Former Virgin gladiator spun and rolled in a turn in a GLSCS race at Lake St. Clair, MI in '02 or '03. Both ejected and uninjured. Minor damage to boat, primarily engine hatch.

BenR is a marketing gimmic...Reggie holds the keys to the design shop...but you have to admit it does say something when Cigarette is looking to "Fountain" for design ideas...I think Reggie's best complement yet.

I can assure you that Phil spun that boat...maybe not in a race but he spun it. I say that because every boat that I have bought that has been raced has been over, now some would say that it was due to inexperience but that would not explain why Tres, Bob, Todd, etc went over also. The Virgin boat was the worst. First, Tres got sideways a few times in testing, then Kevin King and Gil Leiber almost got killed in a GLSCS race, the Diamond Dave and Val spun, and then Bruce and I got tossed..... That boat will spank you the minute you stop paying close attention. My Super V went over with the Rodriguez team, then with Bob Bull so many times he joked about painting a canopy on the bottom!!! Brian Hollis took a few, Dick Simon took a nice swim with Stinson on the sticks, on and on and on....... I think quite a few Cigs have been over in testing and fear of hurting resale has kept lips shut tight. Now this is not to say that in the right hands these boats can be competitive, but the right hands are Todd and Tres or Bob...... the rest of us mere mortals better know how to swim after a 80mph hit or how to breathe on oxygen inverted until the cabin fills up enough to push the hatch open. Thats a fact.

Take a look and tell me what went wrong..... slow turn, no interruption in water (we were in 1st), no wacky control inputs.... Its a design flaw.

http://media.putfile.com/ejection

cigarette reflections ---


js
http://www.fotopress.us/bestof

That's some good footage. Again, I'm not arguing, but can you name a twin step boat (builder) that has raced hard that hasn't spun, or rolled???

You may be right, you may be wrong. But again, I think steps in general are more unsafe than non-steps. There's a sh!t load of really fast twin stepped Guns out there that run hard and haven't spun. If there was a huge flaw in the design wouldn't there be more pleasure spins? Not saying there's no one that has spun in a pleasure T/S gun but so have Donzi's, Outterlimits, Fountains, etc. etc. My point is that I don't think Cigarette has any more tendancy to spin than any other stepped boat. Nature of the beast.

Oh, and on the topic of Phil spinning a boat. He was very candid with me about rolling the Rio Roses boat. He however didn't think it was builder error what so-ever. I'd never heard him complain about (lucky strikes) Gun. He had nothing but praise for the way that boat handled and raced.

And I've watched the footage of Stinson barrel rolling the Speed Racer F-2 boat w/Dick. That I'm affraid was driver/throttle error. Even Sean will tell you that. And the video shows it too well. Too hot into the turn.

Pure perfection? The Twin step boats ride alot better and dont porpoise.

How many of both have you owned or driven, and for how long?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...RK%3AMEWA%3AIT

I believe there was a nice non stepped gun in Va. for a good price last summer. Try a search in Va. Beach.

Like I said prior...I know theres been T/S cigs that have spun sunk but there's been a Formula and a Donzi for sale on Ebay recently that have spun/partial sank as well. It's not brand specific is my point.