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

[ezryder]

Hi Leigh,
Thanks for the info. I'm heading over to Ocoee in
the morning. I'll ask around.
Regards,
EZ

[racnbns]

Really enjoying your boat racing exp. If your not busy you should come to Tavares or maybe you are. There is a pretty decent showing of antique otbds. I will have my display which is a 2man Desilva with a 4-60 for power and a PR with Hubbell Looper kit and also an "M". I also have my trailer which has the inside walls lined with pics from the 30's to the present.

Lady Lake is what about 15-20 miles from Tavares. Come on down and I'll give you the tour.

Bruce C. Summers

The dates are Mar. 25-28

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Enjoyed your Daytona musings and the B&W photos of the stock cars and boats.

You're doing such an exceptional job...I'm sorry you only have such a short time of your boat racing history to share with us. I've found a couple of articles in an old boat racing magazines with mentions of you and your Dad and John Schubert that I will post when I can. In the meantime..,

[ezryder]

Really enjoying your boat racing exp. If your not busy you should come to Tavares or maybe you are. There is a pretty decent showing of antique otbds. I will have my display which is a 2man Desilva with a 4-60 for power and a PR with Hubbell Looper kit and also an "M". I also have my trailer which has the inside walls lined with pics from the 30's to the present.

Lady Lake is what about 15-20 miles from Tavares. Come on down and I'll give you the tour.

Bruce C. Summers

The dates are Mar. 25-28

Thanks Bruce.
I'll see you there. I'll be there on the 27th, and will look you up
George Taylor

[ezryder]

Hi Everyone,
I've not posted for a week now. But I've been quite busy, so thought I'd give everyone an "update" on my boat racing "rebirth".
Bottom line? It's totally "outa control"!! But BOY, am I ever having FUN!.
Hey, I'm 15 again, going on 71!!

Attached are some pictures of my 1953 Swift A/B Hydro and Mercury KG7H BSH combo.

The boat will need restoring to make it like I want it to be. But it is in basically very good condition as it is.
And the motor is also unrestored and still has the Mercury seal on the crankcase and cylinder.
And I also have the bottom cowling for it.

I just picked all this up from Joe Welch yesterday. Brought it home. Moved it into my race shop.
Then decided to take the time to temporarily mate the boat and motor up for the photos you see here.

Am I having FUN?????

EZ

[ezryder]

Hi Everyone,
Wonder what happened to me lately?
Well, here's an update -----

As those of you that have been reading my missives know, M/C racing took up half of March.
Then the last half of March was taken up with me "jumping" back into my boat racing past in a BIG way!

I've attached a couple of photos to explain part of my trip back into my past.

The Champion Hot Rod photo is of the engine that I never sold from my boat racing days in the 50's.

The other photo is an "update" of where I'm at currently. And what I've added to my collection. I think it's obvious that I have had a "mental" breakdown.
But what a COOL breakdown it's turning out to be!!

I'm having FUN, FUN, FUN!!!

More later -- when I manage to drag myself out of my race shop!! hehe

Geo

[ezryder]

4-19-10
I stripped down the power head of my Champion Hot Rod today. I'm in the process of rebuilding it.
And it didn't take much compairing to understand why the Hot Rod took
the measure of the Mrecury 20H when it was introduced in '54.
It was "way" ahead of it's time!

I've had this Hot Rod since 1954, but had never dis assembled it until today.
I won a lot of races with it back then. But I was quite young at that time, and didn't have a good "grip" on two stroke technology. Back then I was more a "racer" than a mechanic.

But over the past 40 years of my racing 2 storkes, I've become a lot more knowledgeable of what makes a 2 stroke produce lots of power. So opening up this piece of my "past" was like opening up a "time machine" for me!

Here's the reasons I consider it to be ahead of it's time. And I've included photos to support my views.

Reason #1: It uses rotary valve induction. And that is a huge plus!
Reason #2: Look at the pictures of the exhaust ports. The Mercury 20H
had only three holes. The Champion had four!
Reason #3: Look at the pictures of the intake ports. The Hot Rod only used two intake ports, but their total intake area was at least 20% more than the 20H.
Reason #4: I can't support this claim, but it makes sense to me. Just by "blind luck", the designers of the Hot Rod just happened to "resonate" the exhaust system, which produced a bit more power to go with all the
other subtle improvements they had built into their engine.
Reason #5: Their entire engine package weighed almost one half what the
20H weighed. Think about it --- the less weight on the back of the boat, the higher it could ride out of the water!

Oh, by the way -- Ain't it just a "thrill" to have to keep track of 64 bearings for each "cracked" rod!

For you "old timers", exactly what IS a "cracked rod"?? hehe
I'll buy the first guy with the right answer a 6pack next time we meet! hehe

Ok, guys -- now it's time for you to "shoot me down" on my observations!

EZ

[ezryder]

Much to my surprise! As I dis assembled the rods I discovered that the rod bolts were METRIC in size!
EZ

[Mark75H]

A cracked rod is formed as one piece and broken into 2 for the big end split. The broken edges match back up to bolt together.

An odd thing about the 20H specs a lot of places ... it is incorrectly listed as weighing 3 times as much as a Hot Rod where the real weight difference is closer to half.

I think you are correct on all counts.

[BRIAN HENDRICK]

I think the Webester that you are talking about is John .He still shows up at boat races and might be at Ocoee.
Leigh

John Webster is very much alive and lives on a lake in Ontario near Toronto.
He is the current and long standing Commodore of the Toronto OB Racing Club.
John stopped racing his A&B hydros 4 years ago, but still attends most of the races in ON&NY,
with his family, and sets his 'popper' up for guest drivers.[ie; Brian Rossman]
John's son Ross won Bmod at the Nats in 2008,
and he has a grand son about to start J hydro.
I have copied that pic and will give it to him.
This pic of John is at Crystal Lake, NY in 2008.
NB; -he is one of the few that got a Carter to work, and work it does for him.