The next Goodwin Powered Skater is coming and the real performance results of the last one owned by Mr Bill Pyburn have been kept pretty close while some modifications and other testing was done. BUT NOW Powerboat Nation has the exclusive results: The Pyburn Pure Platinum 388 SKATER ran 197 MPH at 70% throttle last April… Yep almost a year ago. I know in your brain you are asking why all the cloak and dagger secrecy. The answer is simple… Continued pursuit of consistent perfection. Many people can put big power in a 388 SKATER and it will run fast on race gas and then need a month of wrenching. The Goodwin Competition Engines don’t need anything other than great engine management.
The Goodwin’s going into Chris Bradley’s 388 soon to be finished Skater will sport a brand new completely proprietary engine management system with features ignited and requested by Goodwin Competition in collaboration with AEM. The technology AEM brings to the big horsepower engines is leap and bounds ahead of the previously used systems. These systems are on many of Goodwin’s World Champion Off Road and Automotive race teams with huge success.
Todd told us that while the first system is great he needs more features and this took a huge investment as well as a lot of joint venture communication with AEM engineers. They have been great to work with to develop a new system with custom firmware to specifically cover all the needs for this huge power, for not only engine guardian but guardian with our insight of “guardian with auto check smart control”.
He also said “While far from his first choice, the first engines out of the box were matched up to Mercury’s Mototron system to allow for simple integration to digital displays and management systems”. The bare bones facts are the Mercury Mototron System just cant handle the magnificent power the Goodwin Competition Engines are able to unleash. The OEM system was struggling as the engines were trying hard and clawing at the 200mph mark.
We were told by the proprietary tuning team working on the Mototron system this could all be achieved and the new system proved to be what was needed to perfect the package. Truth… The Mototron system found on the Mercury racing 1075/1200 platform just is too anemic to support the demands of bigger horsepower and with limited or no access except from outside tuning a ton of time was spent waiting for solutions to make the system work that was just not up to our standards.
This new Engine Management System from AEM/Goodwin will rid them of engine management and operation restrictions the Mototron system just couldn’t log or react to. “We fought a huge issue with a customer having difficulty with a package only to find out that the few hundred gallons of fuel in the boat being used was over a year and a half old and near turpentine.”
”There are so many variables when we supply an engine to an OEM or customer that when we don’t have full access to data, there are too many unknowns that could kill the engine. With this new system, we have complete control of all aspects. With this new engine management system we can check data log files or remotely tune the engine anywhere there is internet access. We can support our clients even if their half way around the world” Todd said!
While some of the features are kept very hush, were told that access and flexibility is what is key for them. Todd did say “We’ve found our engines are practically bullet proof but the support systems they rely on such as cooling and fuel delivery must be as well. With our new safe guards & auto control we can monitor and protect our customers from the inevitable while providing them a level of service we don’t believe exists anywhere but here.” This system is the most modern available & trumps everything else!
FACTS from Bill Pyburn: “I have had my boat in the mid 190’s numerous times” Running 93 Pump Gas with 11 lbs of boost, running 6800, on a 40″ pitch, we have seen, 195 mph, 197 mph, 193mph and many many runs into the 170’s effortlessly.” The engines peak power is at 19 lbs of boost so there’s much more left in it! Bill went on to say “the amount of power from these engines is completely like nothing else out there.”
Todd also pointed out, “Be careful when people start talking about and comparing horsepower numbers on the dyno, because they all aren’t the same!”
