What is F500?

[Tim Weber]

I've seen results for this and have no idea what the class is.

Tim

[mercguy]

I've seen results for this and have no idea what the class is.

Tim

is is the STOCK 45SS class that is now in the Pro Division, since stock eliminated the class effective Nov 2019.

[HRTV]

In Europe the UIM F500 hull is a full tunnel boat

[HRTV]

Marian Jung was the 2018 UIM F500 Champion, notice the boat is a full tunnel

[Big Don]

Seems like a good fit in PRO. Glad the class didn't go away.

[Team B&H]

F500 is the premier F (Pro) outboard class in Europe. It is a tunnel hull with a 4 cylinder VRP or Rossi 500 cc motor using hydraulic trim plus up-and-down to go with the sliding pipes so the driver has plenty to play with. Performance is similar to our SST-120 or F2 boats. It is pretty intense racing for the factory teams. Marian Jung with a VRP motor was champion the previous 2 years. I watched him test one day last summer and was amazed at what they ran in one day. We have enough difficulty getting the single cylinder 125 motor tuned well and the 500 guys essentially are running 4 125 motors.

[baries]

Would like to see the USTS allow the UIM boat design. They are impressive.

[Team B&H]

F 500 is running today in Poland. I don't have internet at the shop but Marcin Zielinski had posted something earlier on his FB page. You should be able to find videos of that race in Poland or the earlier race at Boretto Italy italy if you search a bit. Gmina Znin on FB may have some videos as well.

[ricochet112]

Seems like a good fit in PRO. Glad the class didn't go away.

Sarcasm?

How is a tunnel boat that uses a stock motor, running on gas and oil and has a weight a good fit for the Pro category?

Last time I looked, 4-5 years ago, there were maybe 15 wet bottoms in all of APBA...

[Big Don]

No sarcasm at all.

[ricochet112]

Ok, thanks.

What do you think makes 45SS a good fit for Pro?

IMO, I could see Mod, but Pro seems odd to me...

[John Schubert]

Sarcasm?

How is a tunnel boat that uses a stock motor, running on gas and oil and has a weight a good fit for the Pro category?

Last time I looked, 4-5 years ago, there were maybe 15 wet bottoms in all of APBA...

Not sure also that it's a good fit in PRO, but you need to look at the SST45 drivers in the OPC category. There are over 30 & consistently have 20+ at most of their races. California raced both the 45SST (SO) & 45SST (OPC) at all of their races so the drivers could pile up SO points.
It certainly has a lot more entries per race then a lot of SO classes do at most races, and I', a SO'er & OPC'er at heart. Yes & PRO as well.

[jsilvestri]

It makes sense because their are already divers on site for the capsule pro hydros.

[Racerkyle20]

Bingo. The PRO category added F500 to encourage the Euro style racing (Tunnel/capsule Hydro's) here in the US. The class was only introduced in APBA PRO last season with no entries. So with stock eliminating the 45 Stock class, PRO had a proposal in Orlando to add it to the F500 class. The proposal passed, that is why the Stock 45 class is now running in PRO. Currently I believe the main entries are coming from region 10.

[John Schubert]

It makes sense because their are already divers on site for the capsule pro hydros.

GOOD CATCH Joe,but thats only if they run the 500, 700 & 1100 that aren't on the APBA Pro schedules. I really didn't even think of that, but they won't come to a Pro race unless they can run a mini marathon of at least 15 laps.

[ricochet112]

As a race director that makes sense. If one has a Pro capsule boat on the schedule the 45's can join in easily then.

[DeanFHobart]

It also helped the class to keep running in Region 10 races.