TOPIC: 1988 Advantage banshee.

Just picked this one up over the weekend for my 2.4L ovalport.

Nice combo! Is that an eliminator Daytona, or one of those Obsession boats that was made in Shawano years ago that seemed to be like the Eliminator brand? Looks wicked! Nice grab. They made a mini boat version of that about 12-13 feet long. Have fun with it... hopefully more pictures next summer!

Dr Go, it is a splash of the california eliminator scorpion. I do however have a spinnoff of the Shawano Eliminator scorpion, a rapid craft riot, and boy is she a blast!!!!! Here's my riot with the 2.0 sst120 racing powerhead on a 20 inch mid and cle lower. She FLIES!!!!

Top picture is Sam Ron Baker's Eliminator scorpion that his dad ron used to tool the plug for the rapid craft riot, rapid craft riot plug in the bottom picture.

And here's a video out on the riot this summer.

www.facebook.com/1344306965/videos/10223243033447846/

Pretty cool stuff. I remember the Rapid Crafts. I used to get Hot boat magazine back in those days. I started reading my Dad’s powerboat magazines back in the late 60’s. Those hot rod Dad’s running the calm river back in those days got us kids all hooked on tinkering and swapping motors. Your boats look like they are doing 100 just sitting on the trailer. I am still trying to figure how to watch that video... I am sure it’s just me not doing something right. Have fun... looks like you already are!

Nice find Shake!
I was GM at advantage when your boat was built. The majority were set up as outboards as they'd run very well with a stock 220, mid 70's all day long. The jets ran very wet but we sold quite a few. The fastest one we built though was set up with an I/O. OMC had released their Cobra outdrive a year or so before and it was a pile. After working out the bugs the King Cobra was introduced but didn't sell well. They came to us making an offer, they wanted a record, any record to advertise with. We decided on the ETII class and built one with a King Cobra, lower unit reword by Joe Rodes, and ran a single carb small 350 chevy that had been massaged by McLaren engines.
The boat ran like stink and we set the kilo record at, if I remember right, 118 mph. Record still stands after almost 35 years. We ran the Mississippi river race twice, 1000 miles up river in 2 days. Broke the first year and won the second. Next up was the Parker Enduro which I think was reduced by then from 9 hours to either 5 or 7. Flipped in the first turn, ripped one of the sponsons off and sank. We recovered after the race, stripped it down and sold the bare hull and sponson to someone in Texas.

Lotta fun.

The banshee molds were sold off to someone in AZ, where Advantage has been for a few decades, and they stuck their first part in the mold. I think it was trashed?

Here we are a few hours before we flipped, wish I had more pics.

That's wild! great information! I bet it was a blast!!

Old rigger, I ended up buying an advantage ski sport. Super nice boat!

Nice little 18!
Advantage bought some of Roger Weiman's molds (Roger's Custom Boats in Bellflower, CA) back in the early 80's. Maybe '83ish. I worked for Roger at the time landing there after the economy tanked in the late 70's, most of the shops closed up seemingly over night. Mom mom grew up with Roger and i knew him since I was a kid. Great guy to work for and he taught me how to rig. Before that I worked in the glass dept.
Anyway that 18 along with Roger's 19TR (mostly the 18) dominated circle racing back in the day and even today most of the guys racing Comp Jet are using a Rogers/Advantage. Harry, the owner of Advantage, raced comp jet as well as K boats. They still have the 18 molds and you can see their latest build on River Daves Place. Theres a section called 'new builds from the mold', shops post up their latest builds.

The best 18 V bottom ever tooled up.

Roger passed in '09 and Harry was murdered in '98, I think.

That's some neat information. It's a nice ride for sure. I really like the open bows, makes life easier. I was jlnorthrup on the hot boat magazine forums back in the early 2000s. I imagine that you were also on those forums..

Ya, that was a great site.