Dunlop max 800i info

Hi ,
Anyone out there ever played with this thing ? If so can you tell us your feelings, opinion on her . I re-discovered the specs again on her, and the seem rather interesting with such an incredibly crazy low flex RA. But as we know sometimes that does not translate the same when actuality playing / hitting . Anyone out there ever try it play with this vintage dunny “... let us hear ya
 

Ultra 2

Professional
I found one last year and played with it for a couple days and sold it. It’s like a soft Profile OS with that max 200g feel. You should try it if you can get a hold of one.. pretty rare.
 
Oooh ok man. A soft profile now that is a fantastic oxymoronic word phase . I love it ultra! What’s funny is... I can understand that very well .
Thank you for this .
I noticed you stated it feels more of a OS profile .
Can you explain further why it felt over sizey......
like did the Dunlop feel like it had a larger sweet spot ?
I love learning so any thing you can tell is super coo !
 

Ultra 2

Professional
It was around a 95 head size with thinner beam width than a profile. The Profile 95 had the head size playability of a PS85 due to the massive width and I thought the Profile 110 had a playability of a frame 10-15 sq inches smaller. These are good frames for someone who hits through the ball and flat. It would be horrible for the modern swing (the window pane swing).

The 800i is a slimmed down wide body and would be considered a tweener in today’s terms with that IMF feel that the was revered in the 200g, 300i and the 400i. It was the wide bodied version these aforementioned frames in a bigger head size.
 
Aww yeah !! Thank you for the info man. Always been super curious about her. It’s got an interesting head shape I always thought .kinda oval .. and wow the 41Ra is unreal . But I have a feeling it may be in the low 40’s but prolly feels like High 50’s?
 

Ronaldo

Bionic Poster
Anyone recall the MAX 500i? Btw, anyone experience warping of any of these injection molded racquets? Still have a new MAX 200G.
 
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Ultra 2

Professional
Aww yeah !! Thank you for the info man. Always been super curious about her. It’s got an interesting head shape I always thought .kinda oval .. and wow the 41Ra is unreal . But I have a feeling it may be in the low 40’s but prolly feels like High 50’s?

No way that it's in the high 50s in RA. It still had that nice soft IMF feel. Bordering on it being too flexy. It felt head light, and if you can find one in L2 or L3, I imagine it would be a sub 12 oz frame.
 

coachrick

Hall of Fame
Anyone recall the MAX 500i? Btw, anyone experience warping of any of these injection molded racquets? Still have a new MAX 200G.
Lots of warping in the Southeastern US...high heat combined with high tensions...no bueno
The 400i SHOULD have been a phenomenal frame; but it barely was a blip on the radar in Atlanta(with 45,000 league players during that time).
 
Yeah I’ve heard fab things about the 400 I... we had a top junior in KY that used it . He blasted ground strokes flat bombs never went long either , with that stick. Strung it tight with pro blend as the legend has it, was sponsored by Avia shoes!
 
Incredible that the 800i max was late production in the 80’s or 90’s? And especially to NOT have a head gaurd ! Euro clay courts sticks only need apply !
Wow man. I bet it is the perfect clay stick
 
I think themax 200 pro was 30’s RA
300 max 40’s RA
400 was 50’s RA
And 800 max
Back down in the high 30’s low 40’sRa .
 

Ronaldo

Bionic Poster
Yeah I’ve heard fab things about the 400 I... we had a top junior in KY that used it . He blasted ground strokes flat bombs never went long either , with that stick. Strung it tight with pro blend as the legend has it, was sponsored by Avia shoes!
Avia heel cushioning is awesome! Recall a junior snapping the head off a late................R.I.P. 200G with a forehand.
 

ratm355

Rookie
Yeah those IMF rackets have legit technology behind them. I wouldn't pay too much attention to the flex ratings...30+ years later a lot of that will be dependent on how much the racket was used but they'll still be very stable as designed and aren't noodles. They're all great rackets. I went with the 200G because it was readily available but I've used all of the others. I would avoid high tension poly on them...plays like crap on the 200G which is the most flexible model and could cause premature breakage especially on the 500i and 800i I hear. With the "dynamic stiffness", they play very different from about all other rackets so you really have to commit to them for a long time, make technique and string adjustments, etc. Treat them well, use head guards, don't store in your car, attic, or out in the heat all day during a tournament without a nice insulated bag.
 
