Dave Wesseldyke has them on Jaws
Not sure of his thoughts.

Jim Dyke used them in there race program
Said you had to drain the water from the case
Constantly to keep bearings healthy.

Gentry was the first to dry sump a merc drive, the #5 back then. Then the victory team just ran the #6 with little to no oil. Regardless dry sump concept has been around for a century

The vertical shaft has some advantages in your comparison also. Not saying it's not good but just saying don't believe the brochure 100% as there is a reality beyond the hype. The parasitic drag is minimal in comparison to the hydrodynamic drag. The Weismann looks more like a kaama

How can they Ban a Certain design of drive in a Open Class?

Look here for "shifter" on the board here that's pat weismann if ik correct he should have answers and info that you need

The rules are for the most part merc out drive only and believe me merc loves this more than anything as it gives and projects the feeling of superiority in the market. Why is this this way you ask, because the racers themselves are so ignorant and fearful that they approved it. When the Aussie team kicked butt in kW the racers were quick to ban the boat and the setup as they were afraid to put it simply. No one wanted to build a new boat they said to convert to a different setup so it Was easier to eliminate the issues than to face it. Resultant of this is that everyone thinks the merc is the only thing as that's what the racers use when in reality they believed that originally themselves but then realized they couldn't face their fears and made a rule change. Kinda like religion in the old days.

Merc had to because they couldn't reverse for any long periods without killing the lower gears... PUMP doesn't run backwards..

http://www.weismann.net/Products/wsd.html ..... good info

they do now.had 1 apart,there's a slide action that goes on in the pump that lets it flow in either direction.And when rebuilding,the instructions make you test the pumping action in both directions.
Had one that only pumped in 1 direction,,was a burr from the blow up that we didn't catch the first go around.

So if a guy was going to re-rig a mid 700hp Bravo boat would you go WSM or Arneson?

Still flying that 36 bonanza??