1960 Evinrude V4 Starflite 75hp back in service.

[Pappy]

This boat is immaculate and so is the engine. Had been in a museum for decades. Museum was bought out and liquidated so this one was purchased and brought in for me to put back in service.
Full service done on it and am liking how well it runs. I have the Johnson version on the back of a boat I am putting together still. Have fired mine up but no water test as of yet.
Here is a link....tell me what you think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrnKe39ch2c&feature=youtu.be

 

[nccatfisher]

Running well. That was a hoss in it's day.

 

[Pappy]

Thanks!
I just saw that the comments were turned off for this video. They are back on now.

 

[MrGiggles]

That era was so extravagant with styling. Cars, boats, outboards, all just so pretty. I don't know if we'll ever see it like that again, everything is so bland now.

One day I want to find one of those that's in decent enough shape for a restoration, on a shiny tin boat of roughly the same age.

 

[Pappy]

Mr Giggles....they are everywhere out there. Not hard to find at all. Fiberglassics and the AOMCI sites are places to start the learning process and possibly procure what you want. The AOMCI group has chapters all over the states that have monthly meets. Good places to get your feet wet up close and personal.
By the way, I did a lot of running on Tablerock lake just South of you several years ago. I did precision driving for a marine photography group that did the running and still shots of over 125 boats for Bass Pro Shops. Was on that lake every morning around 4:30 AM from June well into October.

 

[MrGiggles]

Mr Giggles....they are everywhere out there. Not hard to find at all. Fiberglassics and the AOMCI sites are places to start the learning process and possibly procure what you want. The AOMCI group has chapters all over the states that have monthly meets. Good places to get your feet wet up close and personal.
By the way, I did a lot of running on Tablerock lake just South of you several years ago. I did precision driving for a marine photography group that did the running and still shots of over 125 boats for Bass Pro Shops. Was on that lake every morning around 4:30 AM from June well into October.

Sounds like a fun gig.

I have had a few, just none in good enough shape to be worth doing anything with. Thanks for the resources.

I've never been on the Rock, I'm a little ways north and can usually be found chasing walleyes on Stockton, and crappie on Pomme De Terre or occasionally Truman.

I do eventually want to run down to Bull Shoals. The high water last year prevented that, maybe this year. Truly beautiful country down there, big walleyes too.

 

[Shaugh]

Nice... Don't forget to bring lots of gas...... The Tiger Tank of outboards... 8)

 

[Pappy]

Okay Shaugh....Now a story for you!
I have run that Missippi River race three times when I worked for OMC.
Twice as crew for MIke Reagan (President's son) and once for Eliminator boats as a throttle man/mechanic.
At that point I was probably one of the most knowledgeable guys in the country on the OMC V8 engines.
For Mike Reagan we used a lightweight 37' Larry Smith Scarab hull with twin Offshore V8s initially prepped by Second Effort.
We finished the River prep for him at the OMC Test Center in Stuart Florida.
For the Eliminator we used some lightly modified production V8's on a lightweight Eliminator 27' hull.

 

[Shaugh]

That's very cool Pappy, I had no idea you were actually a part of outboard lore ! That was after the year in the photo right ? I don't really know much about the race.. just thought the photo was funny.... those are V4 Starflites aren't they ? I remember one of those 75's as a kid....2 gas cans lasted a couple hours max water skiing... we constantly had to refill at the marina... I remember tasting oil for about a day afterwards from the rainbow sheen we left on that lake...

 

[Pappy]

The 75s actually used less than the "Fat Fifties" did.

 

[CedarRiverScooter]

Pappy - Back in the day, I remember a guy saying that he put a 50 HP lower unit on his 75 HP Evinrude & it would outrun a Merc. Supposedly the 50 LU has a lower gear ratio so it had better hole shot. Ever heard of that one?

 

[Pappy]

Pappy - Back in the day, I remember a guy saying that he put a 50 HP lower unit on his 75 HP Evinrude & it would outrun a Merc. Supposedly the 50 LU has a lower gear ratio so it had better hole shot. Ever heard of that one?

Just the opposite.
The gearcase on the 4-cyl 75 is much smaller than the 4-cyl fat fifty. With the production fat fifty the fastest I have ever seen one go is 31mph. The gearcase on the fat fifty is huge!

Now....if you are talking more modern engines such as the older 2-cylinder 50hp engines there was a series of 15" (short shaft) 75hp engines that utilized the 50hp gearcase. These engines were out to the public but mainly were used to race in E-Production and E-sport classes in APBA. They were indeed fast and could outrun most of the boats in the F class which were Merc 4-cyl 85hp engines.
I ran E-Production for a while until APBA declared that no person working for OMC could run the production class. A good running E boat would or could run a steady 68mph in racing trim all day long with speeds over 70 set up for Kilo runs.