Wow..finally I have great pictures of one of the most brutal tunnel boats ever. Renato Molinari in his 2 X F1-V8 powered Molinari he raced in the unlimited hydroplane class. The race was run at Clear Lake outside Houston, Texas 1983.
Thanks to Fabio Porta.
Team Molinari in front of the brutal Molinari boat with twin racing F1-V8 outboards.Renato without a shirt next to Ric McChesney from OMC. Mouse I think on the far right.
Great memories and a perfect timing by LOZ Screen Printing in Camdenton.
Abby (the owner) called this morning and told me a small number of the newly made classic racing t-shirts Evinrude/Huzells in Sweden made 1973 was ready to be picked up.
This popular t-shirt was sold in the thousands back in 1973/74 and 75 by Evinrude/Huzells.
To dealers, at the boat shows and at the races by me.
There was many colors to pick from back in the seventies.
I made three colors so far.
Huzells also got the famous Abba involved in supporting me and Evinrude. The third picture is ABBA back in 1973 and you can see Bjorn Ulveus is wearing my yellow/blue racing shirt.
July 15 1973 is the day everything changed in my life. By far my best boat racing day ever. The race boat on the t-shirt is the one that made this amazing story possible.
“A Swedish success, “propped into racing” by a Norwegian 1973”
After a few years in the Sport, a big possibility opened up in the winter 1972/73. Hans Holmen who worked for Evinrude Sweden called me and said that Huzells and Evinrude has picked me and one other Swede to get the new Evinrude 65 SS ( for free) that was designed to be a winner in the SE class.
One condition, I have to buy a new SE Cat from Italy. There was two choices, Abbate or Clerici and I picked Clerici without really a good reason.
We where late to order, but Clerici promise to have the boat ready in June that summer, but that was OK because OMC was late with the new 65 SS also.
I friend of mine lent me and older Schultze cat and I used my stock Evinrude 65 hp. At the Swedish Championship in Torsby, Varmland, I ended up around fifth.
Me and my dad Roland took the Coffee delivery truck and headed to Cremona, Italy with a big bag full of Lire (Italian Cash) to pick up the new very good looking cat.
Back to Sweden to install the brand new 65 SS Evinrude, that had just arrived.
There was one big problem, this engine was using left hand props, and there was not many around. I found one 2 blade prop used for the Mercury BP’s, but not very fast at testing.
The big race of the year was the European Championship in Lappeenranta Finland and OMC’s Racing boss Jim Wagner had a lay over in Stockholm, on his way to Finland with Roger Jenkins #56 Clerici/Evinrude boat (last picture). I got the opportunity to test factory driver Roger Jenkins propellers in Sweden and my boat was flying.
This was a 3 blade cleaver left hand rotation and Jim Wagner promised me that if I showed up in Finland he was going to let me use Roger Jenkins spare prop.
Me, Holmen and friend Curre took the ferry to Finland and when we arrived at the race there was 45 boats with Mercury, Carniti, Konigs, Evinrude and Johnson engines, but Roger Jenkins refused to let me borrow any of his/OMC’s propellers.
I was very disappointed and was walking around in the pit, when I ran in to Tor Smith Ingebrittsen from Norway. He had an older home built boat, and he showed me his prop that looked like the one Jenkins used. We made a deal and exchanged props with a handshake.
There was no time for testing and when they dropped the green flag I was flying through the field and after a few laps I lead the race and pulled away. I won the heat with half a lap, and everybody went crazy regarding my prop. Many drivers offered my new friend from Norway lots of money for his prop, that he lent me but he was cool and said it belongs to Lars. Next heat the Italian drivers was trying to run me over in the start, and later pushed me up on one of the turning buoys and I was disqualified and had some damage to the boat but we fixed that overnight.
I do not remember the third heat, but I had to win the last one, and I did.
I was now declared the winner and the new 1973 European Champion, and Jim Wagner was forced to come over to my boat and congratulate me. Lars and his friends had the biggest after race party they have ever seen in Lappeenranta. (Roger Jenkins left early for the airport)
This was the beginning of my professional boat racing carrier and my Outboard Business success.
Thanks to everybody helping me.
Evinrude CCC Race Engine Facts
1976 OMC released the new V6 CCC. This was a 2.448 liter cross-flow engine and was based on the production powerhead with the same 2.448 liters. (Renato Molinari and Bob Hering drove this engine to victory in Parker 9 hours 1977.)
1978 OMC introduced the brand new purpose-built 3 liter “looper” V6 with fuel injection.This engine was also called CCC but a completely different animal from the first CCC. (Cees van der Velden won the Paris 6 hour race with this engine. 1979. Beating the Merc T4.)
1981 OMC introduced the baddest of them all in – the new purpose-built 3.5 liter V8 looper. No..it was not two more cylinders on top of the 3 liter V6 powerhead – then it would have been a 4 liter. The V8 was 3.5 liters.
The picture shows the 3 liter V6 looper. This CCC V6 used a special engine cover. The CCC cross-flow used a production type engine cover.
May 28 2020.
BRP.. the owner of the Evinrude brand decided yesterday not to build any more outboards. (for now)
In my opinion BRP should have stopped building Evinrude outboards a few years ago..!!
Here is why..the top man in charge Jose Boisjoli is still there after 19 years.I guess Mr. Boisjoli don’t understand the marine power business and that’s no problem if you hire the right people to run the Evinrude division.
Well..did he do so…the answer is pretty easy…NO.
2014 BRP asked me to be an Ambassador for the Evinrude brand. I was honored and was extremely excited..The G2 was introduced and BRP was promising too let the world know how great the cleanest piston outboard was by lots of advertising / promoting of the new clean 2 stroke.(did never happen)
Pretty soon I run in to plenty of issues as an Ambassador.
People and dealers from all over America and the world was contacting me about for them important stuff. In a very nice way I informed the BRP top management what was going on out there.
Well..they did not really want my input.
You could tell by miles BRP did not know how to marketing the new G2 outboard. Both Mercury and the Yamaha leaders was much smarter and cut Evinrude out from all the large boat factories.
Not sure how many times I told BRP we need bigger and more powerful Evinrude Outboards..and a much better Marketing Director.
I guess the man in charge at Evinrude Engineering was only interested in developing smaller outboards when the market where all the money are was asking for bigger more powerful outboards.
Long story short..BRP could not do what the market asked for and took the Evinrude sign down yesterday. To blame it on the Coronavirus is ridiculous.
The only way for Evinrude to come alive again is with a new powerful owner.
Forget Penske..he is 80 years old..I was hoping for a deal with Volvo Penta 3 years ago when Volvo Penta purchased 7 Marine.
Not sure about Volvo Penta today..Its very hard to find a new owner for the Evinrude brand..One ting is for sure..marine dealers and Evinrude supporters have lost all the trust in BRP..
BRP..don’t even try to come back in a year or so.
Just sell the Evinrude brand to someone else and get out of the boat building business also..
I know..the BRP/See-Doo is still popular but a completely different animal from outboards.
To build and sell tons of outboards you need to know the marine power business.
Sorry if I made any one upset but this is my take on all this.
PS..Not sure why I even care about this anymore..
Lennart Strom raced the UIM F3 class extremely successfully for many years. Lennart won the F3 World series title four times.
1985-86-88 and 1990.
All World Champion titles was with a Burgess boat (race #21) powered by the very best Evinrude CC 1985 & -86 and 1988 & 1990 using the later FR 31M Evinrude.
A pretty hard record to beat.
This is the #21 Burgess/Mecman/Evinrude CC Lennart drove to his first World title 1985.
