[poncho]

I thought he said he got it from upstate NY.

What prop was on it ?
Did he try some different ones to correct the bad handling ?
Some will leave the same wrong prop on the boat for it's lifetime.

Thats the one, it went to New York from here. At the time i looked at it there was a three blade on it and he said with a two blade the boat vibrated badly. The guy was restoring a 5 Litre hydro and lost interest in the tunnel. $7,000.00 for a boat less motor that had problems just seemed like too much to me. That boat looks much larger in person than the pics show.
You guys will sort it out i`m sure, your buddy has some good help that i would not have had, had just started looking at forums and didnt think the net would come this far.

 

[Unchained]

Thats the one, it went to New York from here. At the time i looked at it there was a three blade on it and he said with a two blade the boat vibrated badly. The guy was restoring a 5 Litre hydro and lost interest in the tunnel. $7,000.00 for a boat less motor that had problems just seemed like too much to me. That boat looks much larger in person than the pics show.
You guys will sort it out i`m sure, your buddy has some good help that i would not have had, had just started looking at forums and didnt think the net would come this far.

Well, Tom's an Engineer by trade and he likes to redesign things.
I heard a rumor about a twin prop already.

 

[jockorace]

Thats the one, it went to New York from here. At the time i looked at it there was a three blade on it and he said with a two blade the boat vibrated badly. The guy was restoring a 5 Litre hydro and lost interest in the tunnel. $7,000.00 for a boat less motor that had problems just seemed like too much to me. That boat looks much larger in person than the pics show.
You guys will sort it out i`m sure, your buddy has some good help that i would not have had, had just started looking at forums and didnt think the net would come this far.

We've found out that the Cougar tunnels (19') seem to like the same style prop as a runnerbottom, with a range between 10 3/4" to 11 1/4" and a 15 or 16 pitch depending on the horsepower. Sometimes guys new to v-drives don't like or understand that 2 blades vibrate at low speeds. They think something is wrong or out of balance and try to run a 3 blade. Then when the boat handles like shit (from too much prop 'lift') they think it's the boat. Finding and keeping the correct (for any given boat) prop is key to v-drive performance. Jocko

 

[schiada flatty]

Which numbers this one.

It's a 1982 and is owned by Phil from Saskatchewan. I took a 90mph pass in it and its allot different feeling than any other boat. Just holds the nose up and floats.

 

[Mouzer]

WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THIS BOAT..........................

 

[schiada flatty]

Got these pics from Marcel in BC. Looks like the same boat.

 

[jvgunner]

Denny Hepp has been running one of these hulls in the cdba & at the world finals for the last two years. he ran a injected big block in the t/e class. was always in the 115mph or so range. so he put in a minor motor at the july race to see what she could do. dam near got tossed out but settled her down to some good 9 sec runs. I think boat is for sale as he is going to a capsule.:happy:

 

[littlejockocougar]

denny's boat is for sale, I have spoke with him. The black and orange one was for sale last year, and I know that the same owner still has it, whether its still for sale, I am not sure.

 

[littlejockocougar]

It's a 1982 and is owned by Phil from Saskatchewan. I took a 90mph pass in it and its allot different feeling than any other boat. Just holds the nose up and floats.

This boat looks like the one they laid up just a couple of years ago. i believe Rick Bitz was involved on this one.

 

[racerick784]

Props & V-Drive Tunnels

We've found out that the Cougar tunnels (19') seem to like the same style prop as a runnerbottom, with a range between 10 3/4" to 11 1/4" and a 15 or 16 pitch depending on the horsepower. Sometimes guys new to v-drives don't like or understand that 2 blades vibrate at low speeds. They think something is wrong or out of balance and try to run a 3 blade. Then when the boat handles like shit (from too much prop 'lift') they think it's the boat. Finding and keeping the correct (for any given boat) prop is key to v-drive performance. Jocko

I agree with Jocko. Props have everything to do with getting the boat to handle. Tunnel boats are medium to light weight hulls & bottoms have less drag. You don't need all that extra diameter. Find a decent prop & tune it to the boat. Then gear to the motor. With bigger diameter props they don't slip enough & man handle the boat. Also if you can't spin the prop on top end. NO MPH. Lived it. RACERICK

 

[jockorace]

I agree with Jocko. Props have everything to do with getting the boat to handle. Tunnel boats are medium to light weight hulls & bottoms have less drag. You don't need all that extra diameter. Find a decent prop & tune it to the boat. Then gear to the motor. With bigger diameter props they don't slip enough & man handle the boat. Also if you can't spin the prop on top end. NO MPH. Lived it. RACERICK

EXACTLY!! Jocko

 

[Unchained]

I talked to Denny at the WF's a couple years ago and got some pics of his clean boat.
You can always identify a Cougar by the turned down outer edge of the sponsons.

