Cats take half of that nowadays with same power on cruise thou not WOT, have to check that but canīt be IMO that far off.

At cruise I dont no how much for the Isotta ,but think a lot

more or less...we blueprinted a couple and got from 700 to almost 1000 just by portmatching and pocket porting plus some boost upgrades.
offcourse at cruise you donīt use 850...

As you say Joe the Buzzi 4 engine cat was almost under water before she got going

from what I recall the Buzzi cat ran in the keys around late 80's and I think took the wins however on the last race the cat sponsons started coming apart with a gap appearing however Buzzi kept the boat flying to take the flag or so I seem to remember and I don't think it's ever reappeared since then

Again Littlenige Boatmad.com photo



I always thought obviously wrongly the Isotta's were 11.4ltr engines not 9.7ltr

it was 1989!!!!

The boat was sinking at the dock afterwards and they tied it up from the pilings to keep it afloat. If I recall that didn't work as planned!!!

And yes I think that was the last time that boat was seen? It really never ran that well. After Stefano was killed in the old pink/green/blue Kappa boat that was the end for Buzzi and cats. That was a PR nightmare that also took Buzzi down as well, he did recover with a revenge. People on here I think don't give him the credit he is due sometimes. As far a boat racer/boat designer/boat builder/engine-drive designer builder he has no equal. Granted many of his ideas are not 100% his and he's taken lots of existing products and modified them and he's had his share of flops but all in all his race boats are one of a kind with more hand made one-off parts than you can imagine. He's very creative, he did it his way!

IMHO - Aronow, Kramer, Fountain, etc did/do not the breath of scope that Buzzi had in his prime for all things offshore race boat. I'm sure this will draw a few comments!!!

Joe Gere

not my cup of tea,

Wow great memory Joe, your probably right on all counts on his achievements during his very active racing career, although he does have great credibility in Europe and going by what some of the boatmad UK guys say that just recently had a chat and a factory tour you can see he strives to be the best at what he wants and does
I guess that perhaps early on he realised the US of A although the worlds largest pleasure market was a hard nut to crack especially as it was diesel he wanted to crack it in and with gas having been so cheap it was never going to be an easy sale for his boats although he did get involved in projects besides Sunseeker with Fountain in the US making a Buzzi designed single engine gas or diesel boat for teams


Buzzi seems to have concentrated and gone after the Military patrol boat market which his boats are ideally suited too



actually I think the Europeans may have been onto something with the diesel engines being developed for Le mans racing but I believe the rules have been tightened up against diesel to make it less attractive for manufacturers in diesel development, although Audi have over the 90's and 2000's been heavily into performance diesel engines and who knows what they have up their sleeve for the future

Hi Scott - good luck with the team for next season! And Merry Christmas!

aquafun,

You know why Buzzi went the miliatry route, his boats, the Seateks are all low volume items with big ticket prices. No secret the Governments can afford them and he has plenty of connections, it makes sense.

As far as the US goes, here the reality fo it from someone who tried to crack that market for years as well. In the 80's race boats in the US were all about the glitz, chrome valve covers, polished headers, red velocity stacks on fuel injectors, etc, etc. Everything about the US Open class boats was clean and shiney!!!! Here come the Europeans with their not so shiney trucks, engine rooms that were not so sterile, engines that leaked oil & smoked, oh I forgot and left a stoot trail in the water for miles!!!!!

Despite the fact that these ran like hell and finished races they just didn't look nor sound Amercian - Buzzi was doomed over here before the boats got off the boat!!!

It does seem like (your LeMans refernce) every tme diesels start to get some kind of winning streak going they change the rules on them????

Joe Gere

Not mine either but I give credit for all his efforts.