Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum
We're racing through history!
By Fred Farley - Unlimited Hydroplane Historian
Most Unlimited hydroplane fans are familiar with the Dossin brothers' MISS PEPS V (the 1947 National Champion with Danny Foster at the wheel) and the twin-Allison MISS PEPSI (the 1951-52 National Champion with Chuck Thompson as driver).
Very little has been written about the unsuccessful single-Allison MISS PEPSI that came in between these two.
The single-engine MISS PEPSI of 1948 was designed and built by Clell Perry, who had won the Gold Cup in 1937 as driver of NOTRE DAME.
After the 1947 Season, the Dossin Brothers (Walter, Roy, and Russell) parted company with Danny Foster. At about the same time, Perry came to them with a new design for an Unlimited hydroplane. And the Dossins accepted.
The craft was a step hydroplane and measured 34 feet in length. Perry built it in his garage in Anchor Bay, north of Detroit. One of the unique factors about the boat was that it had no side. The deck and the bottom met at an edge. Another factor which Clell took pride in was that he had taken the hood of a Hudson and hammered it in copper for the top bow piece of the boat.
Today, most pictures of MISS PEPSI show it being towed, which is how it spent most of 1948. Perry drove it himself the first season. He participated in five races but only finished one heat all year.
It should be noted that Clell had crippled his arm in a 1938 accident with NOTRE DAME and hadn't driven in competition in ten years.
Perry then introduced the family to Chuck Thompson, a champion outboard competitor. Chuck moved up to the big time as rookie driver of MISS PEPSI. Thompson won no races in 1949 but certainly got more out of the boat than Perry ever did. His best finish was a second-place in the Gull Lake Regatta at Battle Creek, Michigan.
By all accounts, the boat was terrible from the get-go. It did not want to get up on a plane. It roared along at slow speeds with its bow up in the air.
At one point, an engineer suggested that the crew put in self-bailers along the step. These spring-loaded gadgets would open as pressure built up inside the boat as it built up speed. Once these were installed, the vacuum which had been building up behind the step was broken and the boat settled right down in the water.
Unfortunately, even after this problem was solved, MISS PEPSI never did very well in competition. Another problem was a major flaw in the design. Since there was no freeboard or side there was no strength on the outside edges of the hull. The stress level was enormous and it had a real affect on the boat's ability to turn. The only strength was in the stringers, which held the engine. It's probably a blessing that the single Allison could never get the boat moving very fast.
Almost to the relief of the brothers, MISS PEPSI was dropped by a crane operator in New Martinsville, West Virginia, near the end of the season. That broke the boat's back and put it out of its misery.
Because of the lack of power, the Dossin brothers decided to go in a different direction with their new John Hacker-designed hull of 1950. The original plan presented to them by Hacker was a modified version of MY SWEETIE with a single engine. The brothers said forget it. They wanted power. And that led to the twin-engine MISS PEPSI, which measured 36 feet in length and was nicknamed "The Mahogany Cigar" and "The Aquatruck." But that's another story.