Man .. damn!
Just got word on the 800i 12 oz strung up . Crap . Was hoping for lighter and then realized again , no head gaurd comes on it .
So no way to decrease weight .... and I usually don’t mind going down a bit past the first few layers of paint .... to get her on a “diet “... but even I am too afraid to do this w/ this frame as I have a feeling she is fragile to begin with . Aka “ thin walled “””””as I too
have been warned of her famed Dunlop warping..
like the max 200 g . Man that thing warped like a mother ..
But what I thought was interstring , about the max 200 g was how incredibly thick the walls in this racket truly are...
Matter of fact out of all of the 8 to 10 different rackets I’ve deconstructed the max 200 g is by far the absolute thickest walled frame I’ve ever seen .
I was able to shave / sand a ton of weight of it and still had an incredible amount of thick materiel existing wall to work with.
I think I was able to get it down to 11 oz strung for a client . Which was a large amount of weight coming from her original heft ..
Anyway ... thank you all for all your shared experiences and hope everyone is staying safe out there !
 

Ronaldo

Bionic Poster
My stock medium 200G is 14.3 oz strung. New one is unstrung, never weighed it. Only knew one player that used an 800i. 500i is light IMHO
 
Ooooh man ! 14.3 yikes !! I think the ones I was working with had to be super lights ? As they were all in the mid 12 ounces . 12 to 12.8 oz ..
wow . 14 oz . Kill me now
 

Ronaldo

Bionic Poster
Damn. Would make good warm up rackets.
This is even bettah,
b24e6af2-93dc-4bd9-9cc8-b7a7b4506fff_1.b8bb6687906ae247dd911815528ad9a7.jpeg
 
Ohh there is NO question all things perfect health wise , I play infinitely better tennis with a heavier frame .. but .. sheesh I hurt to bad afterwards
 
I have 2 of them with 2 covers and they are like brand new. Interested? Send me a messsge.
Aww thank you that’s sweet of you to offer !
So nice . Thank you :)
I’ll pass at this time . If I ever get arm healthy maybe I can try this Frame .
Thank you again for the offer.
 

Grafil Injection

Hall of Fame
I just snagged one of these to add to my Swirly collection, and so far I definitely recommend it if you're after a heavy and very comfortable stick.

MAX-800i-top.jpg


My strung specs are: 380g (13.5oz), 30.75cm balance (11pt HL), which makes it fairly easy to swing despite the mass. I would estimate SW in the mid 340s. Head size is around 95-96 sqi. It's a few millimetre longer than most 95s, but a few mm narrower. Beam is 21mm at the handle, 23mm at the throat and 26mm from the 8/4 to 12 o'clock. Fairly similar to some Prince CTS frames. And that was an L3 stickered frame.

MAX-800i-side.jpg


After a brief hit in the wind today, there is the nice IMF flex; and whilst I have no reason to doubt the measured 32 RA, I would say it feels more like a mid 50s RA when hitting, in the same way that MAX 200G etc also feel more stable than their RAs. Overall, I find it similar to other wide-body frames of the time, but with a much more comfortable feel. Here is the size compared to a 200G. An important difference is that the string-bed is much more variable than the 200G and most other 85s, which I've found to have very even string-beds. The 800i is very dense in the central 25 cells (sweet-spot), then becomes progressively less dense in a linear fashion. Over the central 100 cells (sweet-zone), the average cell size is 1.20cm2, which makes it still on the dense side. In comparison, the average cell size in the 200G's sweet-zone is 1.325cm2, about the middle for all rackets.

