X Power Drive at La Boatshow
 

Owner - Bill (aubern?) is really great young guy.

Spent a lot of time with me.

Says the drives are 35K- I challenged him on availability as they've been vaporwear so so far-

He replied has 70 of them sitting in a wearhouse ready to sell and that tooling, and machining in reality makes this batch cost 85K each.

He also says they only take 11 HP to turn whereas a #6 takes 90+ and an Xr around 44

He claims they were designed with the assistance of the BMW design works team, and that his auto relationship with BMW allowed him access to the dev team.

There are 2 of them mounted to the most customized Spectra/Spectre cat I have ever seen in my life. With 2 pfaff 1600HP PSI blown engines. The boat has completely automated drive trimming, and a motronic F1 panel - on top of full gauges and entertainment system

He mentioned something about a challenge to try to break these drives with this very boat.......

He seems eager to sell them, and he lamented about buying 70 of soo many components......arently the sump systems is quite costly.

He hardly seems challenged by the capital outlay, but insisted he'd like to start selling them.

Ive read various things about this guy, but I thought he was incredibly cool, good humored, and eager to be a player in the industry. For such a young guy with obvious money. I didnt detect the tiniest bit of arrogance or superiority complex about the kid at all. I was highly impressed.

(he claims he's a racer, but I dont follow auto racing)

Picts this week.... yeah yeah I know this thread is worthless without pics..........

SO until the x drive picts get uploaded - In the meantime check out the babes in the ultra booth.....


Uncle Dave

Forget the drives, more pics of women in a boat!! These two look pretty happy in that boat! :) :)

it must be nice for 35gs:eek:,I think a lot of guys would go the surface drives if there half the money. or buy used 5s or 6s, hell I will see how long my new drive will take to kill. we needed someone to make better gears for the xr. and merc being over priced about eveything they sell. a new xr is what 7000 to 10,000. I would think someone could build a 1000 hp drive in that line. they get 30gs for a 525 and a lot of engine builders can build a efi 650hp for 20,000 to 30,000 with better parts. it sounds steep for a unproven drive.

I have seen these X drives apart in the assembly stage. Really Impressive! He has spared nothing as far as best available technology or material. The bearings alone set this drive in its own class.

Here is a pic of the drives on the spectre.

I cant get that picture any bigger.

Chris

Check this site is where I saw it I think page 2 on Spectre boat.

http://www.powerboatmagazine.com/pho....php?album=138

they look great thanks dave. if scot put them on the spectre we will have to wait and see.

That's it- what you cant see is the ram actuated speaker section that rises out from behind the rear seats.

Ill try to get more pict's this week, but this thing is absolutely epic.

Uncle Dave

so does it have its own gimbal and transom plate or does it bolt on any bravo gimbal uncle Bill thanks artie

It Bolts up to a Bravo gimbal.

UD

Here is my take.. First and foremost I love the looks of the drive. I love the concept of it and I hope it works. The usability factor and the variables to make it so adjustable is extremely appealing.
now the downside, its unproven. I do ok in life but I'm not willing to plunk down 35k for a drive that bolts up to a bravo gimbal. (read weak link) and start throwing horsepower to it. I want to see real world numbers on real boats. In this economy, I'm not going to be anyone 70k test mule. I would also like to see how they are read extensive testing on a big V like my tiger, thats real world.

Do they have an updated gimbal? I can buy a set of dry sixes with gimbals and rings for 40K I can get a set of nxts with trans, for 38k...see my point?

Great points made in your post. A creditable dyno session having all drives (B1, XR, NXTS, #6, IMCO, Xpower, MaxWorx, Konrad) tested for HP loss would be really something good. Has this been accomplished yet? Documented?
No one has mentioned the drives offered by IMCO and their cost to realibility factor.

Anyone know the HP loss with the new NXTS drive?

Awesome looking drive,but at 35k they are competing with the nxt,6 drives deep pocket boaters not the same league as the bravo style drive,i think they should offer hp gimbal assy package(everybody knows bravo gimbals not safe big hp,too small)this efficient and hopefully fast drive could interest some extreme boaters,just too much$ for the average guy in todays economy.My .02

They actually offer a billit HD gimbal as an option. Still pricey.




Darrell.

