am done with this house crap that I hate! :) It will have to be next spring some time but if my time off writing allows for more than renovations and that means tinkering I will picture and post here anyway until then.

Sam indicated a website to you concerning Anzani in the UK. There was a huge section done on British Anzani by me a couple of years ago, so Sam should be able to give you precise website directions to see the over 30 pages of that here. Give him the precise directions Sam. There is way more here than on the Anzani UK site because when it comes to it all, North America became the Anzani outboard racing hotbed. See them both. Play it all Sam?

[Mark75H]

http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1182

If you could redo some of those images at 200 dpi instead of 72 we could see them better

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

It would be great to do it all over again or redo some with more commentary and in between racing and pit shots too on these Anzani engines but time is not handy right now but sometime in the future as things slow a bit maybe possibly.

[Tim Chance]

Here is a shot of Bill running a Neal Hydro with I think an SR. The other is Larry Swor in a Dubinski with the motor that, later on, had the double setup of megaphones and expansion chambers. I want to add a little note that my racing partner at the time, Denny Guentzel, bought a B Konig from Dieter in Bill's driveway. Dieter was Bill's guest and had a Konig for sale that he was personally racing here in the states and Denny went over and bought it. I don't know if Bill ever knew.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

When you look at the Dubinksi hydro with Anzani, that engine is one that required 2 DelOrto remote fuel bowls, that engine was hungry! You could tell which Anzanis could potentially run faster by the size or the number of DelOrto remote fuel bowls that were held aloft on the metal stick higher over the Anzani flywheel feeding that Vacturi.

The Dubinski hydro itself I can remember the style of hydro. I never recalled what the bottom looked like but the top is reminicent of Hal Kellys' Jupiter and Ben Hur but also of in later years the Hedlunds you saw running B-Stock with Merc 20H conversions. Those Anzanis sure hauled. I remember in one heat one year it was nearly all Anzani with the odd Konig with real long bells on it like the air horns off a semi-transport truck and Alky conversion deflector Mercs mixed in too but the Anzanis did all the winning.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

I used to have 3 major picture albums mainly of black and white shots from the mid 1960s onward taken initially by my parents who enjoyed boatracing that I entirely took over and kept filling after that. Unfortunately I was also dumb enough to catalogue the negatives with the albums at the end of the pictures sections. Well, I loaned those to a local racer who I didn't know was in the weird science trade of drugs and he got bust! His wife while he was in the hoosegow for a 5 year sentence, she sold his house, car, truck, clothes, furniture and all including his 2 raceboats, trailer and engines plus another local racer's trailered raceboat stuff, same classes times 2 and she went home to mom to Toronto with the proceeds, never to be seen again. My albums either got sold with all the stuff or tossed at the end so she had no reminders! I still have some slides but they are of my early days running stock and I did find a picture of the big spoilered F hydro G-711 that now sits in a collage picture on the wall with other tidbits scrounged from other boxes. I am a bit of a packrat too but those albums I am always going to miss.

[Tim Chance]

Dub Parker took the Jupiter and enlarged it a little to a size the alky could use and it still had the "S" bottom. I scaled one down as a J for one of my boys. At that time the 60-J held the APBA record at 38 mph. Ours showed 42 on a speedometer. First ride my kid came in with eyes the size of dinner plates - he was flying the sponsons 6" off the water. My other boy wanted one too but I built him a picklefork and it was a dog. And I understand your loss of the photos I had a collection that the widow of a photographer in Minneapolis gave me (racing pics from 1930-1965). I had them at work in my spare time shooting litho negs, planning on printing them in a book. The janitor threw it all away.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Tim"

To make that original picture of the British Anzani 4 cylinder as you have in the picture, I would need a couple of Amal Monoblocks, so I went looking in the bins and found one without the round slide, jet needle, spring or body top cap. I supposed lost somewhere, but not here, I am packratish. Went to a local British bike store known to have Amal carbs and parts around for British bikes....... with prices that would take your breath away! I am gonna look in a few more cotton padded boxes at home, just by chance something might turn up but it seems everything has been tosses at least once. For a 25 mm Amal Monoblock sidedraft complete was $250.00 plus taxes for a used part??? Ouch.

