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Thread: Byrne/George Taylor Family Racing History -- 1948 to 1963

  1. #101
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    Default Hi Russ and Wayne

    The pictures I posted and the plaques were all posted in the Barber M/C Museum.
    I am a casual friend of George Barber. We raced against each other in the 60's in SCCA sports car racing.

    The people he has working for him are very knowledgeable about motorcycles.
    The director of all their m/c restorations is a friend of a very close friend of mine.

    But their venture into outboards could use some help with the history I'm sure.

    Same with the race cars -- some of the stuff I see from my era is not entirely correct either -- according to my memory.
    The bottom line is the fact that Mr Barber has invested
    mega millions of bucks into his love of vintage motorsports.

    He truly is a "one off". Until you visit his racing venue, you don't have a clue as to how beautiful it is.
    The road race circuit is one of the best I've ever ridden. And the Museum is fantastic. It's 5 stories high.
    And they plan to expand it in the future.
    The entire facility is maintained exactly like Disney World.
    You have to see it to believe it!!

    Regards,
    George

  2. #102
    Sam Cullis Mark75H's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by russhill View Post
    Sam, You're right, as usual about the old opposed K40 (I didn't know there was a KR40.)

    I don't agree about the Vs. Yes there was a V45 and V50, but I don't think there was a VR until '31. What gearcase did it use? The V45 was a "small valve" 25 HP. It used a full speed rotary valve, as contrasted with the "big valves" which ran half engine speed and were called 32HP. I don't know which valve was used on the 1930 V50s.

    As for the class rule, it was definitely 14 inches. We helped get the rule changed allow the Mercuries to compete legally in the early '50s.

    I wish this stuff were better documented.
    Russ, I'll try to find you the documentation. There were both VR45's and VR50's. Some of these motors were such low production they are virtually unknown. Early rules didn't have minimum production numbers and it wasn't fair, so it was changed.
    Since 1925, about 150 different racing outboards have been made.


  3. #103
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    Default Joe Swift's "pickle fork" boat

    Hi Everyone,
    Some more of my memory's ---

    I was reading a letter posted by Sam Cullis back in '99 on the Oliver Outboard site.
    "Quote": 10/10/99 Email from Sam Cullis:

    "Although Peter Crowley is very correct in connecting the popular use of the pickle fork nose hydro design with the late 60's/early 70's time period, my research found that the idea's roots and application dates back a stunning 20 years earlier!"

    Joe Swift built a few C/D "pickle forks" in the early 50's. He didn't call them pickle forks, but we quickly named them that.
    Less than a handful were ever built. A friend of ours, Archie Golson, bought one from another owner that was not happy with it.
    Archie had a lot of luck with it racing in D modified hydro in the SEBA.
    I drove it a few times myself. It was great in rough water! While everyone else was backing off from too much lift into the wind, you just kept it WFO in most cases. It incorporated a longer cockpit than the regular Swift CD hydro also. Not a "cabover", but the beginnings.
    However, it was just not fast enough in smooth water to get the job done.

    Archie raced this boat for a number of years whenever the water was rough. Then, in late 1956, he was headed back to Montgomery from a race at Lake Haar, close to Savannah, Ga.
    He had it on the top of his 3 boat trailer. During a rain storm while he was driving along the edge of the Okefenokee swamp, it came loose
    from the trailer and off it went into the swamp.
    Archie didn't realize it at the time and didn't discover it missing until he stopped for gas about 30 min. later.

    He re-traced the route looking carefully along both sides of the road, but never found it. Boy he was upset!
    End of story --- right??

    Well, not quite!! -- A year later Archie was headed back to Lake Haar for another race. And guess what? Here was his "pickle fork" sitting along side the road with a "for sale" sign on it.
    So Archie stopped and went up to the house to have a chat with the country boy about his boat.
    Archie told me that the guy told him he found it floating in the swamp while they were out catching gators back about a year before.
    So Archie told him it was his boat and that it had blown off the trailer.
    But that country boy wasn't having any of it. He wanted money, or no
    boat. So Archie had a few nasty exchanges with the 'ole boy and left.

