You take a $1,000 OMC, rob the gearcase for a Mercury. That's how you grow a class! You kill a $1,000 motor with a faster $3,000. This kind of thinking is amazing!
You take a $1,000 OMC, rob the gearcase for a Mercury. That's how you grow a class! You kill a $1,000 motor with a faster $3,000. This kind of thinking is amazing!
One Pound or Twenty...My dad weighed boats for years. He would never tell you what you weighed. He sit the scales at say 365 pounds, and he weighed you. You either made weigh or not....If you wanted to know "HOW LIGHT" or "How heavy" my dad would say, "When I'm done, you can use the scales..."
My dad is the guy that started weighing between heats....We got to noticing some guys we really fast in the first heat, and not very fast in the second....
My dad was a "BUG" about draining water...as one guy used to have size 16 boots, on the scale full or water he was 16 pounds over, no water he didn't make weight...
The "ALKY" Division, now called "PRO" really never liked guys running STOCK stuff in their DIVISION...for several reasons. One was that guys like Ted May won the Townsend Medal and didn't even own an alky burning engine...
At the APBA convention the "ALKY" guys passed a rule that Stock "Step Ups' had to meet the classes weight... In those days a D Stock's weight was about 100 pounds lighter than a D ALKY. Ted and I ran our D Stocks, and to make weight we put a five gallon gas can in the cockpit...
Ted weighed first and they tossed him for being light (HE didn't have any gas in the can the first heat...So, was way light the first heat)... I watched with "WIDE EYES" and thought, hmmm. So, I pulled my sponson corks while I was waiting to be weighed. I slipped the corks back in....It took six people to get the boat on the scale...I made weight....Ted was saying, "How come Ronnie made weight and I didn't???"
Later I told Ted about the water. He was madder than hell....Neither one of us ran D Alky again with our stock stuff....Rules are frequently written with someone's best interest in mind....but usually there are unexpected consequences. Like LOST INCOME to a club as we no longer could field enough D Hydros to race D Alky hydro....
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https://youtu.be/baOKzPnypqM
So the video above is a straight up apples to apples comparison to the current AX with a racing foot. The boat in the video is a Fralick hydro that was built and raced by Bob and Jonathan Abbott back in 2005. The boat in the video which is box stock including the regular foot has run 52 mph and weighs around 310+ with the driver so maybe 15-20 under current class weight. In talking with someone who has ran the same design with the racing foot on the AX they ran 53 mph. Now top boat are running what 54-56? How much money is being poured into these engines for the same performance? I can buy a Merc AX15 for what, 1000 or less off of Craigslist or Kijiji and achieve the same performance. It’s really time to wake up when it comes to stock and I’m guilty of it myself!
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