World-War II wrought profound changes in APBA Gold Cup competition, and the Unlimited's were back for the first time since 1921. More and more boats used sponsons rather than 'stepped' displacement hulls to skim over the water, and the powerplants of choice were the Allison and Rolls-Royce Merlin engines originally designed for use in WWII fighter aircraft.
The 1947 Gold Cup Champion was Miss Peps V, a pre-war 3-point hull, owned by the Dossin brothers of Detroit and driven by the 1996 Hall-Of-Fame inductee Danny Foster. Miss Peps V was the first Gold Cup winner to use a V-12 Allison.
Run on the extremely rough water of Jamaica Bay, NY, Foster outran the likes of Albin Fallon in Miss Great Lakes, Guy Lombardo in Tempo VI and Dan Arena in Notre Dame to win at an average speed of 56.8 MPH.
Although sponsored by Pepsi-Cola, the Dossin boat couldn't carry the full name into competition because of a ban on commercial sponsorships. As the cost of campaigning a modern 'Gold Cupper' continued to spiral upward, corporate sponsorship would soon be a welcome and necessary part of racing life.
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