Why?

NOT at all , most of your new boats are set up for top end " drive height real high " this give bigger top end # and less mid-range and also getting on plane .
750 hp with a single engine on a xr drive is no problem as long as you no how to throttle the boat . most of these guy's on this site are blowing up xr drives with stock 525's , they do hole shot from a dead stop they get air born and keep the throttle wide open . also with drives real high when running full throttle the top of the drive is out of the water heating up .
Velocity make a nice flat pad bottom boat also and is very fast , I just don't like the way a flat pad hit's the water when its rough . now in nice lake water and anything under 3 footers Im sure a big pad on the bottom works just fine , This is why Pat will build the boat either way step and pad or ole school straight V . Also less chance of a roll over with a straight V and they also feel so much better in the turn's no sliding " you no what I mean

Also they have been making straight V bottom's for 10 x as long as step , pad bottom boats so I would hate to think its been done wrong all these years , There is only one benefit of the new step ,pad boats and that is a little more speed . We are not talking anything big between 6 to 10 mph and remember they sacrifice in other area's like very high drive height poor high speed turning and no midrange punch

because they are basically the same hull as my my old 38 sonic except for pad and step , and your partner already said you would build with out them .
I'm not saying anything bad about the bottom design it just has it's place and follower's ,

It could also be the ride I went on with your old partner JAY ROSS x sonic owner builder
Maybe one day I will get invited for a ride in a A.T so I can see how it ride's with someone that know's how to drive it and then maybe I will think different about a step ,pad bottom . other wise like I said before I love the boat

mike

PAT ,Hopefully in the next week or 2 my 2014 diesel pusher RV will be sold and I will be in the market again for a nice boat , and I would think you would be the best driver to take me out

mike

How long has it been since you've produced a straight-bottom boat, Pat? I mean, when DDC was an option.

Mike, you are saying that "Also they have been making straight V bottom's for 10 x as long as step , pad bottom boats so I would hate to think its been done wrong all these years"...does that mean new technology is not better? Sure straight Vs have been around forever...but that doesn't mean they are the best option. Otherwise we'd all be driving Model Ts still.

Have motors not improved in the past couple years? Remember in the 1990s when it was a big deal to have a 1000 hp motor (and it was not exactly reliable power)...now Merc is selling 1350s like crazy as "stock" power. Technology has improved.

I will agree that high X dimensions are drive killers, but I will disagree with your over-reaching statement that the ONLY reason guys with 525s are popping drives is because they pin it on takeoff and don't know how to throttle. I have a bud that went through 4 XRs on his 42 Fountain due SOLELY to the fact that the drives were too high and he couldn't get the boat on plane. Put spacers in and he's been fine. I also know plenty of heavy straight bottom boats that kill drives due to the fact that they are heavy and have straight bottoms...

it' seem's every time I post you alway's have a ax to grind with me I don't no why . But it's all in the set up and how you drive the boat .
My 28 pantera had a 600 ci 750 hp motor " a lot of TQ" and I ran that boat hard in rough water and also so did Jo from pantera more time's then I can remember " he was teaching me how to drive the boat for racing, so the boat had 90 tough hour's on the xr with all that power and the guy that bought the boat had it on for another season or 2 before a rebuild . when I bought my 38 sonic with 525's the guy before be blew both drive's in 50 hour's I put on over 125 more on drive's before selling with no problem . It's all in set up like I said before , depending on what you want to do with the boat and the biggest is how you drive the boat .
I also had a 38 fountain ec and I hated the way it felt when turning , it alway's felt like it was so loose where as a straight V is nice and tight in the turn's , This is what I like and prefer .
I went for a test drive on a 38 zr donzi a few years ago and they said it ran 90 mph and it did , but it took mile's to get there with no mid range power at all , drive's where high and pretty rooster tail but that didn't impress me ,
That is what is so great about America everyone has a difference in what they like and don't like and can buy or have built what they do .
If everyone liked the same boat , car , motorcycle , RV , plane ect there would only be 1 builder of each , but everyone like something different so there are a lot of different builder's, good or bad to each person is different

"""Mike, you are saying that "Also they have been making straight V bottom's for 10 x as long as step , pad bottom boats so I would hate to think its been done wrong all these years"...does that mean new technology is not better? Sure straight Vs have been around forever...but that doesn't mean they are the best option. Otherwise we'd all be driving Model Ts still."""
''''''
'''''' new technology is better you are getting 6 to 10 mph more out of a boat with the same Horse power , so in that respect it is better , but all the stuff I listed before it's a trade off for handling and a smooth ride in the rough, I would rather have a 80 mph boat that does everything great with 700 hp then a 80 mph boat that only goes fast great with a 600 hp motor """

Have motors not improved in the past couple years? Remember in the 1990s when it was a big deal to have a 1000 hp motor (and it was not exactly reliable power)...now Merc is selling 1350s like crazy as "stock" power. Technology has improved."""""

""" that's why I said earlier that a 750 hp motor built by a good marine builder " Cobra , young performance, teague ,ron potter, just to name a few will last as long as a 525 " better technology"

You have 2717 posts...saying I have an ax to grind with everything you say is a BIT of an exaggeration, as I have found ONE of your posts to be insulting to another member, and this post to be a point of curiosity.

I still don't agree with what you say...but you have every right to that opinion.

Thank you . It is only my opinion like I stated before .
mike