Looking for owner input. In the market for a 344 Cheetah. Wanted to get some feedback. How do they handle at high speeds? I’ve read conflicting statements.
How roomy is the cockpit? Coming out of a 353 Fastech.
How do they run in rough water
Anything I should look for or ask about?

Around 90mph ours got a pretty loose, maybe a change in props would have helped. We ran 32 4 blades with 525’s.
Cockpit is some what tight, if you’re a big guy you will be tight to the steering wheel. I didn’t have any issues fitting.
Rough water it handles pretty well, ride the tops or put some tab into it and roll. Our slingshot seems to ride about the same as the cheetah. Coming from a formula I’m sure it will be rougher as it is a lighter boat.

Riggings is great, quite a bit of room in the engine bay for when you have to work on it. Overall an awesome boat. I think our old one is still for sale, 525’s and Mitcher T paint job with yellow guts.

Any more questions feel free

-Con

I’ve been looking at that boat. Have in talks with Kenny. What’s the history on the boat? With the motors and drives? Did you do all the work?

bought the boat local out of Antioch,IL, always been fresh water. Previous owner prior to us put the 525’s in, and sent it to Mitcher. The drives were rebuilt by him as well with cryogenic gears. When the top ends we’re done at 353 hours, springs, locks, retainers, seals were done. All the parts came from Teague, factory 525 isky components. Interior was done 4 years ago iirc, had a local guy do the work. We never had any issues with the boat, regular maintenance was performed. Impeller rebuilds, vr1 oil, drive oil, etc. we put 83 hours on it. Kenny came and looked it, didn’t buy it. We sold it to a guy named Matt and Kenny ended up with it some how? I just saw it again at PBC about a month or so ago. Still looks great.

Thank you for some of the history. So I’ve I’m understand everything correctly the drives have 17hrs on them? Kenny said there’s 370 on the boat now and they were rebuilt at 353 hours? Between Matt and Kenny they put on +/- 30hrs. So you purchased the boat from Kirk? Is he the one that swapped the 496’s for the 525’s?

Did you install the new CMI’s when you did the refresh or were they put on prior to you?

No, I’m not sure when Kirk redid the drives. They were never taken off since we bought it at 270 hours. Yes, Kirk did the the motor swap on the boat. I was told the headers were new/newer when we bought the boat.

Ok thank you. Was there a big difference moving up into a 388 slingshot? What differences did you notice? Just wondering if moving up 3’ from my fastech if I’ll notice it with docking, ride quality etc? Is there a difference in cockpit room from the 344 to the 388?

Well we’ve only ran about 4 hours in 2 years in the slingshot due to motor failure. But the cockpit is for sure bigger by a foot or two, engine bay is bigger as well (spend a lot of time back there). But they ride very similar. Keep in mind that the slingshot is a twin step and the cheetah is a tek-step or 4 step. If you plan on running real high speeds the slingshot will need some work. We have the rear strakes removed on ours.

I’ll get my buddy kelly to comment, he’s owned both a 35 formula and a slingshot. He can give you his experience. @payupsucker

Well that’s a bummer. What are you running for motors in the slingshot? That would be nice to hear from your buddy seeing he’s owned both boats. I’ve been through 3 boat in the last 2 years. 33 Outlaw, 32 Fountain and 353 Fastech. The Fastech was by far the best of the 3. It was a 99 with HP 500’s. I want something that’ll run mid 80’s low 90’s. I’d like to do more poker runs and the fastech was good but not fast enough. Instead of dumping loads of money in rigging and never getting it back, I decided to sell and find the right boat that’ll satisfy my needs an keep for more than a year.

Turns out he had a 30 not a 35, he said he’ll still pop in to give his input. The cheetah will do 80’s all day every day, low 90’s in ideal conditions, a slingshot with 500’s should run 83ish give or take.

We are running 1000’s in our slingshot. “Running”

Unfortunately no. We ran it and it breaks up around 4000rpm then backfires through the intake. So bad that we blew up and intercooler, found water on the plugs. Been fighting it all summer, extremely frustrating, going down in a week to put an engine harness on the motor that isn’t running. Hopefully that works, we’ve changed almost every other component. Here’s the video of the last run, port motor, down rpm and breaks up.
What did they ever figure out with your motors?

Edit: send it again Ken my inbox was full.