    End of story now, you ask?? Oh NO -- not by any means! Enter Sheriff Hatten! Now, just who is Sheriff Hatten, you ask? He's a boat racer. And
    let me tell you, he had the best of everything when it came to racing equipment.
    You might wonder "where could a Georgia Sheriff get that kind of money?" Well, not from his salary, that's for sure! He was big in the "protection" business. Remember, in the 50's Moonshine was still big
    business.
    And this "country boy" that had Archie's "pickle fork" was a moonshiner that paid Sheriff Hatten for "protection".

    So Sheriff Hatten and Archie stopped by this moonshiner's place as they were headed back home from the racing, and picked up the boat, no problem -- and no BS!!

    NOW it's the end of the story!

    I've attached the only photo of the Swift X-100 "pickle fork" I've ever
    discovered. The very few boats that were built were done in 1952.

    Geo (EZ)
    Attached Images Attached Images

  4. #104
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    Default Don Christie and the "four point" hydro

    Here's another memory that just popped back into my head.

    Back in 1954 there was a guy named Don Christie that showed up in Orlando. He talked the Hagood Brothers into opening another satellite Mercury dealership in Winter Park, Fla for him to operate.
    The Hagood Brothers were the first Mercury dealers in Orlando. And the family still own the dealership to this day.

    This has been so many years ago that I don't remember too much about Don Christie except to note that he was involved in stock outboard racing, not as a driver, but as an owner.
    He had a really "weird" hydro for the time that I dubbed a "four point" hydro from looking at the bottom design.
    It was what I would call the forerunner to the F1 "tunnel" design.

    It had a tunnel from front to back that was about 4 or 5 inches deep. Then it also had sponsons up front, just like a three point.
    The boat was only about 8 or so feet long. Not near as long as
    my Swift AB of the time.

    I remember everyone calling him "Christie". And I remember him talking my friend Archie Golson into driving it in BSH for him on a number of ocasions.

    As I recall, it was not "up to speed" with the Swift's of the day. But not
    a complete bust either.
    There was just this one boat that I know of. No more were ever built
    that I'm aware of.

    I'm wondering if any of you old timers recall anything about this early tunnel boat, and the history behind it.
    (Wow --- sure wish we would have had digital camera's back then)

    Yep, I'm an "oldie" as most of you readers have come to realize. But my mind is still kicking out all these really kool, old memory's.
    I'm have FUN!!

    Regards,
    Geo (EZ)

  5. #105
    Sam Cullis Mark75H's Avatar
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    Don Christie from Maryland was a very good driver. He accumulated the greatest amount of points ever scored in a single year in Stock racing. The only one who comes close is Fred Jacoby in the pre-WW2 era of alky racing. He still lives in Baltimore. Maybe not the same guy.
    Since 1925, about 150 different racing outboards have been made.


  6. #106
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    Thanks for your comments Sam.

    Couldn't be the same guy. This guy was way overweight for
    boat racing. No way could he have been competitive.
    He was only around my area for a couple of years.
    The Hagood Brothers got fed up with him and closed the shop he
    was running for them.
    My guess is he was a "wannabe" of some kind.

    But that boat he had was really well built and thought out. I know for sure that he did not build it himself. Someone else built it -- but I don't have a clue as to who.
    It was for sure a "one off" boat!

    My story was just one of those "brain fart's" that us "oldies" have from time to time and I thought I'd throw it out there and see what might bounce back.

