I remember last year at this time it was the Dukes right here in this same spot as you are trying to put me in but I built the boat for 6 and it is staying in 6. You guys need to spend more time getting your own boats to win instead of eliminating the winners and moving them out of the class.

I'm sorry you feel that way. I'm not trying to eliminate anyone, I am just participating in a discussion in regards to
the future of the class. Now is the time in the early off season to have constructive dialogs on potential rule tweaks
or changes. I don't claim to know all the answers or even any of them. If we leave the class alone that is fine we will adjust.
But we don't want to have this discussion two days before the first race.

Rich

Yeeeaaaahhh......

OOOHHHHYEEEAAAAHH......


That's Right !!!

You know it is curious that we are focused so much on the HP and engines.

The other factor being boat weight for some reason does not get discussed.

In a way I am embarassed that I have not brought it up, but in the end if a boat is too dominant maybe the weight needs to be adjusted. This is what they do in stock car racing.

There are multiple dirt track series where different engines get different weight breaks, who says that could not be the same in P class racing.

Thus if you want to run a certain engine you can, but the boat should have to have additional weight. This (power to weight) would even the playing field quickly.

Once again, this is not targeted at anyone, just an idea of how to ensure the playing field is level so that we can encourage more to come out and race.

How to race economicly on a level water field?
 

Just to throw my two cents in here as a realitive newbie in the P class racing. Its not just a level playing field that most P-5 ,P6 racers are looking for its also an affordable playing field! You need to have a reasonable horsepower limit in these classes, lets say 500HP max for P-6 and 600HP for P-5 with cubic inch limits of lets say 509 for P-6 and 540 for P-5, no superchargers or turbo's, a GPS verifiable speed limit of lets say 70mph for P-6 and 80mph for P-5 and reasonable standard manufactured hull weights that would not require special coring, layup and infusion processes that greatly raise hull costs. These horsepower and cubic inch limits can be accomodated with pretty much standard Bravo drives so no need for #6's and such and when coupled with reasonably moderate speeds should make acceleration a little less important and no need for teams to build these so called "liteweight big cube motors" that can out accelerate the more "standard" stock weight motors to be competitive.
I think if this type of approach is taken you will get more participating teams, more sponsors and much closer racing that the average high performance boating fan can relate to!
That's where the real future of high performance entry class boat racing is the strongest!
The 496's we build could easily be made affordable for boats running in these two classes at these horsepower levels without breaking teams "piggybanks" ! And we would not need any special expensive lightweight internals to get there.

PS. for Flashwave, the Raylar 496 in our sponsored Laveycraft P racer is a +.010" over standard Raylar HO525 - 496 engine with headers that produces 565HP on the dyno and is rev-limited at 5350 rpms. No special lightweight parts. Yes it has run over 90mph in Kilos with special props but it won't race worth a damn in that trim!
We could make it 600HP+ with just a cam change but that might make it a little to hard on some of those HP525 blue motors.

Just some more wood for the fire here. This is great constructive discussion with ideas and many heads are always better at problem solving than two or three!

Regards,

Ray @ Raylar

That was going to be my next point Heavy verses light weight, step bottom verses V bottom, The X dimension factor, I remember in the Factory classes they started with a 500 carburator engine then that engine was oppsolete and all you could get was the 525, then GM had the 525 HP 496 with a whole different Torque curve in the engine with the 4.370 stroke verses the 502 4.000 stroke. Then they had X dimension limits and weight limits and different RPM limits had to have cranes to weigh every boat before and after the race (Who had hidden ballast tanks)??? Who modified their ECU ??? If you limit HP who is going to check all the engines ??? It is a lot easier to have a set speed with a GPS and use the Prop calculation so you don't have a 80 MPH in a 70 MPH class. More than likely the 80 MPH boat won't be able to run with a boat set up for 70 because his HP and Torque curves are not in the right limits. If we had a way to check RPM's at the end of the race like the GPS speed it would eliminate a lot of cheating.

Hey Jimmy Is JC busy building your 1700's I have not heard from him. When Smitty gets moved to Class 1 You and Pop Pop have to run Haggin :D

Tyler,
That is why I have been participating in this discussion. To get all the information out for everybody. Your points have been valid, as I said earlier, I don't profess
to have the answers. If leaving class 6 as is is the way to go,
then I am all for it. I agree we don't want to go through all
that tech stuff. But there is no harm in sharing ideas.

Rich

That is all I am doing Rich is telling my points that I have seen but the way it is now seems to be the best without all the teching. Your boat is not that far off you probally have just as much Torque as us with your 4.370 stroke you just need a little head work and a camshaft.

I appreciate your comments. Pete just told me I have come across like a whiner with my comments. That is not my
intention. I apologize if I do.
I did not intend to minimize the Dukes or your hard work
or success in the class or to target either one of you. I
was just participating in a discussion of ideas.

Rich