when is mercury going to re-place the 850 with new technology?
 

twiddling my thumbs waiting....

Why wait on Mercury? There are alot of builders, some reputable some not, that can build you a motor as well if not better than Mercury. My .02 cents.

Bingo.

Besides. The price for something like an 850 DOHC N/A or single turbo based on the current 1100 and 1350 design, is not someting most looking for that kind of power will pay. DOHC and turbos is however, the way of the future. Just too expensive when it comes from merc, as with all of their products.

If someone did a marinized motor based on NRE's Evolution block, that would be cool. DOHC 500 cid small block with closed cooling, very cool.

where you been, AO?

Until the run out of a warehouse full of superchargers

Clear your inbox, answer comming:)

why does mercury wait to change anything, well they have the market. As long as you have the market and have a fairly descent product there is no sense in changing anything. Why change tooling, suppliers, train employees for something new. If you think about it the I/o concept and the bravo drive has remained mostly unchanged for the last 20-30 years. But then again you could say if its not broke dont fix it.

I think you just answered your own question. Oh, and someone might want an actual warranty.

I spoke to the Mercury people at Desert Storm this year and I was told they have no plans to use the 1100/1350 tech on the smaller motors due to cost and the maint on them is not as bad as the bigger ones so the 1100/1350s are all they are making at this point and will keep the others as is for now.

If someone did a marinized motor based on NRE's Evolution block, that would be cool. DOHC 500 cid small block with closed cooling, very cool.[/QUOTE]

call marine power in louisiana and get there 500hp/550 blower based of the cady cts motor. they marineised it and its a sweet package!

Not really the same thing. The Evolution is a billet alu block of NREs own design made to run DOHC and big power. The CTS runs a normal LSA OHV block. Looks like there's more and more LS offerings out there.

Not my question. I feel stupid having 50k wrapped up in a cat, but love running 160+ in my friends 36' Skater. I do realllyyy like the 1350 motors, but hell will freeze over before I would pay $150,000.00+ for an engine and outdrive, much less two... my other .02 cents.

Well, not going in the direction of turbo's, DOHC or Alu blocks for new technology... Whipple has a stage 3 kit for the Merc SC engines that run on 91 oct that has big gains in reliable power - something new without the headache of getting another technology to work in the marine word

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...-3-system.html

....and then there's the thread on Skaterfest/Flight Club's 488 Skater V with the stage 3 kit on 700's

Big fan of stock Merc power too, keep buying them so I have some used ones down the road to pick from!

Be nice to see a 800/900 turbo from Merc to replace the 700 and 850's next.

You would think so, however, does anyone remember the LT5 in the original ZR1? That is an amazing motor. Developed by Mercruiser and Lotus, this engine held various records, one of which was the 24hr top speed / distance endurance record. Why has it taken so long for Mercury to make this available in a production package (1100/1300) ? COST.

I would think it would be a great package (700-800hp), the cost however may prohibit marketing to the target buyer......

Quote:
Ten years ago, a group of visionary Corvette enthusiasts took a slightly-modified, 1990 ZR-1 to a remote, tire test facility at Ft. Stockton Texas. Their goal was to reset the World, 24-Hour Speed Record. At the time, the "24 Hour" was the longest-standing, significant Speed Record for land vehicles. It had been set in 1940 at Bonneville, Utah by Ab Jenkins driving a purpose-built car powered by an aircraft engine and named, appropriately, the Mormon Meteor 3.

On March, 2, 1990, this group of Corvette enthusiasts and their ZR-1 were successful in not only setting the 24-Hour World Record, at 175.885 miles per hour, but also setting the 5000 kilometer record, at 175.710, the 5000 Mile Record, at 173.791, four other International records in class CA-G2-C10 along with a dozen or so other FIA, class records.

The ZR-1's World Record ranks as one of the greatest achievements in motorsports. Between 1940 and 1990, four, major manufacturers attempted to break this record: Ford in 1969, Mercedes Benz in 1976, Audi in 1988 and Chevrolet in 1990. Only Chevrolet, using a slightly-modified Corvette ZR-1, prepared and driven by a team of privateers, was successful.

The marine power motor is all alum. also.!

And I believe the record still stands

I was told they were 210k, not 150k

That was the question to which I was referring. No biggie, carry on!

Where I found that quoted "article" it said that the Volkswagen W12 engine had beat the record, but it seems it did stand for better than 11 years, pretty impressive.

That was retail. I think if I'm not mistaken, don't quote me, $162,000.00 was the price and they sold everyone of them there first year in production.
Great info on the ZR-1. Thanks.

Not sure if it's 100% factual, but you get the idea. For the most part, it's what I remember from that platform. I never liked Corvettes, that was until my Dad brought home that black '94 ZR-1 6-speed, lots of good memories from that car. It was an amazing machine for it's time. I still miss it, but they are a bit overpriced and too expensive to fix, if you can find the parts.