Might I suggest you guys look at other motorsports for guidance? Restrictor plates and rev limiters make for a pretty even playing field when different internal parts are used. Spec ECM tunes work OK, if everyone has equal CI engines. Then you have my favorite, the buyout rules used by sports such as truck pulling and dirt track racers. Put anything ya want into that engine, your competitors can chose to buy it for for set value by protest after a race.

I hope for some of the teams history does not repeat itself a third time after F1 and Supecat. Everything bad isn't always bad if you learn from it.

At the end of the day if we are all the same who from the SBI teams will come race in OPA up north? Steve K. is the only one we have seen in years. Steve M did one race when OPA was in Florida years ago. Or is this the same we have the same rules come down to SBI as in a one way street? Many of us have raced in KW with SBI but have never seen any of the SBI teams travel north. So who's in to race OPA at least one time a year?

It's kind of hard for an SBI racer to run OPA when our motor are not legal according to your rule book and then there is the weight penalties because of the twins steps and the 30ft rule. That's why we need to try to get on the same page. SBI new engine specs are in the rulebook the 2015 ck them out and see what u think.

OPA motors are legal in SBI and SBI motors are NOT legal in OPA .

Good question I guess I could ask you the same thing the only 2 boats from OPA that have raced SBI are Kevin and Brit recently.

Serious question why does mercury discontinued motor instead of adding a motor to their product line especially if the motor is as great as everyone says it is that would be pure suicide. There is no logical reason other then money motivated. What we have to look at for the future is how long will the 520 540 or 565 be around before they discontinued those. NASCAR and run the same motor for almost 30 years. With the SBI rule now you can have any builder build your own motor it's a pretty simple engine it's not rocket science and we have no fear of it being discontinued and having to invest in new motors again in another 2 or 3 years. Even if a team wants to build a spare motor you're not in jeopardy of that becoming a discontinued motor also.

I did some further research on the mercury 520 not sure if anyone was aware I know I wasn't it's based on a 523 cubic inch platform.

Simons, Pirates and Typhoon all have run with SBI in the past before the new motor rules. There is at least 5 teams from OPA. Even if SBI's spec motor was in the 575 HP range we could possibly all get together but not 650 HP plus. Is that hard to due?

Serious Are you serious with that question LOL? Mercury doesn't care about boat racing. We ALL get that! They are in business to sell motors and if I am a betting man they find it more profitable to sell the latest tec. and advanced products that they develop. Every new motor they sell seems better than the one they are replacing. That's a good thing for them. There business plans have nothing to due with a handful of boat racers that buy a couple motors per year at best.

I agree 100% mercury does not care about races they have single handedly destroy 3 classes in the past and don't really care. There are plenty of individual motor builders that you care and you can deal with on a personal level they can build a very simple 502. The outline is in the rulebook for the parts needed and all they need to do is assembly. Depending on what direction you go you have to look at the future for the class if not the class will be right where it is now in another two or three years. With individuals building a motor there is no reason why we would ever have to change the platform it's a simple 502 motor. There are plenty of builders around that build this exact motor now on a daily basis it's reliable and inexpensive. This would bring stability to the class, and actually give the motors value they would be more salable to new races coming into the class that is one of the biggest complaints that I hear from the racers you never know when the motor rules are going to change and they are weary to invest big money in something that won't be here tomorrow.