 

[BOYWONDER]

Im currently building an eliminator scorpion tunnel v-drive - different breed bot a realy cool boat , I had the same issue with the prop man handeling the boat during a lift situation, smaller diameter prop took care of it also picked up a few mph. will post up pics of the new build shortly, w2ould be awesome to see some more of these tunnel v-drives surface

 

[Mouzer]

Thought I'd start this thread after reading some very informative posts on cougartunnel's boat spam thread. It appears that there were only about 10 (plus one new 2009 hull still un-rigged) of the 19' tunnel v-drives ever built by Cougar. My son (littlejockocougar) and I know of the following boats;

1) Ron Munson's (infomaniac) (blown 509 on alcohol)
2) Roy Cavalieri / Steve Giacomino's (blown gas 572) (crashed and gone now)
3) My Cougar (blown gas 468, soon to be bigger!)
4) Marcel Lavoie's (tunnel ram BBC) located in Canada.
5) owner??___________Green/white (tunnel ram BBC) located in Canada.
6) owner??___________Orange (blown gas BBC) located in Canada.
7) Rasberry color (kinda pink) (blown gas 496) recently for sale in Washington
8) All white (tunnel ram BBF) was for sale in Colorado about 10 yrs ago.
9) Silver one, per Marcel Lavoie located in Canada.
10) Another one, per Marcel Lavoie located in Canada.

So if that's it, plus the new 2009 purple hull for sale on Dragboat City there would be a total of eleven ever built. The one's that I know of were all built in the 1980's. So post up any info or corrections to what we seem to know about these awesome running boats.
Here's some pic's of the # 1 boat (Info's) Other pic's to follow.

Jocko

MOUZER CORONA CA HAS # 11 :stir:hand

 

[Jeff S]

I Bought A New One .. Late 1980's Wa state

I bought a new 19 foot Cougar tunnel back in the late 1980's. I custom ordered it w/o an engine .... If I remember correctly, Dave Peel and or Tom were the guys I talked to at Cougar. Bought it to use as a play boat. I built a stout for the day, alum head, solid roller cam, 2 750 Holleys, Carillo rod pump gas SBC (went low 10s @ 130 in a 3300 lb Camaro with a single carb, after removal). It had a white base with 3 shades of blue, dark to light. The blue wrapped around the transom with a stripe.

Probably had less than 20 hours actual water time when I sold it several years later to go back to drag racing cars. The last straw was screwing up the prop shaft during testing a nitrous system. Too much work to fun ratio for me! Jerry Skagen of Skagen Marine in Seattle sold it for me.

Would be cool to see what ever happened to it. I had NO IDEA at the time it was such a low production volume build with the v-drive!

 

[KeithDyer]

Tunnel V-drives

What are they selling for these days . . . . ??

 

[jockorace]

What are they selling for these days . . . . ??

I'lol only comment on 19' COUGARS. Fully restored turn key with blower motor...$22-25K. Fully restored complete less engine.....$12-14K. Prices go down dramatically if in rough shape. These boats are extremely hard to find used because they only made maybe 15-18 EVER! Jocko

 

[littlejockocougar]

What are they selling for these days . . . . ??

DO you happen to have one?????

 

[Dave Strong]

Cougar made 3 different 19 bottom designs, 1st had a centre pod 1" below the outer sponsens. Very rare, they quit building that hull late 1979. They found V- Drives exceeding125mph ran into very nasty handling traits. They reworked the mold to make the centre pod the same height as the outers and helped the boats exceeding 125mph. Later they added a step to the center pod, think around 1984-5.
As was stated to have an early 19 is rare, I have as far as I know the 1st and one of the only 19 outboards with the lower centre pod according to Tom who built every one.
To find a 19 with the lower centre pod is Rare and if you do buy it.

 

[Denny]

Hi
Have a 19` Cougar v-drive and was wondering if any one would be interested in it?
There are some pictures of it in post 112.
Thanks Denny