Did I just snooze on a deal?

[Costello]

I had a 383 Mopar in a 1968 Sanger 17'10" flat. It was an honest 70 mph boat with a basically stock engine in a very heavy hull. It could have been a real runner with some minor work and a better hull.

[MoJetBoPar]

Oh man!
This is basically what I'm looking for, "383 Mopar in a 1968 Sanger 17'10" flat", yeah, Sanger, Hondo, Hallet, Rayson-craft and I know there's more that I can't recall. Basically an ex-race hull to drop a Mopar wedge in there and have some fun. I've got a BB wedge (361) jet now. It's an older style 18' hull (Mantra) with the bubbledeck and barrel shaped or rolled transom. I like it, but have always wanted a v-drive.
It's hard to find them out here in the midwest. They're here, ya just gotta be patient. I think I'll come out west eventually though to get one.
Speaking of Mopars, Ive got 2, a 69 383 Roadrunner and 69 340 GTS Dart. The Runner is down for a 440 transplant and Cheater NOS set-up. I did flog a 833 4 speed trans for 7 years in that car. Goin auto now though, just wanna try a race auto trans for a while. The 383 just wouldn't break, I even broke 2 rockers racing a 71 SS 454 M-Carlo on Telegraph one night and limped home 45 miles, but I won. That was 4 years ago.

[old rigger]

Mojetbopar,
I saw this advertised in a car craft mag last year. Well not advertised but they did an article on it. The part is called an 'ultra bell', and what you do is take a trans, for example a GM 400, and cut the bell housing off, this ultra bell is bolted in in place with the bolt pattern on the bell housing side, to what ever engine you want to bolt it to, say a 440 wedge. Basically you could adapt any trany to any engine with this thing, and it's SFI approved as a scatter shield. The cost is around 250 bucks, but it would be a great way to run a GM trans in your mopor powered boat. They gave 2 phone #s....805-583-2031,www.auto2000.com/bobstrans.html. and 407/632-6205, www.auto2000.com/jw. (http://www.auto2000.com/jw.)
[This message has been edited by old rigger (edited November 14, 2001).]

[Costello]

MoJetBoPar, I'll make you even sicker.....I sold that boat turnkey for $2000. The fella that bought it could be seen on the lake literally every weekend with it as I had worked out all of the bugs and made it a solid boat by the time I sold it. It was ugly as sin and had more stress cracks than you could count, but it was so heavy and solid that it was really in fine shape. After I nearly sank my hydro by spitting a propshaft one day when the new owner was out at the lake, he let me take it for a spin to ease my troubled mind. It almost made me wish I still had it. I bet it's still running fine although I haven't seen it for a couple years.

[MoJetBoPar]

Costello,
That story tears me up! I would gladly pay $2k and some for the boat or 1 similar as you've described. I'm gonna keep looking.