Is here any possibility in your pictures you have a somewhat seeable running or stopped picture(s) of the Anzani with the 2 stage switchable exhaust system. Since I have the one section of what appears to be one expansion chamber they were developing, maybe the picture can give approximations on the whole look of one or both pipes attached or beside the motor when they were doing it? Making it does not have to be dead accurate but close enough to be a reasonable recreation. Some people that see this stuff in local shows seem to think all 2 stroke technologies just happened on very resent times. How wrong they are.

[Tim Chance]

I don't think I have a photo of it bacause back then if there was a choice of spending the buck and a half on a six-pac or a roll of film - the film always lost. Maybe that's why I have a digital camera now. I'm thinking the expansion chambers curved, like a rams horn. But, maybe that was something Kay Harrison had. I know Kay had one where the pipes pointed to the front of the boat with the motor fixed and only the gearcase turned. I do have a couple of photos somewhere where Larry and I are running side-by-side but I think they pre-date that setup.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Your oh so very right about the beer versus the film or for that matter busy people being asked to take your or some other pictures for you. The one time I absolutely said yes to was while I was in Miami I was asked to take a picture of New York's biggest bookie, his girlfriend a third of his age to shortly become his wife and the elderly fella that asked me to with his New York accent. I think you know why I said YES! to that request.

The only section of pipe I have that could be some expansion chamber begins with spring loading from the block/exhaust port side then straight though from the join collar to the rest of the pipe which is exponential to its center flange that locked up with more exhaust after that yet in the middle with a 9 nut and bolted flange. This section bears no resemblance to anything even off my oldest computer pipe formulas so it remains a mystery.

I heard but never seen the fixed engine and pipes concept that the gearcase turned as a unit. Some one there I heard developed a kind of system when the driver turned the engine "knuckle" holding the gearcase would kick the gearcase and prop out slightly and when aiming the raceboat straight again, the knuckle tucked the gearcase in again but I never did know if that was on a hydro, runabout or what kind of engine or for that matter who did that????

The twin megaphoned upper and lower exhaust system probably worked fine within its concept but the pipes all setup with megaphones and those switchable elbos weight a full 3 times more than a standard set of braced pipes. The cast aluminum tower neck was being asked a lot of by look of the broken one. There is a casting mark on all the aluminum castings, the word is "Lynite". Some type of aluminum alloy or the maker company? So far internet searches have produced little on that name. I have some castings with the word "Lodite" on them like the Anzani racing pistons. Again, the maker? or the alloy??

[Mark75H]

There is a casting mark on all the aluminum castings, the word is "Lynite". Some type of aluminum alloy or the maker company? So far internet searches have produced little on that name.

Lynite was a name brand aluminum-copper alloy (2% to 11% copper depending on the application). Practically all 1920's & 1930's light weight pistons and lighter case castings were made of Lynite and advertized as such by the motor manufacturers - Johnson, Evinrude, Caille, Lockwood, Cadillac, LaSalle, etc It was a product of LYNITE LABORATORIES, THE ALUMINUM CASTINGS COMPANY, CLEVELAND, OHIO. Cases were this alloy: 90% aluminum, 7.8% copper, 1.5% zinc, 1.3% iron

[Tim Chance]

I'm trying to think who else is still around that would remember that Anzani setup. Pete Grycywicywicz (close enough). I'm going to the USTS race in Raleigh in a week or two and I'll see both Pete and Kay. I'll try and get some info.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

You mean that some of these castings were done in the USA and shipped to U.K.? and for British Anzani or British Anzani licenced the alloy and made and finish machined their products from the alloy there in UK from ingot stocks?

All the transom clamping arms are Lynite as well the 2 part saddle/yoke, tower tube from block to gearcase (1 piece). An alloy or aluminum and copper like that must have been known to be stronger than most aluminum alloys of the period? I don't see that word on the gearcases or anything on the powerhead so far but I am going to look a little more closely.

