Cost to go fast with a bigblock jet boat, vs outboard

[stivov1]

I've been watching posts on a fb site on Jet and Vdrive boats, and am seeing boats for sale for 3k that go 90's? does anyone have a Vdrive boat? is it possible to go that fast for so cheap? are they as stable at those speeds vs outboard speedboats? just curious, thinking about getting one down the road.

[JPEROG]

I've been watching posts on a fb site on Jet and Vdrive boats, and am seeing boats for sale for 3k that go 90's? does anyone have a Vdrive boat? is it possible to go that fast for so cheap? are they as stable at those speeds vs outboard speedboats? just curious, thinking about getting one down the road.

Go to a Michigan hotboat meet and you will see a decent amount of V-drives show up (at least there used to be). They are fast for a straight line straight burst in calm water but not practical at all for a general all around boat. The flat bottom design and having to pedal the tab make them handful to operate in most conditions. There are some tunnel hull jets that are much more user friendly and some are very fast but it takes a lot of power and a good drive line to run with a properly set up STV. Most of the guys that are fast in that group have more money in their engine then I have had in my complete boat but they sure sound cool and accelerate hard. Most of the boats that you see for sale are without power.

Wamplers Lake - May 21st - NEW DATE
Belleville Lake - June 11th
River Roar Bay City - June 24 & 25th - TBA Announcement
Corn Island/Marble - July 9th? To be confirmed
Little Muscamoot Bay - July 23rd
Holloway Res - Aug 6th
Oscoda - Aug 13th
Torch Lake - Aug 27th
Hardy Dam/Hot Boat - Sept 9th-11th
Secord Lake - Sept 24th
Wamplers Lake - Oct 8th

Joe

[David - WI]

Or when you see them around here; the guy stuck the rods out through the bottom of the super-bad-ass marine engine and went to the junkyard and got a car motor... then bolted on all the hi-po chrome stuff to the outside and put the whole rig up for sale. It'll still go 90 mph... but not for very long.

[mistah_max]

david, you have a point there but its shurely no different then a guy who sticks out a rod of a hi-po outboard motor an then grabs whatever he can find and throw on his lightweight flywheel, intake horn and red plug wires and puts it up for sale as a 100mph boat.

what killed those jet boat around here is the noise regulation. period. heck you qet in troubble if you open your corsa quiet exhaust on a regular 350 engine..

those jet or V-drive boats shure have the cool factor on their side. but having that big block sticking up 2ft above the rear passengers head is far from practical

[stivov1]

yeah I guess noise is probably a big issue. here is another example, tahiti with 454 for 5k

[Capt.Insane-o]

I've passed a lot of 90 mph jet botes in a 75 mph bass boat.

[Capt.Insane-o]

It's not so much the noise, or motor issues as the gps was invented and it became hard to errrm mask 65 mph for 90 mph. It's hard to justify your uhhh 800 hp 454 going 65 mph.

[stivov1]

Yeah they do look and sound cool! I always loved them since the Great Outdoors movie, Suck My Wake! Ha but I do want a fast reliable boat, so guess Ill stick with outboards for now!

[capt bart]

if your looking for a fast , fun ''car motor'' style boat that probably won't break the bank check out a few jersey speed skiffs .

[stivov1]

yes I have seen them in action a few times! looks like fun! my long term goal is a Grand Prix Hydro! I grew up watching them, they sound so badass! I'm lucky here near detroit, I get to see them race twice a year!

[outasite]

The last 100 MPH jet that I ran was at Hardy.This picture was taken at the end of the run.He really thought he was going to get me on the big end.WRONG!
Oh,he did say "that was a $5000 rotating assembly " stroker crank.The 2.5 Mercs are expensive but a 100MPH BBC jet ain't cheap neather.

[Capt.Insane-o]

The last 100 MPH jet that I ran was at Hardy.This picture was taken at the end of the run.He really thought he was going to get me on the big end.WRONG!
Oh,he did say "that was a $5000 rotating assembly " stroker crank.The 2.5 Mercs are expensive but a 100MPH BBC jet ain't cheap neather.

lol that was fun to watch. When he hopped the wake and it spit smoke rings on the rev limiter.

[Capt.Insane-o]

yes I have seen them in action a few times! looks like fun! my long term goal is a Grand Prix Hydro! I grew up watching them, they sound so badass! I'm lucky here near detroit, I get to see them race twice a year!

There is a nice 4 cyl hydro for sale in Alpena that would make a great starter boat. Bob is a super nice guy, he has a sst 45 for sale too.

[Capt.Insane-o]

Wamplers - May 20th
Holloway Reservoir - June 10th
Otsego - June 17th
River Roar - June 23-25th
Corn Island/Marble Lake - July 8th
Little Muscamoot Bay - July 22nd
Gun lake - July 28th-29th (Snow N' Shine Friday, Lake Meet Saturday)
Oscoda/Foote Pond - Aug 12th
Torch lake - Aug 26th
Hardy Dam/Hot Boat - Sept 8th-10th

This is the 2017 schedule. I highly recommend the Oscoda meet.
I'm not sure what's going on with the bay city races yet but the Saginaw River is a great place to run.

[eli]

when they did ride with the racer at 3 lakes one of those boats were a 800 hp jet tunnel bottom ,larry had 2 etecs on the rapid craft twister ,they raced from the get go and larry pulled away hard