BALANCING ACT
In my opinion, 40 HP carbie two strokes were the ideal midrange outboards. They provided more than enough power on aluminium runabouts to 4.3m or open dinghies and Top Ender-style tinnies to 4.8m. Trailer boats of this size usually weigh significantly less than 750kg, including the outboard, fuel, trailer and safety gear and fishing tackle — eliminating the need to have trailer brakes checked by government authorities such as the NSW RMS when re-registering. They can also be towed by cars as small as the 1.8 litre Toyota Corolla.
From the eighties onwards, some excellent twin cylinder outboards were available that had single carbies and were easy to keep in peak tune. All had loop charging for good fuel economy. The engines were the 645cc Mercury 40 ELPTO, 696cc Suzuki DT40C, and 703cc Yamaha 40X. Tohatsu also made the twin cylinder single carbie M40C, but as this displaced only 493cc it was a bit down on torque compared to