In any case it seems a tremendous strong casting material. It finishes to a dull sheen but not the high chrome like sheen you see of other aluminums.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Tim:

The gated twin tubed per exhaust port exhaust system as I have it here has the long link between the switchable exhaust gates but there is no indication beyond that how the driver switched between from the cockpit side as in a lever almost on top of the throttle or foot pedal of some sort behind???

I sand blasted and aluminum painted it but with this kind of information I am going to get the dang things chromed now instead. Historical information on these engines is taking a twisht. There seems to be some interest in raising marine museum expansion funding through a travelling display of the larger ALky and Stock Outboard boats and engines of the period so some meetings to look at it are in the cards for displaying these museum pieces in many locations raced up this way from the 1950s through 1984. Not a bad idea when it comes to fund raise, preserve and this resulting in a historically and public owned display for tourism purposes on racing history both local and the USA visitors in the sport.

[Tim Chance]

I'm trying to get a time frame on all this. I had the first Konig in Midwest with expansion chambers. Long pipe, no center section, and a short diverging cone and a long stinger. It did not slide (1964??). My D in '67 had short megaphones. My C in '69 had a "tin can" and I didn't slide it. Some used a foot pedal. My guess is that the Anzani had a solonoid.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

I remember some smaller Konigs with front mounted magneto with megaphones and even with real long exponential horns like air horns offs a highway desiel tractor/18 wheeler.

Back then it was the Anzani As and especially the Bs that caught some much attention and neck sprains. There were the Quincy piped and padded block Merc 30Hs and 55Hs in C and D back then that seemed tuned to the melting point pistons wise. They did not seem to last. It was amazing to see so many of them really go and then on what seemed to be the third lap, stop with a meltdown and they sure hauled just before that happening.

Even back then when it came to the pits, the 2 cylinder Alky guys stuck together as a mini group, the same with the 4 cylinder guys and we in stock outboard for that matter. There was a certain snobishness when it came to the racers with the Merc 6s Fs. They generally all wore team uniforms/coveralls and the equipment was bigger!!! Most of us were T-shirt and jeans types in stock. The transition year when the Quincy Flatheads came out was flabbergasting. Their accelleration and sound that went with it no one forgets hearing and seeing. Back then it seemed you needed a name in racing just to get them and before long they dominated everything it seemed.

The Merc 6 banger 6 pipe Alkys like G-711 though there never seemed to be more than a couple that were running with the Merc 44s I think was E class with the 6 banger Fs was a real show between the different accelleration rates and final top ends before the turns.

Your time with Midwest sounds the like period when Don Tarnowski was the president. When he wasn't wearing officials stripes he was in an A or B Alky of some sort. That was also the days of the Franck family big racing when Mike's mother ran a Swift with a Merc 4 cylinder D Alky. That Swift D hydro of Marge Francks was restored here some time in the late 1970s was one of the raceboats in storage that was sold with all the stuff including my photo albums by that teed off wife of the drug dealing racer we had here who went to jail for some years. Only one raceboat (Giles hydro) and one engine (Merc 55H stocker) have ever turned up since.

[Tim Chance]

The place was Wabashaw, Minnesota, about 1967

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

That is quite the picture, but, the Swift hydro back around 1965ish was a low flat cowled older Swift that predated my Swift Big D whose cowl was roundish and reached forward a long log way. The picture looks like some Sidcraft? Marchetti or Byers of the later 1960s?? I saw a posting by Mike or Joe Franck somewhere where that hydro or what looks to be that hydro got severly bust up and it had a Flathead Looper on it. Marge Franck was an amazing person as was her husband Hank. Their tragedy and untimely ends struck a lot of hearts hard there, here and everywhere they were known, for them and their families. Another racer I know even has Marge's dyno card for one of her Quincy engines. Memories and keepsakes. :)

[Tim Chance]

I think that boat may have been a Baycraft. This photo from 1968 shows Mike Franck in a Baycraft. Hank Franck built all his own runabouts and he built at least one hydro that I know of. It looked kind of like a Sidcraft. 1969 was the last season I ran with Midwest and that may be the year the Franck family got their first Flathead. You asked about my tenure with Midwest. 1956 I ran pure stock with an outlaw club. 1957 was with Superior Outboard ***'n an alky organization. I joined Midwest in 1958 when Fred Petter was Commodore, next came Don Tarnowski, then Ken Hall.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

