Before I ran the boat, I changed the oil and drive fluid. I drained every bit of gas and put 60 gallons of 91 and 10 gallons of VP c12. I put the boat in Friday and ran 2 passes and pulled all 8 plugs. Everything looked fine. The motor did not have issues because I ran it hard. It broke because the og owner had the cog belt too tight. That took out the bearings in the procharger which caused all my problems. This situation was completely out of my control and I did everything I could do to keep it from having issues. Thanks again for all the compliments and kind words. The motor builder said he will have the motor done in 1 week from the day I get it to him.

I knew my boat had big power at one point. But I never expected to come across a reliable claim of 110 mph.

The origional owner put me intouch with Terry Smith from High Power Specialist. He built the motors and help set this boat up from day one. I have spent several hours talking with him about my boat. He knows every power package and drive combo this boat ever had. He told me the boat had a big blower motor in it but they could not keep the drives to hold up. After my procharger failure caused metal & water to enter the motor, I'm in the process of rebuilding. The game plan is 800efi n/a. He said the boat will run high 80s all day. So it's a happy/sad kind of thing. I'm estatic to finally own a Pantera, but I'm said about the motor failure. I can not get it on the water soon enough.

After reading nearly every topic in the Pantera section, I stumbled across this post. Makes me proud to own this boat.


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I think you need to go 1300 hp again. At the time they didn't have a Bravo based drive that would hold up but now that Imco makes the SCX I think you need to prove the boat can be a reliable 110mph setup.

Sorry to learn of the loss -- that has got to hurt - The boat is beautiful and it really has got to tick you off that something as simple as a belt tension screwed up - not to mention the cost - a lot of summer fun. I had something kind of similar happen when we got ours. Everything on the boat checked out - compression, maintenance, - everything. What we think happened was the previous owner thought the motor mount bolts were loose and proceeded to tighten them. As a result he threw the alignment out of whack causing the coupler and part of the drive shaft splines to sheer. Long and short - I had the marina pull the motor change all this stuff and "while they were in there" replace all the rubber, impeller and anything else that was hard to get at -- $2000.00 latter we walked out with a pretty nice boat.

Hang in there

3pointstar

The drive is fully built and has 2 hours on it. Terry has tried every way to talk me out of a blower. He says if I want a reliable boat, to run the 800efi. I do not want to drive cross country for a poker run and have some sort of failure. He said if I am dead set on a blower, run a 14-71 at 15% underdrive. It will be 1200hp on pump gas. But he said I will have the same drive problem issue. My goal is to cruise at 75mph reliably. Do you think the claim of well over 110mph is possible. If so, could I own the fastest Pantera to date?

The swim platform is sick. It is built into several mounting points on the transom. The boat spent most of its life doing the Catalina ski race. I have the pole that mounts in the middle for pulling a skier. But now that the boat will be used for pleasure, it's time to make a stripper pole for the hole.


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Coolest swim platform I've ever seen, nice!

Thanks for the compliment 3pointstar. She is a beautiful boat. It is a cool swim platform SecondWind. Definately over built to say the least. The boat has custom built stuff all over it. I'll post some pics of the bolsters when I get a chance. They are the craziest peices of art I have ever seen. The guy I bought the boat from races the Baja 1000 in multiple clases. He fabricates his own trophy trucks and a lot of his fabrication skills were used on this boat.

When I bought my Superboat speed was a major concern on top of the ride quality . I tried to buy 2 different 28 Pantera's for less money but both deals fell through . I've posted numbers before only to piss off the owners of the boats and when I was right I never received my (well you were right and I was wrong ) When I bought my Superboat 800HP = 94MPH .. 800HP in a non stepped 28 Pantera is going to run 85MPH . It takes 1000HP to hit the 100 mark in the Pantera . THE ONLY BRAVO BASSED DRIVE's THAT WILL HOLD that weight boat and power is the SCX or a Xpower . After 4 years and probably about 20K I've recorded on video and 3gps's 104 mph still only running 800HP N/A . But just to let you know my SB is only 7' beam and it is stepped .
In the end you throw enough power at any boat and you can make it fast , My reality check came when OuterLimits 29' hit 100mph with a 525 and 125mph with 850hp . That was the moment when I realized my hull really isn't that fast .