A mock-up version of Sterling Performance’s long-awaited—the project began almost three years ago—1,700-hp turbocharged engine arrived at TNT Custom Marine in Miami a few weeks ago. The mock-up is being used by TNT co-owner and chief rigger Mike Thomas to prepare a 36-foot Skater catamaran for installation when the final versions of the twin 557-cubic-inch engines are complete. Mike D’Anniballe, the owner of Milford, Mich.-based Sterling Performance, as well as the Skater cat he purchased to showcase the turbocharged engines, said he hopes to have the first engine to TNT in two weeks.
“We sent Mike a mock-up engine so they can get the wiring and rigging done, get the tailpipes ready, do any glass work that’s needed and so on,” said D’Anniballe in a telephone interview this morning. “I talked to him an hour ago and he said he had the mock-up engine sitting in the boat.”
If Sterling’s schedule holds, the twin 1,700-hp turbocharged engines for this Skater catamaran will be shipped in two weeks.
As for the 1,700-hp engines themselves, D’Anniballe said they are in “final assembly” after extensive testing. Once the assembly is complete, the engines will be “dressed” and dynamometer-tested one more time before they are shipped to TNT.
“We literally ran a couple of thousand gallons of fuel through the engines just playing with them,” D’Anniballe explained. “We went with bigger turbochargers, which meant complete remapping. I said, while they’re sitting here let’s tear them down, look at how everything is holding up and rebuild them so they go out fresh.”
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