Welp this thread went to hell.

I guess it did, but somewhere in there are still my thoughts about steps not adding as much mph as everyone wants to think. It's winter, it's 20 degrees, it's going to be colder tomorrow. What else is there to do?

True story and I agree with ya there...carry on!!!!

benjen, it seems that you have a bit of a biased opinion because of the the hull you run, (a fast one) i understand there are a few fast straight bottoms out there that can obtain those kinds of speeds. i owned a 41 velocity for years that ran right at 99 mph with bone stock merc 600 sc, full stagger, crash box, dry sixes. that boat isn't a good comparison, they are probably the fastest straight bottom boat made and not many could compare to it. the question was what kind of a difference will steps provide (on average). there has been a lot of people on here claiming very similar speed numbers, the bottom line is steps will provide a minimum of 10% up to 25%. i guess what im trying to say is, it all come back to the bottom of the boat. steps are the easiest way to gain speed, if you don't want steps and you want to go fast then you need a pad bottom like velocity, allison etc. steps are fast

Given 302sports comparison the 10% is even optimistic. Looks more like 6-7% solely based on steps.

How heavy was the velocity?

Herb ill run next to you next year in my OL to verify your top speed. Then we wont have to deal with Billy being the GPS police Granted i do have 5 steps in my hull, i might have to push it 5k rpm to keep up

Four months till ice out.

10% is minimum, do some research, not just what everyone on here says. the velocity was 11,000 lbs. 502 cu. in. 630 dyno hp 99 mph. why do you ask, don't believe it lol

Did you read what I posted?

38 TG, same power, same weight, one has steps, one doesn't. The 500EFI bravo, straight bottom runs 78mph, what does a TS 500EFI boat run????

i did do the research...if the F2 boat runs 78 at equal weight, several T/S 500 EFI owners have stated 82-83 as there top speed in seperate threads. The difference is 4-5 mph. Which equates to about 5-7% efficiency (weight being negligible).