The really "Old School" boating thread

[Sharp shooter]

The 20ft v bottom was before the flat. The first flat was the wood deck yellow and blue one he won the Orange Bowl 250 in 1969 with the injected Boss 429. I posted a pic of it earlier in this thread.

Interestlngly, the very first V bottom GN hull win was the 1967 Outboard World Championship in Havasu with 3 Mercs driven by Rudy, Ron Larson and Michael Reagan.
But I believe you are correct that the first inboard powered 20 ft GN was Vic's "Big Red E" at the Elsinore 500

Rudy swore the 20ft V bottom is nothing more than the Allison hull cut down and straked. When built the flat for the Orange Bowl in 69, he just threw a "false" bottom into the mold to flatten it out. Who is I to doubt it. Sounds possible.




Vic in the Big Red E and Butch Patterson in Rudy's Phfft



Vic at the 68 Elsinore 500. Kam Nelson was the trophy girl.

Thanks for the info Bob.

Doesn't the GN actually measure 19' 6" and they call it a 20? I'm a cloudy on the details. What about the decks, there's at least 2 and one drops down in the front.

I interviewed Rudy (one of many times) and we got on the subject of these bottoms and he said the same thing to me about the U-9 having the same bottom. I peaked under the boat and thought, it sure doesn't look the same, but I wasn't going to question King Rudy. lol

Where's the Edelbrock boat now?