MAX-800i-and-MAX-200-G.jpg
 
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Grafil Injection

Hall of Fame
After a second hit today, the 800i proved to be very easy to serve with. I would say similar to a quality current stick like Radical Pro or Pure Drive. Plenty of power with good control as well. Feels more like 335g than 380g. Just a bit tricky regarding manipulation/spin options due to the mass. Feel is very comfortable, no need for a dampener, in fact perhaps too comfortable. I can imagine that a lively string might be the way to go to get more feedback.
 

Grafil Injection

Hall of Fame
Wow thank u so much for the review !!!
My conclusion so far is it's a very nice stick with the weight providing great stability, whilst not being a problem to manoeuvre being so HL. But, it doesn't have the IMF magic of the 85s. My guess is because the 200,300 & 400 have the very boxy beams, whereas the 800i is a more modern flattened oval.
 

Grafil Injection

Hall of Fame
I'm not aware of that model unfortunately. Looking at your pictures and the 2013 thread also requesting information, it seems similar to a MAX in that the beam is both thick and deep and the graphics are similar. On the other hand the way the top of the throat turns upwards and the throat bridge is not recessed shows it is not using the same mold as any of the known IMF frames. I recall some other Dunlop models from Germany that were clearly designed to look like IMF MAXes, and the Court Star was a historic Dunlop name, so perhaps it's one of those. If it's a bargain, I'd go for it just to find out, or get a higher resolution picture and see if it has grommets first. I noticed the thread on the Dunlop 100G that also has similar IMF graphics, but was produced in Taiwan out of Kevlar and Nicalon and had normal grommets etc.
 
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retrowagen

Hall of Fame
I think that Court Star was a late late late wood composite mid, fully painted (a’ls Donnay) to lend it the cachet of its more modern and upmarket siblings, and possibly dupe the ignorant consumer.
 

Grafil Injection

Hall of Fame
Thanks, but I've got too many rackets now! If it's a bargain you should go for it and let us know the details, then give the other junk to charity.
 

wedge

Rookie
Old thread, but recently grabbed an 800i since 400i's and 200g's are my favs but keep finding myself wishing for even a little more string real estate.

Replaced the grip with a synthetic, strung with gosen og sheep 17. and it weighs in at 351 with a 4 3/8 grip. 9pts HL. Fascinated that these could come in at 380g+!!! Assuming that's at bigger grip sizes, or did it not work that way by that point?

At this 351g weight this one is super playable, swing weight feels like high 320's, maybe low 330's. Next time I'll string it a bit lower than the 50 it's at, just feels like all these IMF frames are happiest at loosey goosey tensions, it feels a little too high strung even at just 50lbs, but that may just be me.

The one I had came improperly strung and warped -- the frame has grooves that you're supposed to run the strings through to keep things flush with the frame, but the previous stringer literally did the opposite, running the string OVER the frame and avoiding the grooves. As a result the strings were all zigzaggy on the face, and one side of the frame was being pulled in pretty badly. Luckily it returned to shape after the crappy string job was eviscerated with prejudice.

It really does have that feeling on center of the frame like a black hole sucking up all vibration, though it certainly doesn't offer the same forgiveness off-center as the previous IMF frames (though I've never played with a 500). As @Grafil Injection mentioned it doesn't really want to do spinny stuff and seems happiest just moving mass through the ball. I'm curious to put a little bit of lead at 6 and 12 to get a bit more SW and reduce some frame vibration. I'm pretty shocked at the reports of it having ~40 RA ... I dunno, it certainly doesn't feel that flexy to me, though the fact it also has that widebody feel might be throwing me off.

