One Of The First Mirage Jaguar Jets

[sdba069]

This is about the 3rd or 4th Mirage jet that we put together back in the early-mid 90's. I originally rigged it with a blown, intercooled 540 BBC and it hauled a$$. We sorta lost track of it for a while but it popped up on Ebay. Didn't intend this for a spam but more to show off one of our old boats. I'll post a link to the Ebay ad in the Spam section.
http://i9.ebayimg.com/01/i/08/75/b1/1c_12.JPG

[SmokinLowriderSS]

I like. Very nice.

[jweeks123]

is the mirage bottom an original design or an evolution of some previous design?
jw

[sdba069]

Here's the short version.. Some years ago, I used to wrench a little for some Mod VP racers who ran Mirage hulls I met Brad Collins at a race, who built the Mirage boats, and posed the question, wonder how one of these would work with a little different bottom and a jet in it. About 5 years later, Brad called me up and asked me to come to his shop, a couple of hours away, and let's dicuss putting a jet in one of them. I went over, made some sketches, and the Mirage Jaguar Jet was born. I designed the original keel in the boat. Papp came out and looked at them and helped us modify the reliefs on the center pod in the mold. I made various changes on the bottom over the years that I raced those hulls and they work very well. Hot Boat did a test on one of these several years ago. At that time, if memory serves me, was the fastest stock engine jet boat they had ever tested, and may still be. It ran like 78 or 79 mph with 2 people and a pretty good load of fuel. They could carry 34 gallons. That bare hull weighed 850#.

[sdba069]

Back to the original question, I think everything but the original, is an evolution of an original design. It has a bottom similar to a Cheyenne, but not quite. The boat in the picture has the original bottom design without the relief modifications.

[jweeks123]

thanks for the reply. seems like a logical way to proceed - - add new ideas to some proven old ones
jw

[Gearhead]

Garry,
Where did Evan Roderick fit into the picture? He produced a Mirage RXT 17 jet in the late 1980's. I'm thinking that hull was a derivative of an Earl Smith 17'.
http://www.youngbloodjetboats.com/ads/EER1.jpg
Was this a totally different project or does it have some connection to the project that you and Brad worked on. I believe Scottie Seastum's boat is one of the evolutions from Evan's Mirage project.
Is/was there more than one company building a boat called "Mirage". Just trying to understand and put the pieces together.
Thanks!
Gearhead

[sdba069]

It is a totally different deal. Theirs was that second gen Earl deal, I guess. I think you are right on the Scotty deal also. On our Mirage, we modified the outboard version to work with the jet drive. Our boats had absolutely no connection to the RXT deal. That's a good history lesson though. I had forgotten about those.

[Gearhead]

Thanks Garry,
I thought that might be the case, but did not really know for sure. It is sometimes more difficult to follow the paths when the boats have the same or similiar name.
I think I saw your white Mirage 069 boat for sale on a board recently. It now has blue flames and seemed like it is in Florida.
Gear

[396_WAYS_TO_SPIT]

Once again gary is sharing info with fellow boaters Good looking rig