Quincy Looper Pics.............

**Jeff Lytle** · 12-05-2004

There was a thread started on another board devoted to this famous old engine. TONS of info, pics, and words from drivers who used to race them. Sadly,

the thread has been deleted. Far from just "Taking up space", the Thread was still active, and recieved new posts, pics and information as recently as a month and a half ago. I posted most of the pics on that thread, and figured they had a new home and were there to stay.
I had a folder of Looper pics I stored on my PC, but deleted them myself figuring they were posted in a place they could stay. Well.........that did not happen, and we have to start again from scratch.
I have a hunch someone like Sam has made copies of all the info and pics that were there.........Hopefully I am right, because it looks to me like this is the new place where they could find a permanent home and be enjoyed by any who wish to drool over these magnificent engines.

I'll be the 1st------Enjoy!!

**Jeff Lytle** · 12-05-2004

You don't see many trailers loaded with boats like this any more.

O.F.'s Fleet of hydro's and Runabouts:

**Ron Hill** · 12-05-2004

The top back hydro is a Swift C-D-F-X hydro, with original air traps.

The top other hydro is also a Swift, but a Big Dee...but SOMEBODY has modified the boat by adding aluminum air traps... 1" aluminum angle... First time I saw 1" angle was at the Worchester, Massachusetts Natioanls 1957.

I camw home and threw my brother bottom fin away, added traps and a sponson fin. Won the first race after that. But "Chewed Out" bt Referee, Henry Wagner for dangerous driving...

I think with my brother's six stud on a Quickie, no one had ever seen anyone that fast or anyone throw that much spray....hydros threw litle water until full traps and sponson fins...Wagner didn't DQ him but warned him!!!!

**Mark75H** · 12-05-2004

The Quincy Looper thread should start with some background.

I'm sure I will revise this more than once.

Back in the late 1940's outboard racing faced a motor crisis much like it does today with no US manufacturer making new motors for racing. The last racers were made in 1941, but not in any significant quanitity for maybe 4 years before that. Just like now, there were a few guys building up motors from parts and making a few special replacement parts.

O.F. Christner raced Mercs converted to burn alcohol and nitromethane and run in "Racing" instead of "Utility" or "Stock Hydro". Little by little he refined the Mercs until they were even with or beating the obsolete OMC products made in the 1930's. Just about the time he got them right the König motors started coming from Germany and British Anzanis from England. By the late 1950's your choices to race competitively in alky were König, Anzani or converted Merc instead of the old OMC's.

Converting a Merc included widening and raising the ports (mostly the exhaust), switching to a Carter N carb modified to use a return line to the tank instead of the float, adding tuned exhaust stacks and increasing the compression by welding in inserts called "pads" into the cylinder head. With these modifications Mercs pretty well kept up with the 1950's European made racing outboards.

Litterally thousands of Mercs were converted at Christner's Quincy Welding shop for customers in all 50 states and countries around the world.

At this same time MZ motorcycles first used a long enclosed tuned exhaust pipe now commonly called an expansion chamber and whipped their competition on the motorcycle road courses of Europe. Carniti Outboards in Italy built a new V-4 racing outboard using the same motor theory and pretty well blew König out of the water in C racing (500cc) in Europe. In Sweden, Crescent made it known that they were designing a similar motor that didn't need the big external tuned pipe.

With the arrival of competition with advanced motor designs, König radically changed his motors from the lumpy "cross flow" or "deflector" piston design to the flat topped "loop charged" design successfully used by his competitors in Europe. When these new loop charge Königs came to the US, the deflector piston Mercs could no longer keep up despite O.F.'s best efforts. Like König before him the only way to compete was to fight fire with fire and somehow make the Merc or some part of it become a loop charged motor.

David_L6 · 12-06-2004

Repro....

David_L6 · 12-06-2004

Picture taken at the O.F. Christner memorial race in Quincy, IL - 2003.

David_L6 · 12-06-2004

Where the loopers were built.

David_L6 · 12-06-2004

Picture taken mid to late 1960's.

**Frank Volker** · 12-08-2004

Hey guys, the looper photos bring back some great memories.
In the photo of Quincy Welding ( "The Shop" ), my home away from home, was just behind that window to the far right on the second floor. At one time, I was running so many dyno tests on the engines that we put a complete assembly bench in the dyno room.

Just for info: The shop photo is looking North across State Street with 5th street on the right (east). To the left (west) a few blocks was our Prop Test Lab, commonly known as the Mississippi River.

I'll try to get more info on here about some our development from time to time.

Frank