I'm looking to upgrade my XR's to the shorter Sport Master XR's.

I read the post from a few days ago about the 30' Spectre seeing a 10 mph gain. What types of gains in performance and handling are others experiencing? Is it worth it to upgrade? Are they more dependable than regular Bravo XR's?
Thanks,
OL37

I've heard that they aren't aimed at the vee boats (Cats is the aim). That doesn't mean that they won't help, but OLs already have high X...

They should not offer any better or worse reliability than a std XR.

The sportmaster does work with v's quiet well. On that same thread, I post 96 mph speeds, with labbed 32 bravo's with my 37 Active Thunder right at the rev limiters. We swaped out the standard xr lower with the 2 inch sportmasters and tried the same props. We were all over the rev limiters. We then switched to 34 labbed and hit 102 mph but could only spin them 5150 rpms. I am quessing that we had maybe another 1-2 mph. We were at Lake X so there was no prop inbetween to actually get max speeds. I will tell you that they are great for top end but it does make take some extra time to get on plane. Good Luck.

Thunderdan,
What are you running for HP? How's the handling with the new drives?
We're running in the low 90's and looking for 95+mph. Looks like if we go with these drives, we'll reach our target.
Thanks.

Thunder Dan has a fully loaded 37AVH, with KE 675's. I am also running the same motors but have the Imco Extreme SC's and herings. I am presently at 97 but have about 200 rpm's to go, the herings help on getting on plane much quicker, plus make the boat much more responsive, Good luck to ya, Jeff-RaDiOAcTiVe

The SportMaster is great on anything Vee or Cat that can run over 90MPH. Especially if you have the ITS. Craig

Jassman,
Are you using the 5-blade cleavers?
Anyone know if the 5-blade would put too much strain on a Bravo?

The bravo's are holding up fine. I have about 45 hours on them and at last drive oil change it was fine. I am not sure what gears you are running but I was told that the 1:35 gears hold up better. As far as the 5 blades go we are running 5 blade round hering props.

Why wouldn't you take the next step and go with a surface drive (Pulse Drive)?
The Sportmaster is a semi-surfacing drive anyway...
No durability issues with a Pulse Drive.. Worrys will be a thing of the past..

Do it once and do it right..