Mercury Pulls The Plug??

[Pete B]

build it, sponsor a team, bring a support rig, put up prize and contigency funds... you do that, I am sure race series will take it seriously.

I think you hit the nail on the head. Is there other equipment that can compete, YES. Will they put up the $$$ ????? the million dollar question!

 

[ILMORdude]

build it, sponsor a team, bring a support rig, put up prize and contigency funds... you do that, I am sure race series will take it seriously.

If it were 1995, im sure it would be no big deal, but today is a different story. ILMOR designed a motor from paper to the front row of indy in like 7 months. Then it was BANNED because it was an unbelievable engine that made stupid power. C Spray will chime in now. But these days, fun projects like that cant happen. But it would be oh so cool to do, sponsor, support rig, and put up money and have a riot all the people at the races!!

 

[Sean H]

If it were 1995, im sure it would be no big deal, but today is a different story. ILMOR designed a motor from paper to the front row of indy in like 7 months. Then it was BANNED because it was an unbelievable engine that made stupid power. C Spray will chime in now. But these days, fun projects like that cant happen. But it would be oh so cool to do, sponsor, support rig, and put up money and have a riot all the people at the races!!

Then I think it is a bit of a pipe dream to think that a manufacturer is going to be in a supercat or supercat lite type class if they are unwilling to support the racers or series. There are politics in all racing, if that is your reason for not racing, then why even bother? From F1 all the way down to Saturday night dirt track racing there are politics, that goes hand and hand with racing.

Take KW last year for example. We went over on Friday. Mercury got us going again for Sunday. Without a semi full of parts and 3 or 4 techs help, we would not have made it out for Sunday. What would of happened if that was an ilmor boat? or sterling? I am guessing a pat on the back and "sorry buddy".

Take reliable in kw for the other example, they lost an engine, if it wasn't for jimmy and spare engines for talk'n trash, reliable wouldnt have made it back out. mike was there (and i like mike), but other than moral support, he wasn't much help.

So when these other companies jump up and down and say "let us in, let us in", yet want to do nothing to support it, just sell product, I always chuckle a little.

So with Mercury Racing/Brunswick issues, this is a great time for somebody to step up, will anybody? I doubt it.

 

[Ryan Beckley]

Great post Sean !!!

 

[ILMORdude]

Then I think it is a bit of a pipe dream to think that a manufacturer is going to be in a supercat or supercat lite type class if they are unwilling to support the racers or series. There are politics in all racing, if that is your reason for not racing, then why even bother? From F1 all the way down to Saturday night dirt track racing there are politics, that goes hand and hand with racing.

Take KW last year for example. We went over on Friday. Mercury got us going again for Sunday. Without a semi full of parts and 3 or 4 techs help, we would not have made it out for Sunday. What would of happened if that was an ilmor boat? or sterling? I am guessing a pat on the back and "sorry buddy".

Take reliable in kw for the other example, they lost an engine, if it wasn't for jimmy and spare engines for talk'n trash, reliable wouldnt have made it back out. mike was there (and i like mike), but other than moral support, he wasn't much help.

So when these other companies jump up and down and say "let us in, let us in", yet want to do nothing to support it, just sell product, I always chuckle a little.

So with Mercury Racing/Brunswick issues, this is a great time for somebody to step up, will anybody? I doubt it.

Well first of all, it was more of a "it would be cool if" statement about a high revving V10. Im an engine tech, not the decision maker for our company. We sell engines for the performance boating community and have never seriously tried to "tap" into boat racing in the states. As for customer service, considering we sent people all over the country replacing a whole bad batch of springs in less than a week, so yes we pat our customers on the back. But we said "happy boating" after we fixed everyone in 5 states on the other side of the county. Our manager and myself have been in owners personal garages helping them in the engine compartment. We havent focused on racing or asked to be let in. Im sure if our people wanted to race here, it would happen. We sell to the performance boater and sometimes the occasional "wanna be different racer." I love boat racing and wish the diff. series could find a common platform and everyone could race like hell together. :seeya:

 

[Sean H]

Well first of all, it was more of a "it would be cool if" statement about a high revving V10. Im an engine tech, not the decision maker for our company. We sell engines for the performance boating community and have never seriously tried to "tap" into boat racing in the states. As for customer service, considering we sent people all over the country replacing a whole bad batch of springs in less than a week, so yes we pat our customers on the back. But we said "happy boating" after we fixed everyone in 5 states on the other side of the county. Our manager and myself have been in owners personal garages helping them in the engine compartment. We havent focused on racing or asked to be let in. Im sure if our people wanted to race here, it would happen. We sell to the performance boater and sometimes the occasional "wanna be different racer." I love boat racing and wish the diff. series could find a common platform and everyone could race like hell together. :seeya:

and i wasn't picking on you guys in particular, from what i have seen, you guys make a great product, you could just put "company x" in there instead...

