We’ve covered plenty of customized rigs in the past but this one is particularly notable. Costa Mesa’s Dave Kutscher and Pat Weismann of Traction Products Inc./Weismann Marine LLC have brought their marine expertise and passion for performance boats out to the party and it wouldn’t be surprising if they were the life of it; these guys know their way around the racing circuit and engineering for the win. When talking about their new boat, they emphasized that they “…are not allowed to race this package in the top classes. Our semi-automatic transmissions were banned in 1997, after we went 11 for 11, winning the class 1 title in APBA and SBI. Our drives were banned in 2001. We race the boat in the Performance class which is just a MPH restriction.”
11 for 11 is pretty impressive, so what’s under the hood of this boat? The banned WBD transmissions mentioned have serious torque capacities, so good across vehicle types that they’re even found in trophy trucks and Ferraris with a history rooted in the Indianapolis. Getting into the more technical aspects, Weismann said that “the internals can be coupled with the WHT differential section, and be made into a transaxle. It can also be made into a 4-wheel drive system with the addition of a drop-box. We made a special case so the trans would bolt to the drive on our boat. As you can see, it’s been designed for versatility.”
Besides a whole other host of oil capacity and shift/throttle mods, the main course is the engine components: twin LS7s. Why that choice? The answer was simple, Weismann explained: “Power to weight. We looked at a supercharged LS2 6.0 liter in the beginning, but opted for the simplicity of naturally-aspirated motors. The 7,400 RPM redline was very appealing. Fuel economy was highly considered for weight savings as well. We used 50 gallons during a race, compared to 200 gallons from our supercharged big block we had originally. The difference in fuel weight savings was 350 pounds versus 1,400 pounds. We are the first to make this combination, but now they are starting to be used by the bigger companies. The engines themselves are not stock, either.”
Many more parts were custom-designed for their marine engine needs due to their industry connections with companies like Racepak, MSD and K&N. With all of the custom parts and needs for their application, it’s almost a surprise the boat took only two years to make. You can see that it was well worth the effort:
With a boat this impressive, we can’t wait to see what these guys come up with next!
