Every country has its racing legends, both mechanical and human. Typically the legends (of both types) are born through superhuman feats of daring, sustained success or their role in redefining their particular area of competition. In this case we’re talking about an awesome boat from Australia called the Aggressor that launched itself into Australian motorsports immortality during the 1971-1972 Australian Unlimited Hydroplane season when it entered all 11 races the series had, won 10 and wrecked spectacularly during the 11th while fighting for the lead. With a massive Merline V12 airplane engine for power, the boat was and still in an awesome sight to behold because it has the old school layout with the motor in the front and the driver/co-driver combo sitting behind it.
While American and European Unlimited Hydro racing got most of the attention, the Aussies had a vibrant series of their own going on and had a culture of competition for these boats that started back in 1913. Like everywhere else in the world, these craft were (and are) insanely expensive to build and perhaps even more so to drive in anger. With speeds of over 150 mph and technology that was not very much removed from the 1913 boats that got the ball rolling, these monsters were hard to drive and provided very little in the way of forgiveness or protection for the occupants when things went wrong.
Before we go any further with that we should mention that the Aggressor boat was built by Dave Tenny who owned the craft. He was a pipe fitter by trade and constructed Aggressor on nights and weekends with little outside help. The first couple seasons for the boat were not the best as they fought problems with the initial hull design and then the engine, and other piddling issues until it all came together for them in 1971 into 1972. We are not 100% sure if this is a recreation, reconstruction, or restoration of the original boat but we do know that at the end of that 71/72 season, Tenny and his riding mechanic Les Scott were involved in a horrible wreck that crippled Scott for the rest of his life and left Tenny a banged up mess. Tenny and Scott remained friends and stayed involved with boat racing but never got into another race boat themselves. It is a pretty powerful example that even when it seems as though you have the world by the tail and nothing can go wrong in racing, disaster is always lurking.
While we cannot speak to the historical provenance of this actual boat in the video we can tell you that it is a damned fine example of what the Aggressor looked like on her finest days in the water. Listening to that big Merlin shove this baby along is music to our ears!
This may have been a marinised Merlin from a British motor torpedo boat, That would have come with the water cooling system already installed and a somewhat waterproof electrical system. The first and only time I ever got seasick was on one of these when i went shark fishing in Cornwall as it was hitting every wave crest at about 30mph.