That picture of Mike Franck looks kind of like the boat Mike Kelly bought from the Francks to use with his Merc KG9. I understood from Mike Kelly that it was a Swift or maybe he meant or somehow got in that it was a Swift like "copy" but that sure looks like the raceboat that was sold out in the spousal splitup I wrote about earlier here. I kind of think I remember that the Franck racing family in the mid 1960s had cowls with open sided engines with stacks and recoils on the go. I can't think of anyone else in that period that had semi-cowled and recoil start alky engines on their raceboats. They were remarkable and always will be so, so well liked and now missed too.

[ProHydroRacer]

I'm trying to think who else is still around that would remember that Anzani setup. Pete Grycywicywicz (close enough). I'm going to the USTS race in Raleigh in a week or two and I'll see both Pete and Kay. I'll try and get some info.

Clyde Queen had a couple of "A"s or "B"s. He lives in Texas now.

[Tim Chance]

The Baycraft was build in Baytown, Texas. Gary Cirvis (pronounced service) from Madison, Wisconsin was the Midwestern dealer. A lot of the guys ran the boat. If the 4-cyl Anzani was ever on a hydro it would have been on a Baycraft. The photo is Gary Cirvis a little out of control in his Baycraft.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

I cringe looking at pictures like that from that era. Round nosed hydros seemed to constantly be outa shape then than anything like now since the advent of the pickelfork multi-step hydros. Was Gary Cirvis, Jeff Cirvis's father or near relative?? Jeff is from Madison, Wisconsin and was racing Pugh and a Konig 4 banger last I seen him in the 1990s. I got all the Quincy Flatheads in C, D and 44 cube F from Jeff in the mid 1990s. One was the Class F Quincy Flathead F-18 engine which with others has been sold after their rebuilds were completed about a year ago now.

[Tim Chance]

I cringe looking at pictures like that from that era. Round nosed hydros seemed to constantly be outa shape then than anything like now since the advent of the pickelfork multi-step hydros. Was Gary Cirvis, Jeff Cirvis's father or near relative?? Jeff is from Madison, Wisconsin and was racing Pugh and a Konig 4 banger last I seen him in the 1990s. I got all the Quincy Flatheads in C, D and 44 cube F from Jeff in the mid 1990s. One was the Class F Quincy Flathead F-18 engine which with others has been sold after their rebuilds were completed about a year ago now.

Has to be. There were 2 brothers Gary and his younger brother, Greg???, I know after I moved away from the upper midwest they started racing again. I saw them all at the Nationals at Depue and one of them had a son that was racing. I think it was Gary's son.

[deanwilson]

I can confirm that Gary is Jeff's dad. Gary and my dad were friends from grade school and lived within a few blocks of each other in Madison. Jeff and I spent several winter breaks together until we moved to CA. Ironically we both were running 700 H about the same time just in different parts of the country.

Dean Wilson
deanwilson17@sbcglobal.net

[Ron Hill]

I thought Baycraft hydros were built in San Francisco, California area??? Are there two Baycrafts? The ones I remember had a step in h planning surface and we always thought this made the boat get through rough water better....

[Tim Chance]

I thought Baycraft hydros were built in San Francisco, California area??? Are there two Baycrafts? The ones I remember had a step in h planning surface and we always thought this made the boat get through rough water better....

The Cirvis brothers tried to sell me a new boat, I thought they said they were built in Texas, but I could be wrong. And it seems I remember something about Baycraft from the Bay area. I do remember the step in the bottom. It seems like the B boat and the straight C boat had a step but the C/D didn't. It was a long time ago, I do remember that they ran very well.

[Tim Chance]

Talked to Marty Stahl at the USTS race in Raliegh this weekend about the Tenney Anzani with the dual pipe setup and we both agreed that the expansion chamber portion was twisted like a rams horn. John, maybe by seeing how the valve works you can imagine how a pipe wrapped around with the stinger about 450 degrees from the inlet would work.