Crescent D-mod?

[bh/]

The July 2005 issue of Propeller reports on the Region 10 race at Everett, WA.
Quote; "Dave Culley drove his Crescent powered craft to victory in DMR" We need more info. ie; -someone has a complete Crescent that runs, and he races it. Its legal as a Dmod? What version is this? Stock gasser, gas alky ? Any body know? What/who did he beat?

[sam]

A Crescent is not a legal Mod motor in any class. Could be a legal Stock Classic and a local race committee could allow it as a step up, I guess.

[sponsonhead]

Not exactly

I believe that was a typo.

Culley doesn't run a Crescent, he runs a Scott-Atwater.

R-19

[sam]

That's even weirder .... unless they were letting him run his 1100cc as a crossover ....

[79-0-DMH-Ron]

He runs a Scott Atwater? Which one the 2cyl or the 3cyl. if He runs the 3 cyl does he have the original race engine with the belt driven rotery valve or is it a modified verson of the 63 cubic inch fishing engine. I was planning on building one of these a while ago.
Just curious
Ron

[sam]

Here's one from out that way ... a special 59ci modified with home made exhaust, home made flywheel and rotary valve removed and reeds installed

Might be the one; click on the thumbnail to see the color image

PS: I'm looking for lower unit for one ... any leads?

[79-0-DMH-Ron]

Thanks Sam.
That pic is very cool, i have never seen one raced but the fishing engine had a lot of torque.
Thanks
Ron

[sam]

I have six 3 cylinder fishing Mac's, 2 gear shift "Custom" OPC racers and one "630" looking for a lower unit. Yep, they have good torque

Jack Oxley & crew had success with them in early OPC type endurance racing out your way. I think Harry Bartalomei may have been the only one to race on in alky ... at the 1963 Nationals I think

[bh/]

S-a

I can only imagine that the reporter mistoke a three cylinder Scott for a Cresent. If so, the motor could only be a FE or Fmod motor, built from the stock power head, as the 490/630 is a race motor, [ie; as is the OMC Mod50] Whatever, us old S-A fiends need more info.
Pic of a S-A 'B' Green Hornet @Constantine

[Smitty]

Culley has been running a couple of 3-cyl Scott (not Atwater) racing engines on and off since the early '70s. One was a 59" with belt-driven rotary valve. He had it on a very nice little Ron Jones cabover, and he and I traded rides at Bridgeport one afternoon after the racing was done. My B Stocker was a little off that day, running about 59mph, indicated, and I finished out of the money. Culley's FOH sounded okay but was also running slow at 58mph, but none of the other F hydros had two good heats that day, so he was overall first! He thought my B was awfully small; I thought his F was truck-like.
Culley had a second engine at that time, which might have been the larger bore version which was the illegal for F, although it could run in some OPC class; I think he got it from Larry Swinford, and I think it had reed valves.
These engines had rather scrawny little rods, considering how big and heavy the pistons were. They were a decent racemotor for their time (late-'50s, early-60's).

[sam]

The larger version is 63.25 ci and still well under 1100cc (66 ci). The full race version of the 63.25 was supposed to be 88 hp ... even the 59 should be able to walk right by DMR's The 630's were OPC X class legal and later R class, back when OPC had classes R, S, T, U and X (restricted, single, twin, unlimited and eXperimental)

[Smitty]

When was the old F class (at 60 cu. in.) superceeded by 1100cc (66")? Late '70s?
Also, while I haven't seen Culley (or hardly any of those guys) in many years, I did hear that he had a 3-cyl. Evinrude going, and maybe somebody mistook that for a Crescent. I think those OMC triples were 49+ cu. in.. I wondered about sleeving one down to D/700cc size, finding some pistons in the Wiseco catalog that could be adapted for the purpose . . . .

[Cameraboy]

I can only imagine that the reporter mistoke a three cylinder Scott for a Cresent.

More like the reporter wouldn't know an S/A from a Cresent. I overheard a reliable source at Everett a couple years ago say that Culley was running a Crescent. I assumed that was correct information and that he still was. I stand corrected. What's cool is that I now know something about S/As (not much).

Just wanted to give Dave some recognition for his unique rig (sit-down runabout with...an S/A). He is a legend among boat racers out here, if for nothing else his days with the unlimiteds, and we enjoy seeing him at Everett and Lawrence.

I'll stick to pictures at Depue this weekend - it's supposed to be a vacation anyway

[bh/]

S-a ?

Mike;- thanks for the update. The great thing about this is that u have the instincts of a reporter to know that some thing unusual was happening,
and should be reported. The story is even more unusual in that it was not a Crescent. Factually this three cylinder 590/630 racing motor [if that was what it was] is a McCulloch designed product, and by that time
[mid 60s] were marketed as McCullochs. They were capable of 1st class engineering , but were left with such small market share as to make the effort useless. About 1960 they also made available a stock 22hp twin for entry level OPC racing. It never took off either.

[sam]

The OPC twin was the 42ci; 2/3rds of a triple - you are correct, the year was 1961. All the twin had was the 1.1:1 gearshift lower unit ... no changes to the powerhead .... but it was enough to give FGS 44ci Merc 450's and 500's fits in E

SA engineers did all the work on the production motors, Mac guys did the rotary valve, special carbs and the racing lower unit added to make the triple into a racer

I researched a lot of SAE Papers and Patents and made a lot of phone calls to be certain of these facts