    Geo

  7. #107
    Team Member Danny Pigott's Avatar
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    Default Swift Pickle

    Geo. I remember Archie Golson mostly from what Dad told me i was a little younger than you.. He said at first some people saw the Swift Pickle an they called it a claw hammer boat then i guess pickel fork.the last time we saw Archie was in Sav. Ga. around 1970 he had a C Konig. i guess most people on here never heard of him but Ann Strang Wrote about him haveing some good runs with the Swift Pickle. She said the first person to look down the claws of a Swift Pickel was a guy named Davidson he ran 67 mph i think this was in a propeller mag. that she wrote for . Few people know that Archie was in the death march of batan i think that is the name in WW I I an lived throught that, an later was in a plane crash i think it was his own plane an was hurt bad but lived thought that. later i asked someone that knew him how he was doing the guy said his wife shot him point blank i said is he dead he said no he now doing fine. i guess he was not ment to die in those days. i guess he is gone now .

  8. #108
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    Default Archie Golson

    Hi Danny,
    Can I "pick your brain" a bit about Archie and the time period from
    1962 up until you lost touch with him. I would really appreciate it!
    You don't have to publish it here -- just send it to : gwt@2oldracing.com

    I can also fill you in on a lot of stuff that went on with Archie prior to '62.
    Archie quit communicating with me in in late 62. It's a long story. As I have time I'll fill you in.

    Archie was in a plane crash your mentioned in the late 50's. But it wasn't his own plane.
    It was an Air Force plane that he had hitched a ride on. But it damn near did kill him, I know that for a fact. He was never the same.

    It basically destroyed his lifestyle from that point on. It was an alcohol problem brought on by all the pain he suffered for so long after the crash.

    I'm short of time tonight but as I have the time I'll relate his story to
    you. My dad and I always considered him a very good friend. I still
    do to this day. Archie was "way cool".
    And your right about his WWII experiences. He told me all about it.

    But the alcohol really messed his life up after that plane crash in North Alabama.
    It's a LONG story!

    Regards,
    George

  9. #109
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    Default Barber Motorsports Museum

    George:

    My wife Eileen and I want to thank you for the information/pictures you put on BRF of the Museum. We stopped there on Thursday morning on the way home from Lake Alfred and really enjoyed the visit. I was most amazed by the condition of the majority of bikes and cars on exhibit in the museum. You would normally expect that a good portion of them would be showing their age, especially those that are 50+ years old, but they have all, or the most of them, been completely restored and look like they just came off the showroom floor.

    Absolutely Amazing exhibit and well worth the trip.

    The only two down sides to the visit were faulty information on the Museum web site, showing the opening time in the morning as 9:00AM this time of year. It actually opened at 10:00AM so we had an hour to kill at the nearby Bass Pro shops, which cost me an extra 50 bucks in things that I just HAD to have after I saw them.

    The second down side, and the most disappointing to us, was the unavailability of the basement area for viewing. This of course as you know is where the outboards are kept on display along with quite a few cars and bikes, some of which are undergoing restoration. I really wanted to see that area, but we were not allowed to go there as it is "only open for special events" we were told. Evidently the swap meet you attended there several weeks ago met that criteria. Oh well, as they say, you can't have everything.

    Eileen and I were talking when we first started the tour, about how neat it would be if they would have one of the 500CC Road Race bikes with the Konig engine ridden by Kim Newsome, but we thought "no chance" since there were very few made. Lo and behold, we found the one that is on display there and it is just amazing they managed to have one. I would surely like to know the story of how that bike came to be in the museum, but the person on duty did not know the story. Looks just like the one I saw in Dieter's factory on a trip to Berlin all those many years ago now.

    We highly recommend a visit to anyone interested in bikes, cars, etc., and hopefully they will put the outboards on display with the rest of the exhibits so they are always available for viewing, and not just during "special events"

    Bill

  10. #110
    Allen J. Lang
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    George, thanks for the run down on Sheriff Hatten. Always wondered where he got the money for all of his equipment. He had the first 6 Merc with pipes I saw at a SC SEBA race. After a NOA north/south championship race in GA, as we crossed the state line in SC, the good sheriff pulled us over. After a racing BS session he said that our Ford pick up was slower than our boats in jest. He was on his way to visit relatives in SC.
    The good old days.

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