Molinari Tunnel on eBay
 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=190138526675

Don't know anything about the boat, but figured it might tempt an interesting story out of T2X, 7xChamp, Brownie or others. Fire away guys!

cool old tunnel boat from the 70's

Definitly looks original, it may even have one of the powerheads I built while working on the OPC team in Oshkosh. Color, motor etc. indicates 1969 to 1970 vintage. We had several on the factory team, all the same color etc.
Tom Stickle, Mike Downard, Bob Herring, Jim Merten, Bill Sirois, were the factory guys who drove them, plus we had several independents that drove as well, Jackie Wilson, from England, Fellow by the name of Clark last name, blew one over almost killed. The boats could hurt you, we used to blow them over a lot.
There were three of us who moved to Wisconsin after the factory offshore team was disolved. Ralph Seavey, Dennis Robbins, and myself. The old man offered us all various jobs at Mercury, after the offshore days, we elected to stay in racing with the hopes of being drivers.
We never did get the opportunity, as the team was politically set.
I was testing Bill sirois special 15` sprint Molinari at lake X trying to diagnose an engine misfire, when I got a little over zealous and blew it over right in front of the timming tower. Destroyed the boat, and I thought I was dead. Big embarrassment and took out one of the top boats for the Miami nationals, it`s a whole big story. It`s called stuff happens, why me.
Ralph, Dennis, and myself were supposed to race one of the Molinaris that had the nose blown off in a blow over, when they repaired it they shortened it and we named it stubby, that was our boat to run in the Parker 9 hour race 1969 or 70???
Our luck again, someone crashed there boat before the race and were given our boat.
I was the engine builder along with Dave Baier. Ralph did the rigging and Dennis built the gearcases for all the boats.
I still remain good friends with Renato, and his brother Angelo, when I was racing Offshore in Europe, I lived in Torino, and used to visit them frequently at there home/shop in Como. Used to stay at the beautiful hotel Villa De Este. in Lugano.
Those were the days, with great memories.
7XCHAMP

I was at Donzi Marine in the middle '60's when Don Pruitt brought a Molinari up the canal "balls out" and turned it wide open right at the end. I almost s**t myself, having never seen one turn before. Bill Cooper was with me, and he took the first ride. He was hooked for life (which was unforunately was way too short). Aronow and I took our turns, and were waaaaaay impressed. Pruitt was an outsider Merc team guy. All the early boats were rigged with twin RideGuide steering with the cables straight across from the steering wheel, and when they did the classic "Heel and toe" crash, the driver had his legs under the steering and broke both femurs. It was easy to spot a Molinari driver in those days, by their limp. I went to dinner at Pruitt's house with all the European drivers, Molinari, Scotti, Percival, Wilson, and Sirois, Fountain, Bentz and a dozen others. What a great bunch! They put on one helluva show in the Marine Stadium the next weekend.

Look closer..Engine is a bit of an abortion as Mercury never made a 1500 with a BP center section. The boat is a "banana" Molinari named for the upward curve of the sponsons and as Richie pointed out a real "challenge" to keep right side up.

Pictured below is the fibreglass variant of this hull as produced by Glastron.

Also pictured is a shot of Pruett stomping along as only he could on the deck of one of these ultralight beauties.

Final picture is a shot of the result of one of my test attempts at creating the perfect tunnel hull "Shondell".......:D

T2x

By the way....... here's some shots of the type of engines that Powers built..... even if he can't remember at his advanced age..... :p

Is.... that....... a........T.......2......x?

No....it's.......a ........ T........1

TEE-TOO-EX

S**t!

Man you guys are great! I love this stuff, if any of you ever find yourselves out my way and want to drink beers and tell stories, give a shout.

On a related note, we were heading out of the harbor to watch the Rum Run a couple of weeks ago and I passed a Luhrs center console fishing boat... For some reason that Jesse James Conquest popped into my head when I saw the fishing boat and I got to laughing. My wife thought I'd lost it (which is accurate, but not news). I just got a kick out of considering that name in this cotext vs. the fishing boat.

Thanks again and keep up the good work!