History of the speedmaster drive?

[Dunbar 104]

I know a little bit about the #6 and the #3s but what about all the others?

When did they come out?

What did they cost?

What is the differences from one model to the next model?

Where there over lapping models?

How strong are the old ones?

[glassdave]

I know a little bit about the #6 and the #3s but what about all the others?

When did they come out?

right after the Volvo E drive

much like all of Merc's innovations



I have a really cool ad in an old magazine that shows the #6 when it was the K drive built by Kiekhaffer. If memory serve it was Carl next to it in some kind of safari outfit and i believe it was referred to the Gorilla drive or something like that. Anyone know the story behind that?

[FastDonzi]

I remeber the first full size #6 was Wood (No Sh!t) it was a full sized model. I believe over on S&F theres a thread on history of the speed masters (or something like that) and yeah, check with the patent office, usually when someones patant ran out and it was something merc wanted to use they Pounced on it.

[T2x]

right after the Volvo E drive

much like all of Merc's innovations



I have a really cool ad in an old magazine that shows the #6 when it was the K drive built by Kiekhaffer. If memory serve it was Carl next to it in some kind of safari outfit and i believe it was referred to the Gorilla drive or something like that. Anyone know the story behind that?

As the story goes and I believe it, Charlie Strang, then VP of engineering at Kiekhaefer Mercury, invented the stern drive and showed it to the old man. Carl wasn't interested so Charlie back doored it through Jim Wynne to Volvo. After Volvo proved there was a market, Mercruiser debuted with a much more robust series of drives. Volvo played a little with SSM's but never really made any progress with them. Mercury had significant experience with racing outboard lowers (10 Hurricane "quickies" ( short for Quicksilver) through the speedmasters on the in line 6 outboards). The natural evolution was to build an Offshore Sterndrive Speedmaster and they followed a progression of numbers, 1 through 5. After Carl left Mercury he formed Kiekhaefer Aeromarine and tried to produce a big heavy duty drive (referred to above) which had virtually no acceptance. After his death Fred K. and his team developed the "K Drive" , which, after Kiekhaefer Aeromarine was purchased by Mercury Marine thereby closing the circle, became the #6 drive. Since then it has been upgraded to the dry sump, swept skeg variant available to this day. It is still the standard against which all others are measured and is the reigning "King of the Hill".

Giving Volvo credit for the development of the stern drive to today's standards is probably not merited as they did little more than take a cast off Kiekhaefer Mercury project and introduce it to the public.

P.S. You really don't want to compare the innovations that Mercury has created internally to any other vendor in the marine market. There is absolutely no contest, and second place is so far down the list as to be laughable.

T2x

[Geronimo36]

right after the Volvo E drive

much like all of Merc's innovations

Giving Volvo credit for the development of the stern drive to today's standards is probably not merited as they did little more than take a cast off Kiekhaefer Mercury project and introduce it to the public.
T2x

Speedmaster aside, Merc ripped-off Volvo's shiftable sterndrive with the Bravo....
http://www.volvo.com/volvopenta/glob...57774&sl=en-gb

[Brownie]

I showed the very first Volvo 200 drive on a 16' Donzi at the Jacksonville Boat Show in November 1964. Bill Steele and Joe Swift of Mercury offered me money and Ho's if I would swing by Lake X on the way home. No dice!

[Ratickle]

This looks really interesting.....


No can of worms here.....

Why the 3, 4, 5, 6, 3A, 6 dry, etc in the speedmaster lineup?

And then of course, the duo-prop/BlackHawk?

And Ben has a boat up there with a SternDrive speedmaster style drive on it.

[Dunbar 104]

Didn't all the i/o speedmasters have an external trans, where the volvos shifted internally?

[Geronimo36]

Didn't all the i/o speedmasters have an external trans, where the volvos shifted internally?

Yes, enter the Bravo 1 in the 80's... lol The Alpha was totally different but the Bravo was almost a direct copy in my opinion.

I guess this is off-topic but having worked on both the Volvo and Bravo in years past, it's pretty interesting to note how similar the shifting mechanism and cone/clutch setup is

The biggest difference between the two is the bravo uses the cable to turn a shaft which has a cam on it and the volvo simply turns the cam.

[Geronimo36]

I showed the very first Volvo 200 drive on a 16' Donzi at the Jacksonville Boat Show in November 1964. Bill Steele and Joe Swift of Mercury offered me money and Ho's if I would swing by Lake X on the way home. No dice!

Nice!

[Ratickle]

I showed the very first Volvo 200 drive on a 16' Donzi at the Jacksonville Boat Show in November 1964. Bill Steele and Joe Swift of Mercury offered me money and Ho's if I would swing by Lake X on the way home. No dice!

Nice!

Probably were ugly Ho's..........

[Geronimo36]

The OMC Stinger was an interesting drive as well.... Unfortunately I didn't get to work on any...

[T2x]

I showed the very first Volvo 200 drive on a 16' Donzi at the Jacksonville Boat Show in November 1964. Bill Steele and Joe Swift of Mercury offered me money and Ho's if I would swing by Lake X on the way home. No dice!

You declined Ho's????????

Boy! They must have been ugly!

[stecz20]

this is gonna be a good thread... never heard this talked about before....

[Nykamp]

The 41 APACHE WARHAWK was the first boat to have the K drives installed, thats the story I was told. Then my boat ALLEZ VITE was one of the next to get them.

[Tank]

WTF is a SSM 1 & 2 drive?? And what do they look like?

The 6 is the big daddy, the drive every other is measured against.

The 3 has smaller internals and the 3A was the result of beefing it up and has basically same internals as the 6 (?). The SSM 5 is a shortened version of the 3A that was built for cats (?).

This is all questions by the way. Just what I've read and heard through out the years.

What's the deal with the SSM4?

Then of course there's the merc TRS which is compared to SSM3's (not 3a's) so I've heard. transmissions and large shafts that handled a good amount of power.

Open for discussion....

[Ratickle]

Since we're going on what we've heard, and hopefully the truth will surface,


I thought the 1 and the 2 were both TRS's with a foot change only?

[C_Spray]

We should make a distinction here between the Speedmasters and the shiftable drives.

While comparing Alphas/Bravos/BravoIII's to Volvo products is a valid discussion, that is an entirely different thread. But: While we're on the subject, I guess the credit for "inventing" the stern drive should go to neither Volvo NOR Mercury, but to Charlie Strang. The interesting part is that the cocktail napkin drawing that I have seen purporting to be the concept drawing shows the props facing FORWARD a la Volvo's IPS system. Goes to show how many "new" things have long ago been invented.

The Charlie Strang story

We now take you back to the Speedmaster discussion....

[T2x]

Since we're going on what we've heard, and hopefully the truth will surface,


I thought the 1 and the 2 were both TRS's with a foot change only?

Correct............

[catman]

This looks really interesting.....


No can of worms here.....

Why the 3, 4, 5, 6, 3A, 6 dry, etc in the speedmaster lineup?

And then of course, the duo-prop/BlackHawk?

And Ben has a boat up there with a SternDrive speedmaster style drive on it.

Dont forget the SSM #7