Any of you photo collectors got a pic of Jimbo's Unlimited boat?

[Bill Gohr]

The tunnel with the 4 V-8's used to run Unlimited Hydro's?

[Mark75H]

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[Mark75H]

~

[Ron Hill]

Jimbo told me that this rig was a "FUN" ride...like a big Sport E.....except it had one of the first hydralic steering systems, and it was twenty turns from lock to lock. Jimbo said, "You'd start your turn about 2/3 the way down the shoot, then half way through the corner you'd start turning it the other way." Now days, they have this type steering working well, but Jimbo didn't like the corners...

I believe, with Gary Garbrecht runnig Hydro-Prop, that we may see the day when this type of boat returns to Unlimited Racing...

When I get out to Jimbo's I'll take my camera...Sure wish I could get him to post here...

[2us70]

Did that boat ever run in a Unlimited race and how fast was it? Also when did they put that thing together? That is the Ultimate OPC boat.

[Mark75H]

1982

Straight away speeds were competitive with the hydros, but all 4 of the tunnel hulls raced in Unlimited could not turn or accellerate off the turns like the real Unlimiteds, so they were not competitive on the course for lap times.

I think that places the top speeds in the 150-170 speed range

By themselves in qualifying they looked great.

Just like trying to run a little hydro designed for PRO in Stock or Mod, often the boat can't handle the competitor's wakes

[jjmalkow]

I read in Kevin Desmonds book they took second place at Houston,Texas in the last race of the 1983 or 1984 season.

[Mark75H]

It took second because there were only 2 finishers in the heat, the other boats DNF'ed.

[jjmalkow]

I never heard that before. You sure? Do you have any idea where it is now?? Were those injected or the 8 carb motors?

[WharfRat]

Sam is correct. I was on the race course committee for that race & had the pleasure of watching from the middle of the course.

Another quirky event one of those years was when Chip Hanoer (sp?) was driving the Atlas Van Lines boat & bumped into someone in the turn with minimal damage, but, knowing the race would automatically be stopped, he jumped in the water "claiming" he thought his boat was sinking. Since Miss Bud was in the lead, Bernie Little was highly POed that the race was stopped & gave Chip a chance to bring his boat in for repair. I picked up a piece of Chip's boat out of the water & wanted to get it autograghed by him, I was still young & didn't have the guts thinking he might be offended by it.

Scott

[Raceman]

One of the tunnels that was rigged with multiple V8's burned to the ground in a highway accident. Not sure if it was the U boat or one of a couple of dual engined OPC's that were done.

[helmetguru]

actually the coolest part of the whole deal was Renato in a highly modified F1 boat with two badass V8 Evinrudes. The minimum length for unlimiteds back then was 35 feet so he had to come up with these big fiberglass wings to put on the boat...it was brutally fast but the waves put out by the non turbine thunderboats were too big for him to turn in....i spent most of my time on Jimbo's hauler watching the races...it was very cool...it was billed as the Unlimited World Championships and had a feild of almost 20 boats.