and the hulls are not the same on the gladiator as well as the gun...steps on the gladiator are approx 24" further back then the steps on the gun

and the gladiator i spend the time in is an 02 with side by side 575 sc's with a best ever WOT speed of 97.1

The Gladiator bottom is a Topgun bottom.It is the same hull,just cut down,thus the shorter length.

Neill told me the same thing.

I thought they were saying the engine hatch support rail allowed wter to fall inside all the time. I mistakenly thought that there were differences there.

Bret, Long time no hear, Survive all the weather? Office getting back to normal? Any news from adjuster by chance? Boat is back in my shop all is well, repairs done magnificently, all bills paid.

MIke,
call my cell phone.

they are not the same bottoms...steps are further back on the gladiator. it is even stated in i think powerboat mag from 2002.

pull a 2002 gladiator and an 02 top gun side by side and measure them...unsure about new ones but i know for a fact in 2002 they were different

Okay. Enough suspense. In most cases everyone would agree that a staggered setup is usually faster, better balanced, etc. for a number of reasons. That being said - this is not always the case and the Gladiator is one of the exceptions.

I have run side by side with a friend of mine in his Gladiator on multiple occasions. He has a staggered '03. We have run in smooth lake water, rough lake water behind 70 other boats in a Poker Run, smooth ocean water, rough ocean water, quartering seas, etc. Basically, in about 90% of the conditions anyone would experience. In EVERY case towards the top end (80+) - his boat would start to chine walk considerably. We would literally be 100' apart in the same water and you could distinctly see the rocking side to side motion while by boat stayed true and level. I am not sure why this happens but even he admits that it is a big handful at 90mph. He says he would NOT be comfortable going much faster with this setup. That being said - I know there are some big(ger) powered staggered Glads out there. I would be interested to know if they also chine walk at the top end and what is their prop rotation.

In terms of prop rotation - we both turn inwards. Both have non labbed standard four blade Bravos. He also has the new lower unit on his Bravo XRs which has a bullet-shaped nose cone. He is going to try to rotate his props outwards, however, he is worried about losing a few miles per hour. He runs a solid 91mph with 525EFI's. I run 88.5mph with 500EFI's. If he loses 2mph from prop rotation he will almost negate the benefit of the 525s over my 500s. It will be interesting to see if the boat settles down or not. Theoretically, it should.

In the case of the Gladiator - my opinion is that there is no advantage to the staggered setup. His boat should run a couple miles per hour faster based solely on the motors and improved lower drive design. Furthermore, my motors have twice as many hours on them. I am curious to know what other staggered Gladiator owners are running speed-wise with the different setups and power. True GPS verified speed.

We ran against this boat yesterday. It very mean and very sharp. If you want a sit down boat, go fast, and don't need a cabin. Get a Gladiator. They are awesome!

I wouldn't doubt he was running 95-97 becuase the cat we were in yesterday ran in the low-mid 90s and we couldn't really get a neck and neck race (ran out of room). Gotta go the other way next time so we can run for a couple miles 29scarab!

Bobby

I think that I would beleive Neil over Powerboat.I could be wrong,but I doubt very highly that the hulls are different.