MIAMIBOYZ

Trent I never felt offended from what you wrote, and my reply was`nt intended to anybody other than facts on P racing today and the level it is in. Remember, I got Scott Brown your driver hooked in this mess, I`m sure he preffers turning my 28 Pantera better than the 29 beak. See you soon, Albert

Lauderdaleboats

Here's my thoughts. P class racing is really hot, but as long as you have a gps mounted on the dash in front of you it's like taking a test in school with the answer sheet in front of you. (HELLO) With the short courses we run today there is no need for punching in coordinates for turn bouys. I am absolutely certain nobody does this for race mode. The Gps is now used strictly for an actual visual of your speed. You know on the race course that your either breaking out or are about to break out and pull back on the sticks. Why aren't the GPS units mounted under the dash and P class required to use a pitot speedo. This way you know you need to set your boat up so it goes no faster than you're supposed to go for your class. This GPS racing is ridiculous. I know for a FACT that P class boats are using twisted props. The part # may read 26 on the end but is it a 27??? This alone will give that boat an unfair advantage. Inspectors are checking GPS speeds after a race, Maybe SBI should hire throttle up to also check pitch on 1st, 2nd & 3rd place. I've raced boats for 27 years and believe me, I know all the tricks. RPM, gear ratio & prop calc is all fine, except when your prop is not what it say's. Your rev limiter hot wire is wired to a toggle on the dash to shut it off. It's just too easy to run a too fast boat in a Pclass and get away with it. Always remember this, your buddies in the pits are not your buddies on the race course, the gloves come off. Racers are racers and will do whatever it takes to win. We can all be buddies back at the pits. Point being, MOVE THE GPS OUT OF SIGHT.

bidpro

FYI in Key West we were not issued an APBA/SBI GPS that could have been mounted under the dash, the officials take the readings by downloading from out in-dash mounted Garmin 182. There would be no way to mount that unit under the dash, and yes, we constantly stare at the GPS to make sure we are not going to break out as I am sure all of the other boats do as well, but I don't necessarily see why this is viewed as bad or anti-competative. went through the turns faster in P-Class than I ever did in Super V becuase the mainacs in my P-Class race run full throttle all the way throuh the turn and will run away from you if you don't. I nevery gave much consderation to the difficulty of being competative in P-Class... these Guys kick A_ _ and take names every bit as much as the Super Series classes, with a lot more risk in mostly open cockpit boats.

Gregg Reichman

MIAMIBOYZ

Great point Gregg, I had to throttle the Cig harder than ever in the turns, knowing you had Rick in the boat, but not knowing that he was driving instead. Rick only has two speeds, fast and faster. Hopefully you keep racing with us in P3 next year, we have big water coming up real soon.

Albert

p4-33

I couldn't agree more... and I'm ok with this. P-Class racing is ALL about speed, AND being competitive. This is what I enjoy about racing in P-Class; we beat the heck out of each other on the race course, and return to the pits, drink a beer and talk about much fun it was with those who just beat us, or if were lucky, who we just beat.

So let's talk a bit more about being competitive. With a GPS in plain view in front of us, we all know where we are with speeds at any given instant. With all of us cranking along at 81.8mph,or 84.8, it makes for good deck-to-deck racing. Good for the fans to watch, better for us doing it on the race course. What good does it do if a competitor switches off his rev limiters for a minute to gain an advantage? All he's going to do is break out.

I believe the spirit of this thread was to assess the validity of changing P-Class speeds for the purpose of aligning each of the sanctioning bodies. Am I off base? If I'm not, the question really comes down to - does SBI raise theirs? Or does OPA lower theirs? Additionally, there's a side-issue of P-Class numbering schemes - do we keep the "P" or not?

Iron out these differences, and we P-Class racers can race whenever and wherever we choose.

Cheers,
Brian

Lauderdaleboats

P4-33, your above post, went into compass mode and broke out 8/10ths MPH for 98 percent of the race. 98%, thats the whole race you were faster than the allowed speed. Looks like a p-3 boat to me. Slow down your setup 8/10th MPH and your legal P4. Your boat either runs to the class limit of 85MPH or your in the next class. Perfect example of boats running past the class limit and holding back the throttles. How about other boats out there in p-4 that run 87MPH and they would of all went into compass mode. Your position in that particular race may have been better as they would have broken out even more. What are those words "build a boat for a class" And furhermore, I rig boats for a living and you can mount a gps anywhere you please, if you don't believe me I'll supply and mount one in your engine room free of charge. That GPS is only required by SBI/APBA so as they can download your speeds, it does not need to sit in front of your face. If you need it so bad during a race obviously your boat is faster than it's supposed to be.

TGOR

Yes, that was my intent...do we want to pursue standardizing ALL the P-classes?

Nonetheless, this thread brought up some good discussion. The P-classes aren't perfect, of course, neither are the spec classes. For those of us that chose to race the P-classes, this is the game we've chosen to play. I've heard the comments about "GPS racing" or "stop watch racing". But then when the Key West paper says "One of the closest races of the day came in the Manufacturer Prod 5 class. The top four boats finished within 9 seconds of each other." And then mentions, by name, the top 5 boats in the class, that's what my sponsors want to see. Also, let's face it, as racers, do you really enjoy watching other races where someone is completely blowing away everyone else? I don't, and I don't think the spectators do either.

We all know deck-to-deck racing is what people want to see. And when one spec class boat is 2 mph faster than another, guess what, they're not gonna be deck-to-deck for long. But all boats limited to the same speed? See the quote above.

Sean

p4-33

Holy Moly... where do you get this stuff? My boat broke out by .8 mph, for the first time EVER recorded I might add, and now I'm sandbagging and need to move up to P3? 98% of the time at WOT doesn't mean I was doing 82.8 for 98% of the race. Let's see, simple math would put me at 81.14 lap times... check Key West results for lap times.

...and breaking out is kinda like being pregnant: a little pregnant is the same as a lot pregnant. The end result is the same.

Cheers,
Brian

p4-33

Can we simplify this thread to Yes/No?

Count me in for a "Yes"

Thanks,
Brian

irace

Tell em Bryan. Most guys don't know what the heck they're talking about.
This thread seemed simple enough in the beginning.