Goodfella

Glassdave,
Dr. Santiago's raceboat is running Merc power and has been one of the most succesfull boats built to date. Mercury Marine builds a twin prop design sterndrive that worked very well on his boat. The Bravo III X sterndrive coupled up to the same horsepower is the package to run to put you and keep you in the front of the pack.

AugiePensa

Chris, Great Job...Team Underdog...best of luck, beautiful boat, be safe and have FUN. Regards, Augie

ryoung99

Just to chine in... I did not think Zero Cavity had a Bravo III. It was my understanding that he had a normal single prop Bravo.

We also have a bat with the Mercury package with a Bravo outdrive. After driving both it is tough to compare.

They do handle differently, neither better or worse in my opinion. It will be great to see how Chris's boats run with more hp.

Without a doubt the Bravo is trickier to drive than the Volvo, but the Bravo should be faster with with same HP. So one has to ask, it is the drive or the speed that makes the boat trickier???

When I tested the boat with Harry Clack (prior to purchase) it had the whipple on the 377 and we were doing 100 mph passes (on GPS). The boat was stable at those speeds going in a straight line.

Since having the boat, we have run it (without the Whipple) in some rough water and have been happy with the performance of the Bravo. When set-up correctly we have seen 85 mph out of the boat. To race P4 we prop down to a 28. With the Bravo our turn speeds are right at 78-80 mph, which is very fast, no to mention that the turn radius is tighter than any Vee you match us up against.

With the Bravo the boat turns better to the left (it is like having stagger in a race car), but is difficult to turn to the right. There are ways to overcome this obstacle if you are racing a layout with more right turns than left. (thanks Scott for that one).

Not sure why I wrote all of this, maybe someone will find it useful.

Rick

Goodfella

ryoung99,
You are correct, it has a Bravo I on it at the present time. I was personally involved in dialing that exact boat in.We tested with a Bravo I and Bravo III and even a Blackhawk. Dr. Santiago made the call to run the Bravo I.

glassdave

iTrader: (1)

good info Rick. i knew there was a few bats out there with brovos on them. i was actually curious myself how they ran with a single prop. i had also thought Dr.S had a standard brovo on his boat. i also thought a few have tried the Merc Blackhawk with some success but production on that has been discontinued ( so has the DPXi though ). the BrovoIII i think may be to big and to deep of a drive (just a guess there ) got any pics of your boat?


Goodfella- is the BravoIII X a different drive than the BravoIII and what is that a pic of BlkHawk or III? also what was your expierance with the blackhawk on Dr.S's boat? just wondering. thanks

ryoung99

Here is a picture taken at speed

AugiePensa

Hey Rick, long time. Great shot!

Goodfella

Glassdave,
The drive that is pictured is a bravo III. The difference between a Bravo III and a Bravo III X is that the driveshaft assembly on a Bravo III X has the same upper gears as the XZ Bravo I, also larger u-joints. The fastest drive on the boat was Bravo I. But the boat handled turns and tracked straighter with the Bravo III.
The Blackhawk drive was to deep in the water becaues of the X dimension that the transom was cut at. Not as fast as the Bravo I and Bravo III.

glassdave

iTrader: (1)

thanks goodfella. i am working on getting my own bat in the future and apreciate the info. i was hoping to use a blackhawk. once in a while you still see a new old stock one for sale and my thought was even if i had a parts issue i could always go back to the Brovo. interesting that the blackhawk was slower than the III drive as you mentioned above. thanks again

great shot Rick

JKK

Obviously you did not get a chance to take advantage of the Blackhawk design do to your X demension, correct?