I'm sure Bill will chime in with some factual data, but I know he's gone all out on this project. Un-proven would be a false statement. What most people don't know is that this drive has existed for a couple of years now and has undergone the most demanding and gruling testing that could possibly be thrown at this thing.

Dana Marine has built numerous custom parts for Bill, and he pushes the limits of all of his boats. He's built some pretty wild stuff. The new 32 Spectre is truly something that not many people could replicate. The work in progress on that boat, and the attention to detail that they put into it is simply unbelievable, and I don't know of any boat builder other than the Mercedes big cat that has this kind of detail.

I will say that we are extremely impressed with what Bill has done with this drive. He's really done something most companies don't do, he's gotten some extremely talented engineers involved that have extreme knowledge of shafts, gears, and metalurgy.

From what I understand this project has stemmed from Bill himself dusting drive after drive after drive, spending tens of thousands of dollars time and time again. He got fed up and did something about it.

It's expensive, but it's truly a work of art.

Let em clarify my post and "unproven" it may have all the testing in the world, and I hope it works, because I really like it. I meant new to the market and the real world data of someone using it all year, not a test mule that gets looked at all the time, a real guy that hops in and runs, might not be the best on the sticks and enters too hard. the only thing that will tell that is time. Did I mention I really like it?
and although the guys at BMW are great, dont forget the I drive in the 03 7 series, they all got bought back. :)

Oh and I love my Dana hinges too :D

Unless raceboats are running these, and without failure all season...its unproven.

Promised X-Drive PIctures
 

Here are some more picts off Bills X-power drives and personal boat.

I get the "unproven" thing- at the same time they seem to be able to hold back this beast.

After meeting him I think Id rather be a customer of Bills than a # at Mercury.

Im extremely impressed with Bill,- his product and his personal sense of style.



Uncle Dave

Bills Ride
 

Bills personal ride is a supreme example of superb detail and customization.

Ill let the pictures do the talking......

Uncle Dave

More X power -
 

Im-pressive for sure.

Interesting custom exhaust, hatch actuators, and Pfaff psi blown engines.


Uncle Dave

They look awesome...he needs to get these things out there on some boats...In the mean time Ilmor has a #6 type drive that will be on all their engine equiped raceboats.

we know its been around and tested, but at 35,000 a piece , no gimbal housing included he might sell 20 at 35,000 and make some money. but a lot of guys like me look at merc stuff and feel your bending over at 28,000 for a 525hp when a good builder can do the same at $15,000 and drives xr are as cheap as 5,800 to 7,200 for xr so we know merc is making a lot of money at these prices. so for a drive like this that bolts on a b1 gimbal should be equal price if as good or better than a merc drive which it is. before I got injured WE SOLD CUSTOM RUGS we would sell a better rug than the comp at the same price or cheaper and that way, our name gets out case in point sold rug for 36,000 owner had a price of 60,000 and 40,000 the one for 40,000 our rug blew it away in depth and tightness colors ours was much better, we still made a lot of money and picked up two houses full of area rugs, we are not greedy. oh and WE BOUGHT THIS CO. for a lot of money since it was at the BOSTON DESIGN CENTER rent a lone was over 60,000 a year. that was in the 02. so to me if this drive was 10,000 to 12,000 twice the cost of a xr in most cases they would sell 200 to 500 drives just to the public and if they had there own gimbal/ transom ass for 3500 on top of that they would pick up a lot of boat manufactures to boot, it looks cool but for 35,000, thats a lot of repairs on a xr:p and imco I would never buy any drives from them they don't stand behind them, there biggest drive is 20 something its a joke konrad and the surface drives seem to hold up a konrad is like 15,000 for trs I think its more for the ace set up, but I have seen it work nice on a heavy blown cig for a few years. I wish these guys well but I will spend the money on a used 4/5 /6 before putting out 35,000 the I seen 6s for 6000 used so a used 4/5/ 6 package would be 10,000 to 15,000 per side. good luck once again but I think you would make your money plus some by being in the 12,000 to 15,000 range. hey if guys are selling xrs at 5800 to 7200 you know they ownly cost merc about 2500 a drive for a xr less for b1:rolleyes: they don't loose money even on engine packages they make there money.

I would have to agree with AIR TIME