The Outboard Expert: The House of Classic Outboards
Inside the collection of vintage outboard aficionado's; a Boats.com exclusive.
December 28, 2008
The remodeled living room of outboard collector Ron Lietha is shrine to vintage motors and memorabilia. Lietha is partial to "green tank" Mercury racing outboards from the mid-1950s.
When I came home and told my wife that I'd just met a collector with vintage outboard motors on display in his living room, she didn't miss a beat.
"Let me guess," she said without looking up. "He's not married."
Well, no. Ron Lietha is not married. So there was no explaining to do last spring when he hired a contractor to pull up the carpet in his Northwoods Wisconsin living room and replace it with 12-inch squares of vinyl flooring, laid out in a green and white checkerboard pattern. The green happens to be a close match to the color of the cast-aluminum cowls of his favorite post-war Mercury models.
"I had motors and parts and lots of other outboard stuff just sort of stacked up in the living room for quite awhile," said the 73-year-old retired auto dealer. "There were even a few boats in the house. And it was my daughter who suggested I turn the room into a nice display."
By accidentally tuning the two-stroke exhaust, Champion produced the Hot Rod, a stock-racing outboard that could beat Mercury. This 1956 Hot Rod 6NHR has a rotary intake valve, and makes about 26 hp at 8200 rpm, according to collector Ron Lietha. It could push a 1950s-era 10-foot racing runabout to a top speed of 60 mph.
The hard flooring makes it easy to roll the wheeled outboard display stands around the room, and Lietha replaced window curtains with blinds that can be adjusted to admit plenty of light, the better to appreciate the details of 39 restored motors. The walls are decorated with vintage advertising, photos and lighted clocks. A large lighted Mercury sign, intended to hang on a pole outside a dealership, rests in one corner. And there is more old outboard stuff in the basement and the garage.
Lietha has been manic for motors since he was a kid growing up on the Mississippi River in Buffalo City, Wisconsin.
"My father was a part-time commercial fisherman on the river, and we were out on the water every day," said Lietha. "In 1950 he bought a 14-horsepower Evinrude Fastwin that gave my us a lot of trouble. And even worse, it was slower than the 10-horsepower Mercs. So in 1951 he brought home a Merc KG7 Hurricane, and I've been a Merc man ever since, because we had the fastest boat on the river."
Lietha joined the Navy in 1956, got married soon-after, and didn't own a boat again until about 1977. Divorced in 1984, he moved north, got interested in old motors, and joined the Antique Outboard Motor Club, Inc. (AOMCI).
"Right away I was interested in the motors that were hot-rods when I was a kid," said Lietha. "In the mid-50s, that was the B Class, 20-cubic inch motors. And it was Mercury versus Champion. That was the real heyday of stock outboard racing, thanks to Carl Kiekhaefer, who figured out that winning races would sell more Mercury outboards to fishermen."
Of the motors in his living room, an assortment of "green-tank" Mercury Hurricane racers, bright blue Champion Hot Rods, sea-foam Wizards and one gleaming black Martin, Lietha says, "I'll never run these motors again. I've had my fun with them and now they are all cleaned up, and the gearcases are drained. I don't want to get them dirty again."
But there are 40 more outboards in the garage that do run, and a couple of vintage racing runabouts hanging from the rafters that see the water every season.
"I've probably sold as many motors as I've got right now," said Lietha, who does all of his own restoration work, including painting. "I like to pick up a different boat or a new motor and see how it feels on the water. It's really a disease, this hobby. I'll say to myself that I've got enough motors, but the next one I see I've got to have it."
As with most collecting hobbies, Lietha explains that vintage outboard enthusiasts usually get started with a motor that reminds them of their past.
"It starts with the fishing motor that grandpa had when you were a kid, something like that," said Lietha. "And that's usually a good place to start. Those motors are inexpensive and NOS (new old stock) parts are easy to come by. And then you start to meet other collectors, and learn more about it, and develop a network of collectors who are into the same kind of motors so you can swap parts."
And the next thing you know, you've got a collection on display in your living room.
The racing motors that Lietha collects and restores are better suited to those experienced in the hobby. They were often built in limited numbers, and that rarity adds value and makes them difficult to restore without deep connections in the hobby.
This green-and-gold 1954 Mercury 20H was designed to compete in B Class stock outboard racing. The powerheads were to remain stock, but Mercury fitted these motors with open exhaust and a racing gearcase with no neutral or reverse gear. Mercury sold the motors until the last production run was gone in 1960.
"Champion was in Minneapolis, and it built the Hot Rod for B Class racing from 1954 to 1956, and only made 350 examples per year," said Lietha. "Mercury built its last run of 5,000 20H Hurricane race motors in 1954, and then sold them until 1960. The Wizard brand was built by Mercury for sale in Western Auto stores, detuned and priced lower than a Merc. Kiekhaefer made sure a Wizard was never faster than a Mercury."
Collectors tend to stick with a brand, or a type of motor - such as racing outboards - or to an era. There is a whole sub-set in the hobby, for example, interested in what Lietha calls "polished brass," the very early models typified by a large top-mounted flywheel with a crank for starting the motor. Anyone interested in getting involved with old outboards, said Lietha, should start by investing $50 in a two-year membership in the AOMCI (http://www.aomci.org/), which gets you a subscription to the quarterly The Antique Outboarder magazine, a regional AOMCI chapter monthly newsletter, info on upcoming shows and meets, and access to the other 3,500 members with technical info, motors and parts for sale, vintage literature and anything else you'll need to fuel that vintage fever.
Outboard collector Ron Lietha with two of his "runners." He's standing next to a 1956 Wizard WM7 Super 10 outboard rigged on a 1950 9-foot 6-inch Van Pelt double-cockpit runabout. In the background is a 1970 J Class runabout powered by a modified Evinrude Zephyr, a package good for a top speed of about 25 mph.
For 30 years the AOMCI has held its annual national meet on the banks of the Wisconsin River in Tomahawk, Wisconsin. Next year's event, scheduled for July 29-August 1, will mark the Evinrude 100th Anniversary and host the 2009 International AOMCI meeting, which will attract old outboard collectors from around the world.
If you go, look for Ron Lietha to fire up his 1956 Wizard WM7-A Super 10 for a few hot laps aboard his Van Pelt runabout. What a great way to burn a little gasoline.
