A cracked exhaust manifold and the expiration of the American Power Boat Association sanction brought Fountain Powerboats’ first attempt at setting a V-bottom speed record in more than a decade to an untimely end this morning.
But that doesn’t mean the brain trust at Iconic Marine, which owns Fountain, is giving up on its goal of topping the mark of 180.47 mph that was set by the 43’ Outerlimits, Marker 17 Marine, in 2014.
“We saw some 184-mph type speeds out of the boat during this process, but it is a process,” said Iconic COO Joe Curran. “That’s why it’s called an attempt.”
Reggie Fountain III drove and veteran racer Jeff Harris throttled the 40’ Fountain that was powered by twin Sterling Performance 1,900-hp motors. The team ran an average of 175 mph on Monday, which was faster than the previous number of 171.88 mph that Reggie Fountain II and Ben Robertson ran in 2004.
The team tried to run this morning, but a cracked exhaust manifold put an end to any record attempts and then the APBA sanction expired.
Curran said that the team immediately gathered and decided that the attempt at the record is not over. “We’re going to put some more science into the process and have a different looking boat when it comes back out,” said Curran.
He added that the boat will be digitized over the next week and that Fountain engineers will put it on a CAD program and have it analyzed. Aerodynamic and other enhancements will be made to improve performance.
“We’re making a commitment to this and we’re going to get some residual results out of this for our products,” said Curran.
