Super Swede ... Lars Strom

[Lars Strom]

The problem with my very good 1978.. 235 hp 2.448 liter was that the piston rings got stuck in the pistons.
There was two types of pistons available from OMC, one where the rings was close to the top of the piston..and one where the rings was a little bit down from the top..
Did not matter..the piston rings was stuck after only a few hours racing..

To make clear..the piston rings was stuck in the pistons from carbon build up..
and we lost some speed from that..

The blown powerheads was "connecting rod out"..!! at high RPM..

There was a balancing driving style..
The very light built ARGO cat was extremely fast..
but we could not find big enough props to hold the RPM down..and it is hard to back off to keep the engine alive..in racing...

[Lars Strom]

The last race 1978 was Paris 6 Hours and I was really exited about racing in the OZ class with a very good boat and engine.
We had the same chance to the overall win as everybody else in the OZ class.

Again..I have to give my friend Angelo Vassena, the credit for the opportunity..
He was the one putting this deal together with Renato Molinari..

Well..OMC was still in charge..I remember very well when Jack Leek told as to use a big pitch propeller to hold down the RPM to keep
the engine alive for 6 hours.
The big prop took away all the fun driving..OMC told Angelo and me to just ride and let
faster boats take the risk of breaking down.

It is hard to explain the feeling to drive Paris 6 hours..but I know many here at BRF
know how good feeling it is to run up and down the river Seine next to the Eiffel tower.
Hundreds of thousand of spectators watching..

I do not remember all the details but we ended up fourth..not bad for our first year in the big OZ class.
We was the second best OMC..after Renato/Posey.

The engine was a 2.4 liter cross-flow power head with the 3 extra carburetors..
Same block as my Z class boat used..on a racing rig..
See picure.

I only have this little picture of our # 11 boat..and I can see on the helmet that the Swede is driving.
The Saffa paint job was so good looking..

A color picture of Renatos Saffa boat.

[Rotary John]

Lars: I find it interesting you were only going 110 with the V-6 in 1978. We were running just under 120 with the rotaries on the old Scotti's in testing and over 130 in actual racing in 1973.

[Lars Strom]

Hi Rotary John..
First..Thanks for clicking in here at my thread..

I think 110 MPH was very good with a stock design outboard.
The big gear case slow the speed down and this ARGO cat was build for Offshore
with a driver and a navigator.
We where two people onboard.

[Powerabout]

sounds very fast to me, offshore with a stock lower

[Lars Strom]

It is hard to explain the feeling to drive Paris 6 hours..but I know many here at BRF
know how good feeling it is to run up and down the river Seine next to the Eiffel tower.
Hundreds of thousand of spectators watching..

.

Here is the Paris 6 Hour result from 1976...

Well done Lee Sutter..Paris 6 hours is hard to win..!!

1. Tom Percival / Lee Sutter GB/USA Molinari / Mercury ON
2. Erwin Zimmermann Austria Velden / Mercury ON
3. Geoff Edwards / Berga Halsaa GB/Norway Hodges / Mercury ON

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

Lars, re your post "It is hard to explain the feeling to drive Paris 6 hours..but I know many here at BRF
know how good feeling it is to run up and down the river Seine next to the Eiffel tower.
Hundreds of thousand of spectators watching.."

I sure was, especially in 1971 while leading with a 20 minute lead & under an hour to go, throttled back by crew instructions only to lose power in the pit turn & quit at the other turn due to a busted rod hanging out of the C.C. Keep thinking of that over & over, you know, "could of, should of, would of".

[Lars Strom]

Jepp..That's a hard one to swallow John Schubert..sorry to hear that..
It happened to me to in the OE class a few times.


Here is the result from Paris 6 Hours 1968
(80 entries)

1. Renato Molinari / Rosario Leonardi Italy Molinari / Mercury ON
2. Mac McCune / Ted McCune USA Schulze / Johnson ON
3. Ted May / Ron Hill USA Schulze / Evinrude ON

I know Ron told us this before..but here it is in print..

[Lars Strom]

I sure was, especially in 1971 while leading with a 20 minute lead & under an hour to go, throttled back by crew instructions only to lose power in the pit turn & quit at the other turn due to a busted rod hanging out of the C.C. Keep thinking of that over & over, you know, "could of, should of, would of".

Well..I guess you went back 1972 to try again..!!

American driver list for Paris 6 Hours 1971 and -72.

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

Well..I guess you went back 1972 to try again..!!

American driver list for Paris 6 Hours 1971 and -72.

Did bad then too. In the first lap or 2 the steering wheel came off in my hands. Had to use inward pressure to hold in place. Then towards the end Art Kennedy hit the sewall & cam in & got out. I had the crew duct tape the sponson & went back out & finished but don't recall where we finished. Geoff Briggs was teamed with Bob Witt but they broke a crank. After Paris we put my motor on Geoff's boat athe factory in Brugge & raced in Berlin, but memory fails me again, but think that we didn't finish.