This is an offshoot from the "Active Thunder Boat Company For Sale " thread.....IMO the everyman is out of performance boating and I lay much of the blame on Mercury. The price of their stern drive packages are high and after all they just have a GM V8 engine in front of their drive package.. There's other drive options out there namely IMCO, Konrad and Arneson. Id like to see how a non Merc combo would stack up price wise against Merc in the same entry level HP range. I picked the FI 500hp mark because that would do well in a single application, double it and it would do well in a twin and was the performance standard not long ago. Id love to hear from some engine builders and drive manufacture reps.

Also I see Teague offers drives. Are they their own thing or are they rehashed Merc ?

The only problem I see with mercury pricing is the bravo junk... if the bravo coin went toward arneson or scx's... there would be ALOT of performance boaters that never got out of the game.

to make 500-700hp is going to cost 10k-20k depending on caliber of internals used but its the headers, trannys ect when added on top... all that stuff is like gold and isnt cheap for good quality.

just tuning EFI stuff can also get expensive. I've spent half what my max machine drive cost just by the time my whippled 540 would idle without fouling plugs

look at this tread that just popped out !!!

I don't think the hi perf boat market would still be as strong as it used to be just with lower prices on merc stuff. there was a shift in boat style and some or many of them are still using merc powerplant. Of course the OB popularity is in full swing, but they are not half price of In board either. so different style of hull became the demand, such as CC and open bow hi perf and pontoons!

my engine builder said quite often he could built a totally reliable same whatever HP merc does, for a lot less than what merc sticker price is... now, as said and asked before in this tread, let's get the builders opinion on that!

Popcorn time !

Thats the first thing I thought when I read the article. Hustler built a 39 like 5-7 years ago, I think it was a Rockit? It was at the Miami boat show NEW and advertised NEW with Eddie Young power. What was the list on that boat with Eddie power? Versus Mercury power? Then, what the resale value with Eddie power versus Merc?

If you showcase 2-3 builders they do well and you do well. Could be interesting. Who else is reliable & cost effective other than Eddie though? Not to say Eddie is cost effective but the guy gets RAVING reviews. Just sayain.

GM will sell you an LT4 for $15k

$18,500 for performance marine BBC complete engine. 750HP, 500HP is not enough in a performance boat.

BBC 572 MARINE ENGINE 750HP 4340 STEEL CRANK, H-BEAM, HYD ROLLER

For a carbureted motor sure, not bad. But IMO that’s not on the same level as a motor with the brains of smartcraft ECMs.

It seems to me the problem with the shops that try to step out and build something to compete with mother mercury look to mother mercury for where to price their motors and or drives.

Call me old but Smartcraft and ECMs are marketing words that contain overly complex systems that a OEM rep will have to service. I’ll take a well tuned carbed performance motor in a boat all day-everyday. Our previous Mercruiser EFI mill wouldn’t start most Summer days due to vaporlock. Maybe that’s not a fair comparison but the roots carbed blower motor always starts with a bump of the key and then pummels the outdrive.

I know a guy in Mass. that has built 454 carbed blower motors and they run like a dream. not much to build either.