Mercury’s Verado engine series keeps getting revamped, refined, and more powerful. One of the latest offerings – from Mercury Racing — is the Verado 400R, with a liquid-cooled supercharger, a vented flywheel cover, and other components meant to cool down a very sophisticated high-performance engine that runs up to 7,000 rpm but can burn 89-octane fuel.
In the high-end consumer engine market the new Verado will probably compete for reserved box seats with Seven Marine’s behemoth outboards — the original 557 and their just-introduced 627-hp model, although those engines take a different approach to high-speed boat pushing; they’re based on an automotive cousin, a GM 6.2-liter supercharged V8 that runs in high-performance Cadillacs. Consequently they operate at lower revs at wide-open throttle — 5,500 rpm.
The 400R has an oil capacity of 8 liters (2.1 gallons), a dry weight of 668 lbs., and is available in shaft lengths of 20″, 25″ or 30″. For colors choose Phantom Black or Cold Fusion White. There’s more information on all this at Mercury Racing.
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Outboard engine expert Charles Plueddeman discusses the 400R on boats.com. And he goes for a ride with four of them strapped to the back of a NorTech 390 Sport center-console. Yes, that’s 1,600 outboard horsepower, at a cost of over $31,000 per engine. Have a look:
