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Author Archives: Lars Strom
Paris 6 Hours 1980..finally in the winners circle.
Paris 6 hours 1980 the way I remember it..!!
We finally got the second Sture Sjoberg OE class boat right and was ready in time for the big race.
Our race number for the Alfa Laval/AKAI/Sjoberg was #45 and the latest Evinrude CC engine from OMC.
My brother Lennart and Anders Fallman was racing our boat from last year with #46.
Lined up next to each other for the start.
(Red mark)
A few more picture of the start 1980.
The start is not very important in a 6 hour race but you need a safe start without damaging your boat. 80 boats taking of at the same time is a recipe for disaster.
This year(1980) was not as windy as 1979 and the conditions perfect for our #45 boat.
Fueling and driver change was done every hour and a half.
Meaning I started and Sture was racing the last hour and a half.
John Hill run in to problems already the first hour and we was more or less flying without any problem’s for 6 hours..
I love the way Powerboat & Waterskiing wrote..
Sunday 5:00 PM October 5 1980..( 40 years ago) our #45 boat won the very large popular OE class in the famous race.
Eight years of trying finally gave us the result we wanted so bad.
Here we are at the fancy dinner Hilton, Paris Sunday night receiving trophies and price money. A memory for the rest of our lives.
Paris 6 Hours 1980.
I got for me a new beautiful picture from the Paris pit 1980 with the tower in the background thanks to Sture Sjoberg.
The #45 boat in the middle is our winning boat in the race.
The one to the left is the boat we came in third with the year before. (1979)
#44 to the right is a Mercury powered OE boat..(newer a threat for us OMC drivers..!!)..
Another new picture above..its me and Sture Sjöberg on top of the winning boat after 6 hard hours of driving. Out friend Bo Nilsson is helping out with the trailer. Life was great in Paris 1980..!!
Fred Miller left us a few years ago.
He was a great supporter of APBA racing.
Jim Jost
“Fred Miller and Paul Kalb were staples in stock outboard racing in the 60’s. They both joined OMC and were in the race program”
Evinrude 31.8 (521cc) race engine.
A very cool Evinrude 31.8 (521cc) race engine built by a good friend of mine. (based on a production 20-35HP block)This one of a kind is by far the most powerful OMC/Evinrude 31.8 (521cc) engine built.
Some more info from the engine builder…
The side carb fed twin piston ports machined into the block from the inside. No reeds and no flow restriction with the side carb. The front 2-barrel carb provided the initial mixture feed, with progressive linkage opening the side piston-port carb at ~ 1/2 throttle. At WOT, all 3 barrels were full open. That way, it provided good bottom-end punch and great top end performance.
Here is the answer from the engine builder of the Evinrude 31.8 (521cc) race engine when it comes to HP..!!
“I still have the dyno sheets………… but prefer to just mention that it was the strongest 31.8 ci engine to be run on the OMC dynos, by a considerable margin”
Here’s the engine on a Yamato 80 boat we borrowed to test it, if you look up close I’m backing off the throttle, it just wasn’t enough boat.
Sam LaBanco next to the #27 B&H Hydro. This is from Lake Zurich, Illinois in early 1980’s.
Yes..that’s Ziggy (in the hat) next to the very special Evinrude 31.8 (521cc) race engine.
