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Old 06-06-2013, 02:07 PM   #1
Mike Phillips
 
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Status: Director of Training
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 675
Default 1970 Sanger Flat Bottom V-Drive Drag - My First Boat

1970 Sanger Flat Bottom V-Drive Drag - My First Boat


This was my first boat, at the time my dad had a 1965 15' Hydro-Swift with a 75 Evinrude so going from dad's runabout ski boat to this was a huge change.

I bought the hull when I was 21, spent two years paying for and building a 402 Big Block Chevy engine for it and then after 20 years total and about a year after my son was born I sold it. So I owned it for 20 years but I started driving it and skiing behind it when I was 17 as my best friend had bought it from the original owner when he was 16.

So I ran around in this boat for about 25 years... that's a long time with the same boat...

Here's some pictures in no specific order...


I had the high back bucket seats custom built as I though it gave the boat a real nice look with the tall Indy Scoop...








Here's a shot of the engine with my son in the driver's seat. If you look on the head of the engine behind the passenger seat you can see the stereo and behind the scoop is the antenna with a "76 Gas Station" ball on the top of it. Down below were a bunch of amps and speakers. I didn't put the stereo in till years later when I owned it and it was never in the boat when I raced it.




This was taken when I sold the boat, I think I'm 41 in this picture...




This is a shot of me racing the 1/4 mile I think in 1983 or 1984. I clocked my fastest time of 111 mph in 12 seconds. The boat was raced professionally by Rick Baker and he clocked 122 mph in 9 seconds in 1976. Back then that was really fast in the drag boat racing world.




I've owned 4 full convertible Blazers, this was a 1973 and it was a great boat puller...






This is the oldest photo I have of the boat, this was back when Eric owned it and we were still in High School as that was his truck it's hooked up to. Note the low back seats back then...




Here's a shot of the driver's cockpit, there were the up and down pedals plus the gas pedal. Everything was polished whether it was gel-coat or aluminum. That's a 1969 Blazer CST in the background, that was a great boat puller too...




The reason for the dual Tachs was because the one in the tach holder never worked from the day I installed it but because I "assumed" a brand new tach would work just fine I used clear silicone to stick it into the aluminum tach holder and to finally get it out I had to beat it out with a punch and a hammer. Before I removed it though I simply attached a plain-Jane tach that actually worked great and worked for years...




I rand dual 660's and the carb linkage was reground to make the carb progressive so all 8 barrels didn't dump all at once. Before I re-ground the linkage if it backfired it would throw a flame ball out the scoop about 3 feet... right past your head as you were sitting in the boat. That was always exciting...




If you look carefully, you can see I'm pulling the boat with the first 1959 Cadillac I ever bought. This too was a great boat puller and a blast to drive with the top off. Of the the left was my buddy Eric's 1976 Sanger Bubble Deck Runner Bottom, I loved his boat and if I could ever get another Drag boat I would want a Sanger Runner Bottom V-Drive Bubble Deck...




Found this ad years ago and kept it as it shows a bubble deck runner bottom for sale...






Sad to say I don't have a lot of pictures of my Sanger drag boat, didn't seem important to take pictures back when we were going boating all the time...


This time next year I'd like to buy my third boat but to be honest since I live in South Florida now I'm looking towards a Center Console model.




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