Episode 34 - Fred Kiekhaefer former President of Mercury Racing

Fred Kiekhaefer, son of Mercury Marine founder Carl Kiekhaefer and former president of Mercury Racing, tells tales of his marine industry adventures. He owns K.Lab Design Works, a design and consulting company, and talks about his most recent project: a surfacing drive with a variable-pitch propeller that can be controlled from the cockpit. He designed the drive, called Project Dolphin, for performance diesels in the military and recreational markets. He got a patent for the drive in 2022 but scrapped the project because of the low demand for boats powered by diesel.
He joined the family business, Kiekhaefer Aeromarine Motors, which was renowned for its winning racing engines, after his father passed away in 1983. He chose to move the business away from engine building and focus on propellers, drive systems, and performance products. At Aeromarine, he created products like K-Plane trim tabs and Zero Effort Controls, which are still the industry standards today.
In 1988, Aeromarine introduced their Sterndrive by Kiekhaefer, a drive that could withstand extreme horsepower. Kiekhaefer remembers how the drive ruled offshore racing for years. In 1990, Mercury Marine acquired Aeromarine and made Kiekhaefer president of Mercury Performance. The Aeromarine drive became the Mercury Number Six drive.
Mercury Performance later turned into Mercury Racing, where Kiekhaefer guided the division to great success. He supervised the development of the QC4V engine, a 9.0-liter quad-cam, four-valve engine that is arguably the greatest performance marine engine of all time.
Kiekhaefer retired from Mercury in 2012 and resides in Colorado, where he enjoys his exotic car and does work for various charity organizations including AeroAngel and the Morgan Adams Foundation.
You can follow Fred Kiekhaefer on Facebook @Fred Kiekhaefer
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[@riverdragonmarineservice441]

Awesome, Fred is the man.

[@riverdragonmarineservice441]

can't believe this only has 500 views

[@powerboat_talk]

Yeah me either. I'm obviously not a youtube expert. Hopefully someday it will get some traction.