 

[Geronimo36]

Positive spin...... Hopefully when Illmore sells enough packages to support an extravagent marketing budget, they'll be able to support the race series!

This is why mercury also charges $100K+ for the 1075SC's... money has to come from somewhere...

but look what happened... economy crashes....money isn't flowing like water thru the customers anymore (SeanH, hopefully you sold your crude before taking a bath..can't say I didn't say so years ago. ) ....marketing (race support) is slashed and all the sudden everyone say's... why the f' would i ever pay $100K+ for these egnine packages?

 

[Sean H]

Positive spin...... Hopefully when Illmore sells enough packages to support an extravagent marketing budget, they'll be able to support the race series!

This is why mercury also charges $100K+ for the 1075SC's... money has to come from somewhere...

but look what happened... economy crashes....money isn't flowing like water thru the customers anymore (SeanH, hopefully you sold your crude before taking a bath..can't say I didn't say so years ago. ) ....marketing (race support) is slashed and all the sudden everyone say's... why the f' would i ever pay $100K+ for these egnine packages?

futures are only 90 days, no worries, even got to short it on the way down... :sifone:

and whatever dealer told you 100k+ for a 1075 was screwing you, not mercury. you can almost get the whole engine/trans/gimble/drive for that.

 

[ILMORdude]

and i wasn't picking on you guys in particular, from what i have seen, you guys make a great product, you could just put "company x" in there instead...

Word. I just know what a great company i work for and had to state a few facts. I'd love for our new package to take off and we could go big time racing. :cheers2:

 

[Geronimo36]

and whatever dealer told you 100k+ for a 1075 was screwing you, not mercury. you can almost get the whole engine/trans/gimble/drive for that.

I was speaking of the whole package..... Way overpriced...

No dealers for me...I used to be a mechanic at a Mercruiser shop.....mark-up's are rediculous....

 

[tarzan]

merc rules

 

[2112]

So when these other companies jump up and down and say "let us in, let us in", yet want to do nothing to support it, just sell product, I always chuckle a little.

.

Just asking, Does Mercury provide service and parts as part of the original equipment purchase price?

.

 

[Sean Stinson]

I had a brief conversation with a rather large parts house and came to the conclusion it wasn't financially feasible!!!!

 

[MOBILEMERCMAN]

Just asking, Does Mercury provide service and parts as part of the original equipment purchase price?

.

What they did do was provide service and availability of parts. Labor was gratis parts available at a racers price.

It was very nice to have their support.

 

[Uncle Dave]

and i wasn't picking on you guys in particular, from what i have seen, you guys make a great product, you could just put "company x" in there instead...

Insert company X?

What other performance propulsion company in our industry has made a larger commitment than Ilmor over that last 5 years?

Its Merc and Ilmor with no one else in sight.

Uncle Dave

 

[2112]

What they did do was provide service and availability of parts. Labor was gratis parts available at a racers price.

It was very nice to have their support.

That does take cubic $$$$

.

 

[Sean H]

Insert company X?

What other performance propulsion company in our industry has made a larger commitment than Ilmor over that last 5 years?

Its Merc and Ilmor with no one else in sight.

Uncle Dave

Since this thread is about offshore racing, I would ask what commitment?

There isn't even a US team that runs their products here.

 

[Sean H]

That does take cubic $$$$

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and not only was the labor free, the parts usually came from your contigency fund.... so basically, it was all free.

 

[MOBILEMERCMAN]

and not only was the labor free, the parts usually came from your contigency fund.... so basically, it was all free.

The best part was their willingness to help. Ask and help came running.

There were all great guys. I will miss them.

Some have been adopted to teams so they are still a part of the show.

 

[BradH]

Having the Merc truck eliminated the need to carry so many spares. I think it will change the way many people prepare for the races.