Probably everyone's seen this, but here's a note I received in my morning email:<br /><br />"Mercury Marine has introduced an all-new outboard engine, code named "Project X." While company representatives have remained silent about this revolutionary powerplant, BoatTEST recently saw this new 4-stroke, 250 horsepower engine in action at the Mercury dealer meeting. Mercury demonstrated Project X as a single-engine setup on a Triton bass boat and as a twin-engine installation on a Boston Whaler.<br />Our initial tests show the engine is so quiet you can hardly hear it running at idle, and it is sure to shatter the commonly held notion that 4-strokes are slow out of the hole. It took just 1.5 seconds to plane off on the Triton and less than 4 seconds on the Whaler. The engine, appropriate for both fresh- and saltwater applications, appears to be almost shake-free, with no noticeable smoke upon start-up or acceleration. Torque was also impressive in the midrange, unlike many 4-strokes in the past. While Mercury would not confirm an official release date for the new engine, it is sure to cause big waves in the industry."<br /><br />There's been a lot of speculation that Mercury would stick with their partnership with Yamaha; guess not, huh? Wonder about the price?
