I can remember seeing that video at the Kansas City Sport Boat and Travel show with my dad. It was the same year I enlisted into the military. I think the original music was from the movie Top Gun. But it also had narration in it too.
They had a TV sitting on the bow of a brand new I think 201 playing this video over and over. Lots of people watching too.
I look at that video now and think just how advanced those boats (Champions) were back then. Thats when Ranger had there 300 series out. I think that year was the first year for the Ranger 360V which had the triple step hull under it. It was one of Rangers flagships at the time.
I've had a 300 series Ranger and I've had the narrow beam and wider Champs. The 300 series are nice to fish off of but my god I would NEVER try that stuff in the video in one. And I'm not talking just about the bat turn. I mean some of those high speed long sweeping turns, the ones where you don't get outa the throttle or anything just point the boat and go.
I sent a 361 into a slide on a corner one cool winter afternoon heading back to the ramp. I was cutting along about 60 and was going to make a long right hand turn towards the ramp and I'm not sure exactly what happened but everything just let go and all of the sudden I felt like I was sliding like a car on ice right toward the rock rip rap of the bridge. I trimmed the motor down all the way and finally got things back under control. Never again did I try such a turn in that boat. Loved to fish from it but it was a bucking bronco in the waves and not a good handling boat.
Funny thing is that I had made that exact turn many many times in my 181 Champ under the same conditions and thats probably why I wasn't thinking anything about doing it in the 361.
My 400 series was a tad bit better handling than the 361 was. It would run up the creek channels OK, at least I thought. At high speed I would get some what sounded to be prop blow out and it would slide some on sharper turns and I would have to trim down and throttle back.
But then I got a ride in a 193 at LOZ during an HPA tx which really reminded me why I needed to be back in a Champion. We ran the exact same route in this Champ that I ran the day before in my 481 pre fishing. Difference was he ran the corners at WOT which was probably about 65-67 and I ran the corners at 50. That 481 would run about 60-62 WOT with just me. I slowed down even more in the corners when there was boat wakes, he laid on the throttle.
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