1960 - EVINRUDE World Records

[HRTV]

LIQUID NIRVANA Video Site

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Here are two world records made at Lake Havasu, Arizona in 1960. The 1st is the Class F Runabout weighing in at 785 lbs (60lbs more than required) & 15' long with driver & passenger Hu Entrop. It was powered by an Stock EVINRUDE 75hp V4 with stock Magneto Ignition & HUBBELL gearcase. It was fueled by regular fuel & oil. APBA sanctioned World Record speed was 78.962 mph. The 2nd was the UNLIMITED WORLD Record set by STARFLITE III, driven by Hu Entrop. A 3 point Hydroplane powered by a stock block Evinrude 75hp fitted with "Stackers" aka "Megaphones" & running regular fuel & oil.

[Steve Warnock]

Great Video

Dan,

GREAT vintage historical video.

Thanks for sharing!

Steve
Warby

[sam]

It is cool, I'm not certain Entrop was the passenger in Chuck Parson's boat; I thought he didn't do much without his glasses on.

As far as these being "World Records" they were NOA "World Records" not recognized by APBA or UIM, if you try to look them up and can't find them, that's why.

Its funky that this clip got the pic from the earlier clip with Starflite Too as the cover image. Starflite Too had the same single megaphone exhaust we see on Parson's runabout and kept the magneto in the normal position in the middle of the V between the banks of cylinders where the pipes are on the Starflite III motor.

Starflite Too had gone 114+ mph besting Entrop's own previous record set with a Merc inline 6 at 107+.

Between Starflite Too and Starflite III Burt Ross had upped the APBA and UIM class X speed record to 115+ mph with another Merc inline 6 driving a boat built at the Jones shop in Seattle.

Both Starflite boats and Parson's Chuckwagon may have had some financial help from Ralph Evinrude's personal checkbook. A few years later when they were running still another boat named Starflite IV it was obvious that Evinrude/OMC money was involved and the racing scene was about to change.

[Skoontz]

great footage Dan.

We had a poster of Starflite Too, 3 and 4 hanging in the showroom of our boathouse. At the lower right hand corner of the Starflight 4 poster, was shot of the crew starting the boat, rope wrapped around the flywheel and at the transom was a little guy about 5'2" tall nick named "mouse" who was at our house drinking beer the weekend before the crew left for Havasu to shatter the standing record.

As a kid being able to see that engine with all of it's polish was amazing to me, and every time dad and I were allowed into Mr. Eppels office he knew I loved stories about Starflite 4, and would break out a few of his many pictures and tell me about them.

I always loved the old footage of Starflite movies, and almost could hear the cheesy voice over as we wound down the road to Havasu Landing.

Does anyone know the part of Lake Havasu the Starflite boats launched at?

[sponsonhead]

Even more great viewing!

Awesome video to see, and after a weekend of seeing what it took to make an outboard run in the 120's, it really makes you realize how talented these guys were to do it 50 years ago.

If you go to the Liquid Nirvana Site, you'll also find viewing of the Starflite IV Gerry Walin record run in 1966

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And Bob Wartinger's Kilo record in 1989:

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And a few other OMC video gems as well.

R-19

[HRTV]

I love the old vintage clips