In answer to your question, our class was originally founded on the 1600cc Ford Cortina engine and was known as the Formula Fords. Due to the age of the engines and the difficulty with spare parts it was decided to go to an engine of similar output and so the Toyota 4AG-E was chosen. This engine is available in reasonable quanitities from Japan and arrive here from the wreckers at $400 per unit. We find them almost indistructable. They rev to about 7500 to 8000 without any additional work to the engine. We find that because we build our boats to handle the rough water that we need all the horsepower we can get to make the boats perform. The regulations require that all boats must run either the original Formula ford engine or the Toyota 4AG-E (16 valve) 1600cc. We find this helps keep the racing close and exciting. Due to the low number of competitors we all follow the spirit of the rules and try not to have a boat so fast that it makes the racing look silly or boring. The possibility of Carbon Fibre entering the scene here is something we are concerned about due to the costs. The majority of boats racing are still the "shovel nose" style however we are slowly getting newer "pickle fork" design boats taking over when boats are retired. It's amazing though, when you think a boat has retired only to see it refitted and racing again the following season. We also have a class of Lauderback boats running seperatly to our OZ LITE class and they run in the historical class with a 3.75 litre motor. The OZ LITES regularly put 8 boats into a race though we have about 15 boats competing at various times. The aim of our class is to enable the cheapest racing for newcommers though exciting enough to keep racers from leaving to bigger classes.

What I will do is send you over a copy of our rule book. In the mean time: The 4AG-E engine can not be modified from manufacturers specs other than the replacement of the fuel injection system, which the engine comes with, or the ignition system. If you decide to go with the carbies they must be side dragught Webers though you get to choose up to the size of 45 mm. Obviously everyone runs 45 mm. My boat is a 16 feet long and 8 feet wide Jones design though the design is about 10 years old. This is about as big as is being run at the moment in this class. The older shovel nose boats range from about 14 to 15 1/2 feet. Some of these boats although old are still pulling in some amazing finishes against the newer boats especially on our smaller courses. At one venue we race at, on a river course, the river is so narrow that we can only fit a 1 buoy turn in. Its a great site to see 8 boats all heading down the course and aiming for the same point. I know what you are thinking and yes we do get the odd prang.

In answer to your question on shafts. Nearly everyone runs 7/8 inch shaft though a few run 1 inch.

We have had safety cell rules passed on our class for the last two years requiring any new boats to have them fitted. I compared what our cells are like to that which I saw on one of your boats while I was in the U.S. Your cells I think are made out of carbon fibre and are very thin indeed. Ours are required to consist of two layers of fibre glass with foam sandwich. If someone were to get a carbon one apporved it would make a big difference to our weight. At the moment our best cell has weighed about 28 kg. I will have to chase up the exact details of the 3.75 Litre class for you as I don't have this to hand. They are about 14 feet long but from what I have seen they don't handle corners too well.

---

If you should care to contact Tony, his e-mail address is ajmurph@hotmail.com.
I will also post his request on the for sale/ wanted page.

---

Letter 1

---

Home