...................Dr. Les Cahoon.....no L, but good catch.

Actually Les didn't start at Merc until sometime in the mid 70's after the 2 teams were consolidated and Merc was racing the T-3. I think the type IV and type VI SSM's are credited to him.


I have found the difference between the first Twister and the Twister-1 as well. The original Twister featured the "cow bell" side exhaust that turned down the side of the motor in a side chamber but did not reenter the leg; instead it goes straight out the bottom of the side chamber. The Twister-1 has the redesigned leg where the exhaust comes out to a side chamber and reenters the housing and exits through the SuperSpeedmaster's exhaust outlet below the cavitation plate.

and through some holes in the center section.

Or one large hole like this

T2x is right, all the Twister-1's you will find with one rectangular or two round exhaust outlets in the center section are US versions, it was the European version (that we are unlikely to see in the US) went out the SSM outlet....lower and quieter.

Merc ad from the APBA rulebook:

You 2 are driving me crazy on memory lapse.The Dr. I remember wasn't Les Calhoun but someone else that my memory lapse is forgetting. He did a lot of the super secret mystery stuff and they were referred to as Dr. --------? motors. I have all this somewhere at home but I'm stuck at the Ft. Lauderdale Show now with no in-line sixes anywhere and nobody old enough to ask.

Magic:

Dr. Les Cahoon.......not Les Calhoun...was, in fact, Merc's secret genius........

The motors you're referring to are Doctor Hledin's motors....Peter's (Skater builder)brother from Montreal who made some neat aftermarket 6 carb manifolds for later v-6's.... and who, to this day, makes amazing outboard power.....but has never been a Mercury employee.


T2x

Could the doctor y'all are referring to be Charlie Strang? I've heard him referred to as Dr. Strang by a number of old Merc folks, but never knew for sure if he had a PHD or if it was just a nickname of respect.

I posted this on Scream and Fly also, but I've never seen an original Twister that didn't have the exhaust log re entering the housing. I have both and early and a late one, as well as a Twister 1 and they all re enter. I've also never seen a Twister of either configuration that didn't have the slotted hole in the back of the mid. All of the T2's I've seen or owned had the two round holes in the back of the mid. One of my red striped Twisters is very early and dumped water from the top of the log, while the later one dumps from the bottom.