If you think what Cigarette now builds can be called a full cabin, then you must think of a tent as 5 star accommodations.

Put an Active Thunder, Nor-tech or Outerlimits cabin with a real head, generator and AC in a twin step Cig and see how it runs.

Just saying there is variation in cabin weight in Top Guns that will affect the boats balance which is significant in how the boat runs-

Straight bottom with 500's = +/- 70 mph

TS bottom with 500's = +/-82mph

I'm curious if you actually can compare apples to apples, would the strait bottom and the TS have the same X dimension and run the same props or are they (at least drive height) different between hulls?

I know that you will never be able to directly compare, but what I am saying is that when they went to the TS bottom, it wasn't just the steps, it was the elimination of the full cabin, and new prop tech which allowed for a higher X dimension.

I hear ya. My last post was more of a question; I'm still learning..

I agree it's hard to get a true comparison. How about this though, if you put 900's in a stepped 46 it will easily run over a hundred. Now put those 900's in a straight bottom 38 and I bet it doesn't hit 100. The 46 is significantly heavier even without a full cabin and is way faster so the steps must be doing something. I know it's not apples to apples.

Just my opinion, I have ran with a lot of TS guns, and when it gets 4 foot plus, windy, raining, and 100 miles to go, I would rather be in my old, heavy, straight bottom, with big drives.

Stop being so logical!

I'm with you ZP. There a lot of factors to consider when making these comparisons .
But given the choice I wouldn't trade my straight bottom for step boat, the mph gain isn't worth it to me .
They may faster but I much prefer the handling of the straight hull . Just my opinion.
RG.