Anyone had any experience with this boat and know what speeds are achievable with different engines and prop combinations? Just curious as to how well its stepped hull performs compared to boats with similar weights and engine combinations.

w/one. He asked everyones opinion prior to buying (don't do it) it and did buy one.
He had it a very short time, spent quite a bit of time/money trying to get the speeds he expected/was told and did not from what I saw. I'm thinking he got to mid/high 60's from the low 60's he started with.
It was then on e-bay multiple times in short order and all his threads vanished as well.
I never owned one but went through a couple (closely) at the Miami show a couple yrs back and was not impressed.
Clearly another example of a family/production boat line trying to do a performance boat or at least build one that looked fast
If you read between the lines in all your searches you should learn everything you need to know.

Ditto. Remember all the questions and the thread Gary. Saw pics of the boat on the FM poker run this month or last with the cheetah stipe paint.

I Appreciate the imput. I assume that the boat you are refering to has the 496HO. Do you remember if he ever tried a drive spacer to stop the prop from blowing out. I had a similar problem with my Nordic heat and the spacer did the trick. It is definitely a cool looking boat but sounds like the quality was not so great. I could get one at a reasonable price that I had considered repowering but wanted to know if it was worth the effort.

Anyone know who has the boat now?

Believe it was on Craigslist not that long ago. It's down in Ft Myers some where. The last owner used it a month or two, than had it for sale for several months. For the money they were asking, there are much better options out there.