44x suggested rule change

[brian]

I have been thinking about getting into 44xs but it is an expensive motor to buy. Thank you David for all of your help trying to keep these motors going. NOTE, I did not say thank you Mercury. I love mercs don't get me wrong, but Mercury does not support the class well if at all. Several folks at Mercury are very Helpful, thank you to them sa well.

Here my suggested change:

No more decals (-$100)
No more abs covers or belly-pans. (-$400-500) (Sorry Steve)
1 less gasket (-$12)
1 less SS plate to hold belly pan (-$75-100)
Keep the rope recoil or remove it drivers choice. (-$250)
Develope a spayshield better than my D-mod 5 gal bucket. (+100?) I would be willing to do.
Make no other changes to the engine.
You could run the motor with all orig. equip. Drivers choice.

I do not feel they would go faster, but they could be safer. No more plastic breaking off during a race or crash. No more zip ties to hold them on. Easy trouble shooting, less rules, it just is a useless to the engine except to keep water out. This would lower repair and racing costs!!!

Several mod guys run xs style ignitions with no problem.

This would save $950 to start with and everytime you broke one or these soft parts.

This would drop the new engine cost to around 3k without hurting the nature of the stock class, that really only has about 15 guys racing nation wide.

I would like to see a pole Admin, Please? Call it The racer's 44xs pole.

For those of you that say this is a stock class and you have to have the decals and covers...you race with a fishing engine and the xs covers and see how you do. Look at the Yamato or Hotrod no major markings needed.


Just my thoughts.

[crankbearing]

Hey Brian,

All valid points and costs, The problem is and will always be that Say you drop all those parts and you have to run a spray shield, then someone will have to make the brackets and the shield and we will all have to buy that shield from the same individual so that when installed there is a measurement to follow within dimensions.

On the 44 currently there is a spec for the faceplate spacing to the from of the cowl and a max dimension.

Secondly for the people that have spent 375 to 400 US on a set of pans and decal in the last couple of years, what then, what do you tell those guys.

I do not have the answers, I wish i did. I know for over two years I have been scratching my head trying to figure out how to fix the problem. With the addition of the parts when they arrive will take a lot of the load of.

You know I saw a fellow racer whom I hold in the highest regards and more less a mentor for me, leave Stock Outboard for these exact reasons, he worked and worked trying to put things in place, organize events, travel unlimited miles, outrageous phone bills, etc, etc... and got nowhere. So he sold his stock stuff and went PRO racing.

That 125 class is looking really good to me too about now.

How Much is a new 125 complete.

Regards,

[jeff55v]

Brian, First let me say that I do not race D stock. So maybe my opinion doesn't really mean much, But I tend to agree with you. The idea behind keeping the stock appearance of the 44xs as well as some of the other "factory" race motors, was to give the manufacturers a little product recognition. After all, they invested a lot of money to support stock outboard racing with these motors. And I'm sure we are all thankful for that past support. HOWEVER, it seems that the manufacturer support has all but dried up. So why does the APBA (WE are the APBA by the way) require owners to keep their motors' "factory" appearance? I suppose removing the engine cowls could bring up a big debate. But what's the difference if the motor is painted bright yellow with a big "NO FEAR" sticker in place of the factory color and decal?
:)



BTW, I race D mod, And I use a 5 gallon bucket for a spray shield too! It works great, just not very glamorous.
:rolleyes:

[brian]

I think the inovations and knowledge Mercury gets from it's racing support today does help production engines. I think they do support the Larger classes and that is needed. This is not a knock on Mercury this is an attempt to solve why people are not writing David Scott saying I will take 2 at a time. There is no mad rush for DS engines, but there are guys who whant to race them. The reason they are not COST.

What I am taking about is a weak Stock class that has drivers but the drivers can not make a 4600-6000 payment for one engine.

On David's notes the guys that have cowls and pans would not be out the investment and could still use them but could save them for the colectors like 55h stuff.

I think it is Dollors and cents. I do not think it would be an insult to say to Mercury look we don't just have 4-5 guys racing, but 15 guys racing mercury's, every weekend, every race, every city. I watched some of the Mercury sponsered races form the late mid to late 80's and they were cool as can be.

I only race Mercs at this time and race them proudly, but it would be nice to drive down entry fees and cost by participation and compition.

My suggestion would Hurt people Like Steve Harrington (A friend of mine) who invested his time and money to make the molds but the sport should be larger than one or two races who feel upset they bought a part that is not needed.

Every buy a prop that you don't use anymore or even engines that are not a fast as what you already have!!!

I am just making points that I think could help.

[brian]

BTW, I race D mod, And I use a 5 gallon bucket for a spray shield too! It works great, just not very glamorous.
:rolleyes: [/B]


I think is is very glamorous, I have a WAL-Mart 2.99 bucket. My Dad said to me once, "Put you money in the engine not the paint job and you will walk to work less often!!"

[brian]

Here is the Debate coach in me.

03'
10 DSR, 5 raced only 1 weekend
38 DSH, 11 raced only 1 weekend, 17 more than 4 weekends

02'
12 DSR, 4 raced only 1 weekend
33 DSH, 7 raced only one weekend, 18 more than 4 weekends


Runabouts are very small and hydros are getting smaller.

Does some thing need to change? 2k CSH too many to count.

Brian