Wide World of Insane Motorsports: Jetsprinting

[ScottyB]

i saw this on speedvision a few months ago and it was absolutely amazing. basically, jetsprinting is like autocrossing for boats. It originated in the natural rivers of australia and new zealand. there is no boat to boat racing, and its on a natural or man made course that usually lasts less than a minute. the tracks are usually creeks or rivers around 2 feet deep and the channels they drive through are 30 or 40 feet wide. the boats are INSANE. they are tiny, 2 person hulls with a 700-1200 horsepower engine strapped in behind the driver/navigator. in hard corners the two occupants pull up to 7 g's. the boats can also accelerate from 0-80 in 3 seconds (this is all according to <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ussba.org">http://www.ussba.org</a><!-- m --> ). they can literally turn 180 degrees in the space of a few feet at nearly top speed due to the jet nozzle. the reaction of the boat is practically instantaneous to driver imput, and since there are no brakes, and the only way to steer is with the throttle, corners are taken at balls-to-the-wall speed. unfortunately i can't find any videos, but it is on speed channel every now and then. tracks and interest is spreading fast, so it may not be long before we see this on the east coast (the only current U.S. tracks are in whashington)

pictures are in my gallery!

sprintboat.org also has a ton of info on these things