Trade-A-Boat - July 2018

drops power assisted steering, DTS

and the bigger alternator, effectively

mirroring the spec of the FourStroke

V8 but with a commercially rated

warranty.

On the warranty, we reported in

News a while back, that Mercury was

moving to a 3+3 year warranty on all

2018 and newer engines; this stands

for the V8, and importantly, it is non-

declining, meaning full coverage for the

complete engine for six years should

you maintain scheduled services.

At the press conference, Mercury

touched on a number of key selling

points based on research done

both locally and overseas. The key

take homes were that users wanted

simplicity, reliability, fuel efficiency,

excitement and low weight. Simplicity

and reliability should come from the

simplified powerhead touched on

earlier and I’ll cover off the aural feel

later — but first the weight.

ITS REALLY NOT THAT

LIGHT

Weight savings are important but

the saving of 4.5kg over ‘nearest

competitor’ (that’s the Yamaha by the

way), for the base FourStroke V8 is

negligible. One less six-pack of beer, a

summer of morning jogs or leaving a

couple of rod and reel combos at home

and you have that difference covered.

Head up the range and the story is

really not all rosey. Take the Verado,

with its integrated power steering at

272 kg (20in leg again) and it’s actually

heavier than the G2 ETEC which also

has power steering built in. The only

300hp V8’s lighter than the rest are

the ProXS and FourStroke and not by

enough to have me excited.

On fuel efficiency, the company

claim up to eight per cent better than

its main rival but till we test ourselves,

we will not comment on it. For noise

and feel, the US based designers and

engineers have done an outstanding

job. The bimodal exhaust on the Verado

gives you the best of both worlds,

offering super quiet mode or eyebrow

raising rumble while the ProXS keeps

the rumble on at all times. The use of

the AMS on the Verado is also a master

stroke as it has made these new engines

the smoothest in the market, by a long

way.

OUR THOUGHTS

We got to sample the FourStroke,

ProXS and Verado on a few boats in

Queensland and frankly, we were blown

away. Forget the insignificant weight

savings, what matters is how smooth

the Advanced Midsection (AMS)

equipped Verado was and how raucous

the ProXS was. We had two Verado’s

hanging off the back of a new Southern

24 that were so smooth and quiet we

could hold a conversation at 4300rpm

without really raising our voice.

The mantle of quietest engine, once

held by Honda, is now Mercury’s.

At WOT, we saw a frankly insane 52

kts, although it did take a lot of fine

trimming to see it, comfortable was 49-

50 kts. The ProXS saves a bit of weight

through a different exhaust that gives

it a distinctive noise at idle and bark

at startup. Underway, it was louder

than the standard FourStroke but not

intrusive.

SUPERCHARGED?

So what happens to the supercharged

Verados? The big daddy, and favourite

of ours, 350hp and 400R inline six

cylinders remain, but the smaller

models are made obsolete by the V6

and V8s. With the V6 going down to

175hp right up to 225hp and the V8

from 250 to 300hp, there was no room

for the old tech, heavy Verados.

26 tradeaboat.com.au

Mercury 300hp V8