Hey boys and girls. Hope that you had a great weekend. I've been out of the boating hobby for about three years now and have just gotten back into the swing of things. I dusted off the old boats and headed out to the lake. During the week before I stopped at a new hobby shop in my area and took a look at some of the boats that they had on the shelf. They had some nice ones. A sprint cat with a modded weedeater from china. It had a square head that looked similar to a Quickdraw 25. They also had somthing called a Falcon cat that looked pretty cool. It has a sprint cat hull with a changed deck and cowl. Its a pretty cool hull. The reason that I am wrighting is because I cant believe the speed numbers that they were quoting me. The guy with the sprint cat told me that his was clocked at 75mph on the streight away. After hearing this I went on youtube and saw only one cat running those numbers. It was an insane cat with a QD 25 running about 80mph pass after pass. It was hands down faster then anything I saw at the local lake this weekend. So it boils down to my question. What are the average speeds of the 40 or so inch cats with a modded Zen or quickdraw 25? No bench racers here just give me the honest numbers. I also am curious as to how you guys think my Aeromarine avenger cat should run with the Quickdraw 25. Believe it or not I think the avenger should run faster then the sprint cat at top speed. I think the sprint cat loses a bit of power because of the smaller size of the hull.

55 to 60 trimmed down for oval racing and rough water, 65 to 80 straightaway with a mod motor and mod prop. 60 to 66 is pretty much normal at our lake...........

mike sr

Mikes speeds are about what we see here too.

Avengers and Sprints .... The former may indeed go faster, but in oval trim and rough water where sticking down and not flying away at 65+, seems the later do a better job.

The STRYKER cats which are close to the Sprints seem to do even better IMO

so are you saying that the Avenger tends to catch to much air and flip a lot? I am having that problem. I just moved my motor forward last night after I got home from the lake to try and keep the bow down. The boat was rigged for a Zen to start with so I figure that the extra power of the QD was causing the avenger to take fleight.

I agree with speeds posted by Mike. The Avenger has a tendency to be flighty, the Sprint I think is better for all out speed, but my opinion is that it falls a little short as a competitive heat racer due to its size and design. It was designed several years ago for engines of that time. Power has changed quite a bit over the past few years. In my honest opinion, a Conquest cat is hard to beat for heat racing when setup properly. I built one (reviewed here on MGB ) that has been very successful this past year, and also pitted for Carlo C. of CC Racing who had one setup differently yet did equally well. It was beating on riggers in open hydro at the 08 Gas Nats. Was a sight to see...anyone that was there will attest to this. The Conquests are very hard to beat. it is basically a modified version of the Avenger. Setup, setup, though.

FTR: these Conquests are running right around 67mph in heat trim and doing exceptionally well in the rough, windy conditions. Will run right through roostertails without climbing up them also. I honestly wasn't expecting them to run so well and was expecting something more like the Avenger, but it is not the case... great boat!

Do you have a recomendation on a person that does racing rigging for these boats? I am interested in getting a boat rigged by a pro that has some wins under his belt...

Absolutely, you can get a RTR Conquest from CC Racing engines...they just finished building a few that should be up on their website shortly...I received pictures of the last one they did and it looks awesome.

www.cc-racingengines.com/index...id=34&Itemid=83

If this is the Insane cat with Quickdraw you are talking about...(pretty sure theres only videos of ONE insane cat w/ QD on youtube).




that was my old boat, and it ran nowhere near 80mph. In that trim in the video it was running 69.X-70.Xmph all day.

btw..heres my view. Im no "pro", but i do tend to know how to setup Cats to run good.


Average speed for a winning HEAT RACE Cat is 55-58mph, with the faster boats being in the 60-65mph range. Just about any of the cats on the market today are capable of 60+mph runs with of course the right motor/pipe/prop... but it comes down to setup whether that boat stays on the water or not.

When you get near 70mph and beyond... it becomes a bit more difficult then going 60mph. Without the right prop and SETUP, a Avenger will never see speeds of 70+, and possibly barely see 65+mph.


What i want to know if you want to RACE or just go for all out straight line speed (SAW)?