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Mercury Racing 1350 Production Will Begin This Month


(FOND DU LAC, Wis., July 08, 2010) - Refinement continues on the Quad Cam Four Valve (QC4v) engine platform at Mercury Racing. Since its introduction at the 2010 Miami Boat Show, Racing has been hard at work with dynamometer and in-boat endurance testing, accumulating hundreds of brutal hours. Also, the development team has been refining calibration of the engine and Digital Zero Effort controls — both in Racing's test boats and in the AMG inspired 46 Cigarette. Development remains on schedule; 1350 production will begin in July, as announced in February.

Shift refinement is complete: There is neither throttle surge, nor RPM drop, when shifting into or out of gear says Fred Kiekhaefer, Mercury Racing's president. "The prop either turns — or it doesn't. No drama. Shifting is so good, it's spooky." The dock-side manners of these 9L V-8's are truly exceptional.

The digital throttles have also been re-mapped and fine-tuned. With feedback from Cigarette's chief tester, Bud Lorow, Racing technicians made the throttle levers more responsive for rough water throttling and feel "more familiar" while coming on plane. The Digital Zero Effort's synchronization feature is also a novel experience; get close and the engines automatically match RPM — whether the two levers are managing twins, triples or quads.

"An advantage of testing with Cigarette is that we learn together," says Kiekhaefer. "In this case, we learned that we can make 1350 horsepower without the packaging complexity of direct air induction. At inception, we thought we needed direct air, but put enough air in the engine room and the power is there." All QC4v production will be 1350 horsepower models, using ambient air induction. (1300 and 1350 direct air induction configurations will not be introduced.) This simplifies boat design, installation and maintenance -- and enables styling flexibility.

Total Engine Application Management (T.E.A.M.) is Mercury Racing's accreditation process that insures the highest standards for boat installation quality and consumer satisfaction. Commitment to the T.E.A.M. process is required for a boat builder to purchase 1350 packages. Cigarette is the first builder to become T.E.A.M. accredited for 1350's.

Shipments of 1350 engines, M8 drives and Digital Zero Effort controls will begin in August. The first pair will go into the AMG Cigarette, replacing the production validation test hardware currently installed. 1350 and M8 production is sold out into March 2011.

About Mercury Racing
Based in Fond du Lac, Wis., Mercury Racing, a division of Mercury Marine, is a leading provider of high-performance marine propulsion systems for discriminating boaters worldwide, offering an exciting and fulfilling power boating experience. Using leading-edge technology, Mercury Racing produces high-performance outboards, sterndrives, propellers, parts and accessories. Mercury Marine is a division of Brunswick Corp. (NYSE: BC), the world's largest manufacturer of recreational products, including pleasure boats, marine engines, fitness equipment, and bowling and billiards.

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Released: 07/08/2010-RM

1350 Production Release_FINAL_07_08_10.pdf



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