the boat is a 2000 fountain classic single step with carb'd 500 hp's.
spoke to martin at fountain and he says that the test run they did was with the hydromotive 4 blades,q4's intimidator,28 pitch by 15.5 .
boat ran 85.5 mph !!!!!!!!!!

so , i went out and looked AND FOUND on ebay the identical props that were as new used once .....

it is the 1st time i hear of a 35 with 500 hp's doing 86 mph....
DOES ANYONE HAVE THE SAME SETUP AND CAN CONFIRM THEIR BOAT DOES 85.5 MPH ?

That sounds VERY optimistic. With no engine and drive mods, all stock, I would say 79-80mph. Shorties should net another 2-3mph putting you in the 83mph range.

Zack

i agree but that is what fountain tells me the performance report shows... 500 hp's carb with the hydro 28x15.5 props q4's ... 85.5 mph !

I owned a '99 35 single step executioner with 502 magnums, 1.36 ratio Bravos, running 23p Mirage plus props. Full fuel and passengers I could get 78 gps. Light fuel, me and one other passenger or my kids, I saw 80.3 on the gps repeatedly.

That said, 85 with 500's does not sound unreasonable. More important to me, what is the cruising speed at 4000 rpm? That's where I spent most of my running time.

T

We had a 00 Lightning with 500 HP EFI's that ran 88 on gps just like the performance report said.

Any dyno info on the engines? They must have been on the + side of the hp tolerance allowed by Merc?

4 days ago i ran a 35 single step with 496's, 1:6 drives , 30x15 1/8 5 bld meximus wheels tricked out by a local propeller guy. she ran 80.9 on speedo and garmin g.p.s .

on the rev limiter.

so i would say 85 with h.p 500's is accurate.

plus martin is in the know of his product.

My 99 with 500's carbed and 26 hydro's did 80 - 81. But the drives were burried in 99 with really low X dim. When they raised the X on later models they ran similar speeds with 496's.

Exactly...sounds like there are all ready shorties on the boat to see those speeds?

Additionally, some of the guys with the higher spped numbers look like they are running in salt water, correct?

Looking at Marginmn's speeds, it appears to coincide with my first statement and running in fresh water, agreed? That is worth 2-3 mph less than salt, right?

I know Fountain's reports say they test in salt being from NC and all... but this was just an observation on my part. Don't villify me, just trying to get an accurate apples-to-apples comparison.