So, I have a contract on this 2001 292 Fastech race edition with the bare cabin and single Illmann 496. The boat is being brokered by Midwest Marine Brokerage at LOTO. I have heard of some possible issues with a 292 race edition Fastech in the St. Louis area. Is there a major issue with this boat? Something wrong with the hull? I’ve heard these boats were hard to plane, but is there another more drastic issue with this specific boat? I have not sea trialed the boat yet, that will be this week when they get it dewinterized.

Pretty sure Ed at Big Thunder had it listed a while back. Not sure if it sold or was taken off the market or moved to a different broker. You could reach out to him and see what he knows about it.

couple of things - it has been for sale for a long while like 4 years min that I know of. A person interested in it a couple years ago sent me pics to see my thoughts. I heard it was driven really hard. A scan will show that. Also I will add whomever wired the boat and cabled it really did one h ell of a very poor job when I seen the pics about 2 years ago. Actually a real chitty job. Little do they know on MPI engines one can just CAN NOT run wires & harnesses all over the place like they did. .

Will add currently I have no idea what it looks like nor what has been fixed. if has sat for this long it will need work. Fuel pumps - injector service - full lines - spark plug wires and so on. Just saying

Soo, I did a sea trial on the 292 Fastech single today. It didn’t go well. He engine sounds and runs fine, but the prop would not bite. The boat never did over 26 mph. The driver from the brokerage was doing everything he could, trimming and tabing and messing with the throttle. It has a 28P Bravo One left hand prop that is in great shape. It has a standard length drive with a 2” spacer on it. The prop shaft still seems too high in relation to the boats bottom. I know these boats were built with a high x-deminsion, but something has to get better than this. How do I get this prop into cleaner water on this boat?

What do you mean "these boats had a high X dim??" I don't think Formula even made any other single 292 Fastechs and none were pleasure boats.
The boat was pretty much a one off race boat that was converted for pleasure use. I'd say that getting the boat to drive properly is the responsibility of the owner and broker.

I would check for mechanical issue indepth -- also do you have scan reports and fuel pressure tests at the vey min that were done currently ? What do the spark plugs look like at the very least. You are looking for normal combustion on all 8

Extension box or no? I bet it used to have one if not.

No extension box. Has a 2” drive spacer with a stock length lower drive.

I know for a fact that boat has been for sale for at least 10 years.

+1 on the extension box theory. How solid is the transom? Nobody here wants to be the bearer of bad news, but that boat sounds like someone’s carriage that’s turned back into a pumpkin.