Cary 50

No, I am not Shazam. Of the other Cary owners I knew none manufactured kit cars.

kit cars

yep...mark smith..founder of factory five

cars boats planes bikes...all the same

m

Cool. I'm a big fan of your work.

Regarding the different drive systems of a Cary 50; how does a conventional twin diesel engine installation, rudders, props, shafts and struts system compare with surface drives or the 4 Mercruisers in terms of speed for the same horsepower? Kind of long sentence!! Someone I spoke to a couple of years ago indicated that if I were to use a conventional props, shafts and strut system in my Cary 50, I might get better performance if I used V-drives for transmissions and placed the engines in the stern. Any input would be appreciated!

They were wrong. There was a 50 that originally had four Renault diesels with surface drives that was repowered with a pair of 8v92's with v drives and conventional shaft drive. Engines sat too high in the boat, hatch had to get rebuilt, strange shaft angle, etc. the boat ran like crap and then after a small fortune was invested in it somehow the boat sank and the insurance company paid out a fortune on it. Back in the 70's Cary built several boats with straight shafts but the engines were located under the forward cockpit rather than all the way aft.

straight shaft numbers

Curious on straight shaft numbers here as well. Don't get me wrong...I love surface drives...but maint wise a big straight shaft fan on ocean boats. A set of 750 horse detroits and shafts...I wonder how fast in the early boats? Most of them had 450 horse engines.

mark

Right but with the early boats if not all had the engines located midships. Trust me, the diesels with v drives was a disaster.

straight shafts

Agree re v drives...question I have is how fast were the straight shaft engine forward Cary 50's? The ones I have seen with 450 horse engines I figure were just over 30 knots...anybody have any experience with the twin engine diesel cary other than the man powered build it?

M

I've driven the last one built that had 12 cylinder MTU's with arnesons. The boat was a beast.

Hi all, looking for a cleat from the old Cary 50. Any idea where I can find one?

Thanks

I love those cary 50s,ever since i saw it in that episode of miami vice "great mc carty" never been up close to one but only saw them in pics