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Bertram31.com General Bulletin Board
Re: Get a real V-10
Posted By: bruce In Response To: Re: Get a real V-10 *LINK* (Harv)
Date: Thursday, 9 December 2004, at 9:36 a.m.
Harv,
Awsome engines. Ex brother in law has one of the first Vipers and it ran quick.This was one of my play toys in 80' and 81'.
It had been sitting in a field since it won the APBA in 78'. It was dark blue with the name "The Brain" across the side.
38.8 Cobra hull with BPM (Italian) V-12 engines coupled to BW 72 series gears and Merc speedmaster drives.The engines had 6 Weber 48IDA/2V carbs with individual throats. Setting those carbs up were a pain. Like setting up an old Honda 750 4 cyl except doing three of them at one time all coupled together.
The engine maker, BPM is out of Verona Italy.
No one spoke english to order parts.
I had to get my parts list translated and then telexed over. This was of course before Al Gore invented the internet.After getting the engines up and running and sea trialed, It was sent to the paint shop for the scheme in the picture.
Its sitting in my front yard on the swale.
My neighbors were not happy when I started and ran it.It ran high 90's in the mph on flat calm water.
I really like the engines. They were 750hp each with just carburetion and built strong.
The gear boxes would self destruct about 3x a year though. Nothing then on the market to hold up behind them.
One of the best moments with my dad was when we were launching it at Cracker Boy for the first time and quite a crowd had gathered. I had put my racing helmet in the throttlemans position.
After launching, dad asked if he could throttle and I steer. I said fine.
Once we got into Lake Worth and made a few passes to check things out, I said lets see what she'll do but I said bring her up easy.Once on plane I looked at dad and he grinned and I said to myself oh crap. He shoved the throttles wide open. If not for the standup racing bolsters we would have been 100 yards behind the boat.
OPC to the Blue Heron bridge came real fast. When we slowed down, I pulled off my helmet to chatise him but when we looked at each other we both busted out laughing.
A cherished memory.
If someone buys those Viper engines, I'll put them in your 31 for free, you pay for parts.
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