Hi Danny,

First, to answer your question as to what I think would have happened if Jerry Waldman had lived on:
Many people that frequent this BRF web site have seen my former brother-in-law's (Frank Volker, whom I still consider family) technical postings. Back in 1971 and 1972, Frank was working extensively on an R&D expansion chamber program with very sophisticated metering equipment, including an oscilloscope, transducers and a camera while Frank was finishing up his college engineering degree. By 1972, we at Quincy Welding pretty much had the design of our expansion chambers completed. There are copies of Frank's original chamber drawings over on the Quincy site. they are also posted here on the Quincy section of BRF. We were planning on implementing their use on Waldman's A, B, C, D & F Loopers after that spring race in 1972, along with a very sophisticated water injection system that Frank was also working on in conjunction with the expansion chamber development. If all had worked as projected, Quincy Welding would have gone into production with these advancements.

That being said, my opinion of the likely scenario is as follows:
The crankshaft sustainability for the C, D & 44 Loopers at that time was probably good for another 4, 5 or even 6 years of competitive racing progress and horsepower increases for Waldman and other Quincy racing customers. Jerry would have been tough to handle for Konig, along with other Quincy racers that would have followed Jerry's lead. That would have given us time to further develop the next generation Quincy racing engines in the C, D & F classes.

The A & B Loopers were another story. They were being out performed by the FA & VB Konig engines, especially the B Looper. You must remember that the 20H crankshaft that we used in those engines was originally intended for approximately 18 horsepower, tops. The B Looper was pushing the crankshaft durability at 65 horsepower. From 1969 onward, we were also working on the 2.3 square bore and stroke super B Looper. However, we were having some extremely unusual bearing problems with that developmental engine. My guess is that we probably would have ended up either way with the Z engine, which came out in 1975. The Z engine used the Yamaha TZ 350 road racing pressed crankshaft that we eventually developed to over 90 horsepower for the Z 350 twin race engine. Mercury from the 60's thru the 70's was in a fierce battle with Johnson and Evinrude in the OPC wars and had absolutely no interest in making a new crankshaft for the 2 cylinder Quincy race engines. My dad at that time checked the cost of custom manufacturing a crank for the A and B and the least cost we found was a $200,000 outlay. That was cost prohibitive for a small manufacturing company as ours.

I think most people would agree, including his toughest competitors, that Jerry Waldman was beyond exceptional in terms of the quality of his equipment and his set up ability. I believe Jerry would have quickly moved the Quincy Welding Z engines to the front of the pack in whatever class he ran and kept them there for some time. Charley Bradley and I had some very meaningful conversations about this very topic.

I believe that Frank, then Gene and Jim's leaving after Jerry's passing had a huge impact on my father's decision to put our R&D work on hold. To put it simply, he was devastated by the losses. Quincy Welding, in a very short period of time, had lost 4 key players from the team. Add that to my father's being locked into a contract to work in Florida for Mercury, and you can see how Quincy's progress on any new engines was held back for 3 years. Dieter, being an astute businessman, took advantage of that scenario.

As they say......the rest is history.


Regards,

Paul A. Christner