Latest Mercury 450R-Powered Victory Cat Reaches 141 MPH

Between the many trips over the last two months to Lake Havasu, the Colorado River-fed waterway that borders Arizona and California, it’s clear that Victory Powerboats West is on a mission. A 140-plus-mph mission to be exact.

The team at Victory Powerboats West recently spent some time dialing in its latest Victory catamaran with twin Mercury Racing 450R engines and reached an impressive 141-mph top speed on Arizona’s Lake Havasu. Photo courtesy Dale Dondel

Almost two weeks ago, I caught up with Dale Dondel, the owner of the Temecula, Calif.-based dealership for the new Victory Team-built outboard-powered catamarans. Dondel, who I interviewed four years ago when he took delivery of his new Eliminator Boats 28 Speedster with twin Mercury Racing Verado 400R engines (read the story), was pretty excited to talk about both the new Victory cats he’d recently tested on Lake Havasu.

One was his new demo model, an almost 36-footer dubbed the VTX 34 that is powered by twin Mercury Racing 450R engines and features a stellar paintjob. He had just run the boat, which did not have all of its finishing touches just yet, up to an impressive 140 mph and was raving about how well it performed and handled, and how fast it was with the 38-inch-pitch Dewald propellers. The other was the almost 30-foot sport cat that Victory calls the VTX 27. Dondel had delivered the all-white boat—also powered by twin Mercury Racing 450R engines—to a client in Parker, Ariz., a couple of weeks earlier.

Then yesterday we connected again regarding last weekend’s trip back to the lake in the completed Victory where he was able to squeeze another mph out of the boat by reaching 141 mph with the engines turning 6450 rpm, and still on the rev-limiter, he said.

The first time I spoke with Dondel, an accomplished off-road racer who owns Racer Engineering in Murrieta, about his new boating venture was in January when Victory Team representative Ricky Maldonado was delivering one of the new catamarans. He was obviously excited, but he’s even more so now.

“All around, and I’m not saying this because I’m selling them, I think the Victory cat is the best one on the water—and I’ve driven them all,” Dondel said. “The team has spent so much time and money on technology and testing over the years, and it shows. I think the boat out turns, out accelerates, out top-ends anything else on the planet. That’s not to say that other companies aren’t building some great boats, it’s just that Victory is ahead of the game.”

Check out the slideshow above for more images of the first two models finished by Victory Powerboats West in Southern California. Photos courtesy Dale Dondel and Tom Leigh/Tommy Gun Images

Dondel said he has three already sold boats on order that he’s hoping Victory is going to ship to him soon. Along with potential customers he’s already connected with, he anticipates a lot of interest once the time comes to give more demo rides.

“These boats are homeruns, they really are,” Dondel said. “They’re so performance-oriented and they’re so responsive. The power to weight ratio is unbelievable especially for how solid the boats feel. The bigger boat has zero transition, absolutely no porpoise, at any speed. The smaller boat has a little one around 45 to 55 mph but that’s fairly normal with a cat. The acceleration of both boats is just ridiculous. When I flew back to Dubai and met with Scot Gillman and test drove the boat, I knew I had to be involved with them.”

Latest Mercury 450R-Powered Victory Cat Reaches 141 MPH

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