red dragon

my wife and i are looking at a 97 challenger single engine, for the most part it runs well, plains out nice with 4 people in the boat. we test drove it yesterday and the only thing i noticed was it would stutter wehen starting off and would stop if you backed out on the throttle or when it got up on plain. we took 2 people out of the boat and it did it again just not as bad, and to test my own theory i got it on plain and got at about 20 mph i cut it around and did a 180 ad it did it bad when i it swung around and went deep in the water, the current owner says its a rev limiter but i call BS, even tho i know very little about these boats at the moment, i think it something with the impeller or the drive system. any thoughts or suggestions or something to look for that might help me diagnose this issue. and help me determine an amount to offer this guy or to just walk away. thanks in advance... mark

hello guys, im currently in the market for a little boat, been test driving a few and have some questions so ill be browsing around trying to find my answers or asking some later on if i cant find them. thanks...Mark