formula jr. thunderbird need info

And Another

This is the dash aera. It is further along that this but I don't have a more recent picture.

 

14 donzi

Very nice Donzi! Do you know how many were made? any for sale? I have several Formula Jr s and would like to put together a registry of serial#s,general locations,and how many there are left. If you know any F jr owners I would like to contact them. Good luck at Tavaras,wish I was going,maybe next year.

 

Friday I will be there at My Dora show

Will not be there Friday. Hopefully the Baby will be ready. Worst case id that it will get wet for the first time there. I am going to bo out of town till Thurdsay next week and I will take it weather it is ready or not.

I don't know anybody with a F JR. Infact, I am from North Miami and I lived there most of my adult live and knew alot of people from Formula including Scott Porter and I don't think I have ever seen a Formula JR (in person). I can't say that I have ever seen one in person.
I know about them.

I hung out with lots of people in the boat industriy in the 70'S and 80'S. I even owned a mirine store in N Miami called the Ship Shop with a fellow named Tim Breuil. His Day wirked at Magnum Marine as the Sales manager and was a boat racer.

 

F jr, I'm just a little curious, how many Formula Jr s do you have? I too would like to know about how many are left.
Forgive me, I'm new at this forum thing.

 

Count On Baby 14 Donzi's

There were only 14 of these boats made. 11 kmown to have been made at the Donzi factory and the last 3 made at the Cigarette factory. They were all made by Do Arranow. When he sold Donzi he took this mold with him. This was the only mold he took. All the other Donzi molds were sold. The one I have was the lsat one from the mold. It was never rigged till last year.
It is almost ready to take out for a drive

 

Wow, really just 14? That seems like a really low number. If you don't mind me asking, how did you manage to come across the last one from the mold?

 

Baby 14

Back in the late 70'S I bought this boat from someone that worked at Cigarette. I held it for a short time. I never rigged it. It was a hull and a deck with a hatch cover.
I decided it would cost too much to rig so I sold it. Actually, I traded it for two Penn Internationals.
Well the guy I sold it to never rigged it either. It sat next to his house for 30 years. I was near his houde last year and decided to swing by there to see if it was still there. I had been going ny there from time to time to try to get it back with no luck. He was never around. I left him notes and he never returned my calls.
Well I ended up gettimg it back last year and this time it went right into the shop and this is where it's at.

 

Forgive me, but I'm a little confused, did you mean that only 14 of these Baby Donzis were made or did you mean that 14 of the Formula Jr s were made?

 

There are only 14 baby Donzi 14's. I would guess there are hundreds of Formula JR. There was a nice one on eBay 6 months ago. Took a while but it sold. The price started high and ended up reasonable. I would look for a 16 Donzi if I were you. Cheaper, better and eiser to buy and sell. Plus a bigger engine fits into the boat.

 

I have a 1965 Formula Jr. boat that I restored in 1991.
I chased a friend of mine for 10 years before he finally sold me a rotten, ragged out p o s.....which I very happily bought.
As a teenager, my uncle had one and let me take my girlfriends out on it which led to many happy boating memories.
His had a Holman Moody 302 with a Volvo 270 outdrive, a solid 45 m.p.h. boat that would jump the wake of a 50 footer with anxt!
MIne has a 350 Chevy with an Alpha 1 outdrive and is substantially faster than his.
I have waved to a number of captains of 50 plus footers on thier flybridge at level...that is 12-15 feet off the water.
As I understand it Aronow "stashed" the Jr when he knew he was moving on and it later became the base for the Sweet 16 Donzi.
I have read the posts on this forum and I'm not sure who's info is correct, but I do know that I would throw rocks at a sweet 16 over my boat at EVERY level!
I would be interested to know how many Jr owners there actually are.
As I understand it , the Jr. is very popular in the lake Havasou (sp)? area.
Any input would very welcome!

 

Woo Hoo! A Formula Jr owner! I'l be honest, the Formula Jr. has to be one of my favorite boats of all time! Post some pictures! If you can't post pictures, try and give a detailed description of it (i.e. what color racing stripe, wrap around windshield, etc.). Do you still take it out during the summer?! Have you had any problems with it?!

 

Hi Scoxe1,
Im not sure how to post pics but I would be happy to e-mail you some.
I'm in the middle of re-powering right now but when she was online she was as turn-key as one could hope for.
We used to go out at least 4 to 5 times a week.
My children were much younger and would rather ride in that boat than eat!
Right now I have 3 boats and a motorcycle and not nearly enough time, but
I'll get her back online soon.

 

JaxJr,
I would love for you to email me some pics! Like I said, I'm in love with these boats and hardly ever see one! Send me some pics at scoxe1@tigers.lsu.edu

 

early thunderbird

hi,I have recently aquired an old trihull deepv.I am guessing it is from the early 60 and was designed by the folks at thunderbird. It has no markings and is powered with an inceptorv-8. It is 15.3 feet long.
I too was around in the early days at magnum. I often went over to donzi at lunch, and druled over those boats. Any help on identifing this boat will be helpful!
svasche@charter.net

 

I would say do some research at the Donzi registry. They have TONS of information on old formulas! Post some pictures