DIRTY LAUNDRY TEE

March 1991: Keith Eickert's enterprise thrives on crafting robust marine engines, exemplified by the formidable twin 496-inch, 810-hp engines propelling renowned offshore vessels like Joe Mach's Dirty Laundry – Mach presides over a network of 26 dry-cleaning establishments in St. Louis, Missouri.

Distinguishing a marine engine from its drag race or street counterparts is its endurance in an environment where a throttleman, such as W. Harold "Smitty" Smith in this case, manually regulates the RPM for hours on end.

These engines, Chevy clones born out of the abundance of Bow-Tie-based components and accessories, peak in torque at 4500 RPM and horsepower at 6200 to 6400 RPM. These figures notably diverge from those of drag racing engines. They feature gentler cam timing, stainless valves, steel rods, robust pins, reduced static compression ratios, lower water temperatures, and fuel injectors replacing carburetors since the ocean's erratic surface conditions play high-speed havoc with carburetor floats.

Speaking of speed, vessels like Mach's 42-foot-long, 12-foot-wide, twin-hull catamaran, engineered by Michael Peters and constructed from aircraft-grade aluminum by Cantieri Uniti Viareggio (CUV), an Italian firm, can achieve speeds exceeding 120 mph. To withstand such velocities, Mach's boat boasts optically precise Lexan bubble canopies originally designed for F-16 fighter jets. Indeed, the Mach/Smith Dirty Laundry duo dominates as the nation's premier Open (UIM I) Class boat.