Charlie and Lois Amarosi have had their Velocity 390, Tsunami II, for six years. They’ve participated in about 60 poker runs and Charlie says his favorite component on the boat has been his Konrad ACE 540 drives.
“They’ve been the best part of the boat since I owned it,” said Charlie, who is 67 years old. “What I like about the drives more than anything is they shift so nice.”
When he built the boat, he had originally wanted to put surface drives on it, but Velocity had difficulties getting them to line up and work right with the boat. “One of my friends said Konrad had these new drives, so Steve Stepp (the president of Velocity) and I talked to them and they sent the set down and we put them on and the rest is history,” said Amarosi.
Originally, the boat had 888 hp Pro Rock Marine high performance engines that pushed the boat to around 102 mph, but in 2008 Amarosi blew up an engine and didn’t want to deal with an expensive rebuild. He re-powered with a pair of 525 hp naturally-aspirated big blocks that push the boat to about 84 mph.
“The only thing I’ve done in the six years I’ve had them is I took them off once, sent them back to freshen up the gears and put them back on the boat,” said Amarosi.
Since Konrad first came out with its PRS 1 (Performance Replacement System) that fits and bolts in place where old Mercury TRS drives would have been, virtually all the feedback from the go-fast world has been positive.
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