I have a friend looking at early 90's 29 Scarab's with 350 Mags and they seem to be coming with Alpha 1 out drives with no tie bar and so forth. They are priced in the $16-20k range which is in his budget.

He wants to go out in the Gulf and have some fun in the waves and take some trips from Tampa to the Keys.

Personally I am not feeling good about Alpha outdrives on a boat like this. Anyone here have good experiance with a set up like this?

Also he was told a twin 350/240hp 29 Scarab will see upper 60's. I know the twin small block 300hp Bravo 1 29 Scarab's will hit around 67-68 because I have good experiance with this set up but I do not believe a twin 240hp boat will see much over 58-59mph.

Thoughts and opinions please!

I was told many times my boat should do 65. Never seen it. 62 gps on its best day , 60 everyday. 94 29 carb 350 mags 270 hp and alphas. I've never had 1 problem with the alphas. 2 years ago I did repower her and since I had hit some rocks with the drives , broke a gimball , the insurance co bought me some new ones. I did put the eddie marine tie bar on it , the old gimball was a little loose. All in all the boat has been very inexpensive to run. I have been very happy with it for the past 8 years.

The carb mags are also 270 hp , not 240. Basically they are a 5.7 260 with a highrise bowtie intake and the weber carb.