An Amazing Story

[Roy Hodges]

I meant one powerhead totally to port side of the one in the STANDARD powerhead position , for offset weight to the port side , for help in the turns , but, that's probably too much weight bias to port side . Total of two powerheads . it seems to me that nothing is impossible, if one has unlimited cubic money .

[Mark75H]

The advantage of front and back blocks as Konig did with the 1000cc set up (yes it was 2 motorcycle blocks) ... the output shafts (driveshafts) are one behind the other and both go directly down to the prop shaft. Powerheads mounted side by side would have to be geared together as done on the Scott-Atwater "Square Six" or Anzani double powerhead motors ... adding even more weight

[denny henderson]

Eric,

I don't know what I was thinking, of coarse the other boat was a Butts. But the accident I was referring to in "A" hydro was another wreck other than the one Malcolm was in. I was in that heat, in fact I watched the crash just to my left. I think it was Skip's gear case that broke off.
Marc, the accident I was referring to may have been in a different class, and I don't think very many people saw it.

P.S. Jim said that 8 cylinder engine was easy to start.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

You need to get Don Nichols or Bruce Nicholson on this thread. They built a 6 cyl I believe it was, radial 1100 back in the early 80's using yamaha 125 cylinders. I never saw the motor but from hearing Don talk about it I believe it was two layers of three cylinders each for a total of 6, making it no higher that a 4 cyl opposed. LOTS of power and it was raced several times, once at the PRO Nationals in Bakersfield in 82 I think.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Bill Fales' son Steve (N-77 two) has Bruce's Yamaha, but I didn't think it was a radial. I think he want's to get rid of it if anyone is interested.

[Mike Schmidt]

It is sort of a radial.....If you look at it from the top, it looks like a radial. Best description is three opposed 250 motors stacked up but twisted 120 degrees. By doing this Bruce was able to make it a lot shorter than a flat 6. I did a bunch of work on it for Bill Fales about 23-24 years ago. Six Yamaha YZ 125 cylinders, six Mikuni 36MM carbs, six expasion chambers. The deal was I did all the work on it and would get to run it in 1100 Runabout at Depue that year. Bill was going to go after the Kilo record with it. I made two runs with it one Sunday morning in Hartford, Ct. In less than 2 laps I had destroyed two new Konig gearcases. I built all the stuff to mount it on one of his Speedmaster units, but he lost interest in the project.

The design of the YZ 125 cylinders of early '80s was for a 5 or 6 speed race bike. They had very high exhaust ports for a boat motor. Even though it was a 750, it had almost no bottom end but when it came on the pipe all hell broke loose. Without a doubt, the badest thing I have ever driven.

Bruce Nicholson must have had way to much time on his hands back then. His latest creations are a twin crank TZ 250 and a twin rotary valve VRP 250. He is a VERY sick boy.....

Michael D-1

[Jeff Lytle]

He was an idol of mine when I was growing up. I'm almost 47, so when he was in his heyday in the early 70's.........Well, ---you do the math, I was just a kid.
He always took the time to speak to me, wherever we met. His rigs were always shiny clean, and his trailer had all kinds of cool centerfold posters taped to the ceiling. Remember, I was 12 Two things that really facinated me back then, fast alkys, and fast women!! (Later on that!)
He traveled with another cool guy named Randy Diablo who had a spotless B hydro. Together, in their day at the alky races here in Ontario and Quebec, there wern't many who could beat them.
Another character who traveled with Armand and Randy, was their big, grey haired pit man named Vin. He had a really weird way of launching the boats when they took off. Instead of letting the boat down, or pushing it off the stand after the driver gave the nod, he would give it all he had with a massive heave ho, and literally push the boat away as hard as he could. This usually was followed with a massive drenching, as he was usually off balance after the boat was away, and he usually fell in after it. Kinda' dangerous if you ask me, but that was Vin.
I remember coming to a race one weekend with my Dad, and off I went looking for my favorite team. They wern't too hard to spot. Large white boxed trailer, with two shiny new Aerowings close by. I arrived to greetings all around, and asked where Vin was. Along he came, but I noticed he had a huge burn on his right bicep. This was huge!, about 6" x 8", and looking awfully sore too. He told me he burned his arm on the hot pipes, and I shouldn't fret, cause it was nuthin'.
Armand had a brand new Butts there, all painted and gleaming. "Miss Pharmacie Vachon" was the boats name, and on the red cowling, was the name L'Pic 4. Somewhere, in an old Propeller mag, is an ad from Tim Butts, with a pic of Armand sitting in this boat. Life jacket on, but helmet off--wearing a big Armand smile. I'd love to see it again........Probably out of a 1973-1975 issue. Anyone?

He gave me the shirt off his back at a race once. It was his Team shirt with a pic of the boat on the back, and a big question mark on the front, and in french it said "A tu pris ta pilue?" (Have you taken your pill?) I asked him for a shirt, and he gave me his.........better still, he had raced and won wearing it! Cooooooooooooollllllllllllll!!!

About 10 years later, years after Armand had passed away, a group of my buddies from Toronto went out to the East coast of Canada to race two weekends in a row. The money was good--we were running Grand Prix--Run whatcha' brung, and if you have ever been to Canada's Atlantic Provinces in the Summertime, you'll know the hospitality is amazing. (So is the lobster!)
Henk Engels (A hydro) Roy Alexander (D hydro) Greg Hall (C hydro), and Dave Rawson (C hydro) all piled the boats to the rafters on the trailers and took off. They arrived a few days before the race, and were speaking to some of the locals in the pit area who had arrived. They all warned my friends "Youse guys don't have a chance!! My buddy _______ has the fastest boat in the maritimes, and he's gonna' beat you up bad!
My friends heard this same story tons of times over the next few days from different people, all about this guy who had this super fast boat that ran on alcohol that was going to whip us mainlanders back home.
The morning of the race arrived, and still no hometown boy. Then a sudden cheer and there he was, driving towards us in a pick up truck with a boat bouncing around all over the place. We all looked in amazement to see Armand's L'Pic 4 sitting in the back of this old pick up, not tied down or anything. It had the engine on it too. What a hell of a mess that once beautiful Butts was in! Really.........It's all we could do but laugh.

Well..........I've dragged this one on longer than I wanted to. The short ending is he didn't clean our clocks. We showed HIM, the proper way to fly around a race course. He packed up, and drove away the same way he arrived, and we never saw him again.

[Guy]

Wasn't it also at Hinton that year, where Mel Kirts dumped it real hard in the 700 Runabout race.
The flip caused a pretty deep gash in one of his Arms. By the time he (& the boat) were brought back to the pits, his Arm was bleeding pretty badly. Yet, while someone was wrapping up his arm, Mel's only comment was "FUEL IT UP AND GIT IT BACK IN THE WATER!!!". To which he DID get back in the boat AND made the "restart" of the heat (though I can't recall if he ended up winning the Nat's that year or not).

Later that night at a party (at that Campground everyone stayed at thats not too far from the Pits), I recall someone commenting: "I don't know whats more bullet-proof, a KIRTS or an old Squareblock Konig"...

Guy

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Right race, right motor, wrong boat Guy. It was 700 hydro. Mel ran over me in the second heat of 700 hydro. I will get to that part soon if I can get my new computer to allow pics to be attached. I can certainly understand that comment you overheard.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Stupid computers Or is it me . Oh Well---I guess this scanner will work again so back to the story.

Here are a few pits shots from our pits. Hey Joe! Think you can find the pic you were taking and post it?