How long until Mercury sells to the public for poker run boats? Its nice to see they made the step up!

"Moments ago, Mercury Racing general Erik Christiansen and his team pulled the sheet off the new 1650 Race engine in the company’s booth at the 2013 Miami International Boat Show. Based on the same quad overhead cam, 32-valve twin turbocharged 1350- and 1100-hp offerings, the 1,650-hp powerplant is most powerful production offering in the history of the Fond Du Lac, Wis., company.

It is not, however, simply a 1350 that runs on 112-octane race fuel. Notable changes to the QC4v platform include larger turbochargers, complete computer remapping and recalibration and upgraded oiling systems.

mercury1650hugeThe 1650 Race is the most powerful prodution engine Mercury Racing has ever offered.

“In any engine project, reliability of the whole system is your greatest concern, and achieving it is a balancing act,” said Christiansen, who headed Mercury Racing’s engineering department before taking on the role of general manager last month. “So we’ve changed some of the base internal components, upgrade the crank train, added larger turbos, remapped the computer control system and so forth.”

In addition to upgrades to the engine, Mercury Racing upgraded the M8 drive, which has a hydraulic transmission, that puts the power to the water. Specifically, and means the company added rear bearing support near the output flange to support the drive flange, according to Christiansen.

The 1650 engines will be available only to “qualified” professional offshore racing teams next month. And the first team is none other than Miss GEICO racing. The engine program deal between Mercury Racing and the GEICO team was completed late yesterday afternoon.

“This is more than just the best-known offshore racing team running the latest and greatest power from the world’s leading high-performance marine engine builder,” said Marc Granet, the driver for the Miss GEICO catamaran. “This is two 825-pound gorillas teaming up to form one 1,650-pound gorilla.

“People talk about forming ‘Dream Teams,’” he continued. “This is a Dream Team made up of the best engine builder in the business, the best rigger in the business—Gary Stray—and the best racing team in the business. We’ve been fortunate, thanks to our sponsor and our exposure to the public through NASCAR events, air shows and video features to be able transcend boat racing and be recognized by a much wider audience. This is a team of two remarkable brands joining forces to create something even greater.”

Team GEICO's Scott Begovich and Marc Granet will run Mercury Racing 1650 engines this season.Team GEICO's Scott Begovich and Marc Granet will run Mercury Racing 1650 engines this season.

The Mercury Racing-Miss GEICO news comes on the heels of the Qatar Marine Sports Federation's announcement (Read the story) that it wants to establish a Ryder Cup-style offshore racing team competition between the two Qatar-backed boats and any U.S.-based boats on the Super Boat International circuit this year.

"With the 1650s under the hatch, we don't think we'll have any trouble competing with the Qatar boys," said Granet. "We say what we always say, "Bring it.'"

While Granet and Miss GEICO throttleman/teammate Scott Begovich have not yet run a boat with 1650 Race engine power, renowned offshore racer John Tomlinson has. At the end of last season, Tomlinson throttled Gasse a 48-foot Marine Technology, Inc., catamaran, with a pair of prototype 1650 Race engines under the hatch. He said the new powerplants have similar low-speed manageability characteristics to their 1350 siblings—and outstanding power throughout their operating range.

“They’re smooth around the docks, easy to shift, docile at idle, all that,” said Tomlinson. “But when you get on them, you can feel how much power they have—they keep on pulling. They don’t pull quite as hard as the alcohol engines (reportedly 2,000 hp each) in Dave Scott’s boat, but other than that they pull as hard as anything I’ve ever felt.”

Though Christiansen emphasized that the 1650 is targeted at and will be sold to professional offshore racers, the engine could, at some point, find its way into “pleasure” use. However, at present Mercury Racing is not selling the engines to anyone other than racers.

“I imagine it will get out there at some point, maybe when racers end up selling it, but at this point we are trying to keep it to the racers,” said Christiansen.

1650 Race Engine Specifications

Rated Power at Transmission: 1650 Hp / 1230 kW

Full Throttle rpm: 6500-6800

Displacement CID/Liter: 
552/9.0

Bore (in/mm): 4.57/116

Stroke (in/mm): 4.21/107

Compression Ratio: 7.8:1

Cylinder Arrangement: V-8

Alternator (amp/watt): 105/1481

Controller: PCM

Fuel System: Sequential fuel injection

Fuel Requirements: 112-octane race fuel

Transmission: Mercury Racing Dry-Sump Hydraulic

Drive Unit: Dry-Sump M8

Gear Ratio: Application dependent (contact Mercury Racing)

Length (in/mm): 26.69/678 (from back of block)

Width (in/mm): 34/864

Height (in/mm): 29/737 (from crankshaft centerline)

Weight (lbs/kg): 1720/782

Warranty: None"

Copied from: Mercury Unveils 1650 Race Engine

 

Some Pictures

 

warranty?

-nevermind.... i didnt read far enough.

 

Holy Cow !!

 

W-o-w

 

Is 1650 a lot? I was under the impression that 2500-3000hp boats were pretty commonplace (for the 150mph range) and the race boats were a lot more than that.

Just seems like 183hp/litre, well isn't that great, even for N/A, especially for the price of this thing. Woudln't it be better for boat racing to use a similar sized engine with turbos making 250-300hp/litre?

 

i think 1650hp is a good base to start to increase power by tuning for races..
then you can use twice...

 

you should look a little closer, the motor is twin turbocharged. Race boats will run 2 if not 3 of these engines... there you have your 3000+ hp

 

 

Yes, with a full on warranty. If you guys are interested in it I can help you out. Happen to know a guy. Been developing it's own block for a decade. Crazy engine, power and less rebuilds.