Regarding bumpers, I did find another one on the auction site that seemed to have a fairly weird three-part plastic bumper thingo, one little piece at 12 o'clock and two longer side pieces, it didn't look aftermarket or anything, so maybe an edition later in the run. It was cheap enough so I picked it up and will share pics of it later this week. Anyway 800i is definitely a very nice frame but doesn't have that "omg I have to play with this for the rest of my life" feeling I get from the 200g and 400i. High bar I guess!
 

wedge

Rookie
Here's the 800i with the 3-part bumper:

vn6UasZ.jpeg


I would bet they used this design just to save some weight on an already heavy frame. This one comes in 10g heavier than the one without the bumper, and feels noticeably bigger to swing. Very interesting detail though!
 

Grafil Injection

Hall of Fame
Here's the 800i with the 3-part bumper:

vn6UasZ.jpeg


I would bet they used this design just to save some weight on an already heavy frame. This one comes in 10g heavier than the one without the bumper, and feels noticeably bigger to swing. Very interesting detail though!

That's so weird! I often think it would be useful to have a selection of bumper pieces so you can tune your swing-weight when stringing.
 

wedge

Rookie
That's so weird! I often think it would be useful to have a selection of bumper pieces so you can tune your swing-weight when stringing.

As a quick follow-up to this, I came across a vintage black Dunlop leather grip that I decided to put on this bumper-ified 800i, because this racket with the bumper parts has a head-heavy feel I don't really love compared to the nekkid 800i. In any case I took the opportunity to get some specs on it afterwards, and this sheds some fascinating light on the situation imo.

So the bumpered one WAS 362g static with its original synthetic grip, and now it's up to 376g with the new grip. Fine, that was my fault and I didn't have to do that lol ... I'll take it if it makes the thing feel less head-heavy to swing (it does). But that doesn't change the fact that the swing weight is 330 on the no-bumper one (rational, playable), and 358 on the bumpered one (irrational, not playable, powerful hatred for shoulder).

So one can only imagine what the swing weight may have been on an 800i they tested with a stock Dunlop full bumper that compelled them to delete two huge parts of it. But no doubt by that point they were getting complaints of damage to the head from players and pro shops, and folks who added head protection tape to this beast were probably in for something of a shock in terms of what that does to swing weight. So they must have really been caught in the middle there.

Also noticed that this one was last strung in 1991, with Gamma Boron string. It's my first time encountering it in the wild and boy that is an interesting string -- apparently it was irradiated?? It looks and plays like a new soft poly! The mains snap right back into place, and even after 34 years, there's no notches. Though the fact they stopped making it makes me nervous that maybe it's irradiating me heheheh
 

Grafil Injection

Hall of Fame
As a quick follow-up to this, I came across a vintage black Dunlop leather grip that I decided to put on this bumper-ified 800i, because this racket with the bumper parts has a head-heavy feel I don't really love compared to the nekkid 800i. In any case I took the opportunity to get some specs on it afterwards, and this sheds some fascinating light on the situation imo.

So the bumpered one WAS 362g static with its original synthetic grip, and now it's up to 376g with the new grip. Fine, that was my fault and I didn't have to do that lol ... I'll take it if it makes the thing feel less head-heavy to swing (it does). But that doesn't change the fact that the swing weight is 330 on the no-bumper one (rational, playable), and 358 on the bumpered one (irrational, not playable, powerful hatred for shoulder).

So one can only imagine what the swing weight may have been on an 800i they tested with a stock Dunlop full bumper that compelled them to delete two huge parts of it. But no doubt by that point they were getting complaints of damage to the head from players and pro shops, and folks who added head protection tape to this beast were probably in for something of a shock in terms of what that does to swing weight. So they must have really been caught in the middle there.

Also noticed that this one was last strung in 1991, with Gamma Boron string. It's my first time encountering it in the wild and boy that is an interesting string -- apparently it was irradiated?? It looks and plays like a new soft poly! The mains snap right back into place, and even after 34 years, there's no notches. Though the fact they stopped making it makes me nervous that maybe it's irradiating me heheheh

I guess the nature of the 800i not needing grommets, means the head-guard pieces are completely optional when you restring. I wonder if you can even move them to different positions?

The boron in the strings should absorb any radiation from other exotic materials in its construction.
 
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