July/Aug 2011 Hydrostream of the month - 1977 Viper

[Hippie459MN]

Hydrostream of the month for July/August 2011
Chet Olson (77viper) and his 1977 Viper

Chets 1977 Viper is powered by a 1986 2.4 200 with cut heads, aluminum flywheel, and wh22 carbs, and a 130 hp Nitrox stinger nitrous kit for a little extra fun. Its what he refers to as his "Fishing Motor". Really, It is.... For now....

The boat weighs 997 pounds without fuel and was rebuilt with 1/4 mile drag racing as it's main purpose. With a 26 yamaha drag it will easily do 85 in the quarter mile and 97 when you hit the nitrous (This is only in the quarter mile). It was completely rebuilt in his garage, including the carbon fiber work, with basic tools and a lot of time.

Congratulations Chet.

[RussF]

CONGRATES CHET

[Hippie459MN]

Congratulations Chet.

I have personally seen and ridden in this boat and its defiantly something else. 80+ mph on his local lake sitting on the Nitrous bottles and it rode straight as an arrow and smooth as could be. All that hard work more then paid off if you ask me.

[Rut311969]

Bout time we gota see some pics of this masterpiece . I love the carbon fiber . It really is hard to get alook at Chets boat as its usely going mach 1 in all the pics I have seen . Very nice Chet.

[VultureNo2]

Way to go Chet. You deserve it. Bill

[Hippie459MN]

Gotta love the electrical tape numbers in the 1st picture.

The new numbers look much better.

[77viper]

Thanks guys, it means a lot coming from stream owners!

I went into this rebuild knowing little to nothing about fiberglass, just what not to do. I talked to the right people at Express Composites and they sent me in the right direction. Once I started it was nice to post pictures and get encouragement and a little prodding from you guys. In the end it turned out better than I expected and WAY OVER budget but I like it. I will continue to do little things 'cus a project is never done.

This is one of my favorite pictures, just done buffing for the first time.

[almightygimp1]

beautiful ride, hope mine turns out half as good

[YDOC462]

cool thing about boat of the month... non members just browsing the web who come across the site immediatly get to see a badass boat and see why hydrostreams are the coolest

awesome ride chet every time i see it, it motivates me to put all i can into mine.

[redneckcustoms13]

the more i look at this boat i am just more and more astounded at how nice it really is. it may be purpose built for 1/4mile racing, but it is by far one of the nicest i have ever seen. keep up the good work chet. its a remarkable ride