posted 08-25-2007 10:17 AM ET (US)        

The 175-HP Verado started and went to a smooth idle on the first turn of the key. The weather was warm, and the motor had been previously run, so the conditions were not much of a test. The sound level of the motor was quiet, however I do not believe that the four-cylinder Verado motor runs as quietly at idle as its bigger brother the six-cylinder Verado. The big Verado motors are just fantastically quiet at idle, and this four-cylinder was not quite at that level. The confidence stream of water from the cooling system is arranged to exit the cowling on the forward side of the motor so that it was easily observed and heard.

Like all Verado motors, the 175-HP has Mercury digital throttle and shift (DTS). These electrically operated controls are very smooth and operate with low friction. The controls have a signal lamp which illuminates when they are in neutral to help identify that position. When you pull the throttle back from higher settings there is a mechanical detent position at idle speed but still in forward gear. Pulling back some more clicks the throttle into neutral gear and illuminates the signal lamp. The throttle actuator comes on quite fast, and even though I have driven several Verado motors, I again found that I gave the throttle too much advance initially. I am sure this tendency would go away after a few hours of experience using the DTS controls.

The 175 Verado motor on this boat was not rigged with the electro-hydraulic power steering option. As a result, steering the boat required quite a bit of effort at the helm. The hydraulic steering ram actuator on the Veradito looked the same as the one used for power steering models, but without the boost pump the steering effort was noticeably higher. The high effort on the steering was in stark contrast to the very low effort needed on the throttle. The wheel is two-hands-on and give it a turn, while the throttle is two-fingers and just gently move it.

The 175-HP Verado was rigged with SmartCraft gauges using matching multi-function gauges with analogue pointers and an LCD readout at the bottom. Adjusting the engine trim automatically flips the LCD readout to show trim position. This is a nice feature and shows the intelligence and user-friendliness that can be built into a modern electronic control system. Other than my usual problems with vision from not wearing bi-focals, the LCD readouts were reasonably easy to see.

Once we cleared the NO-WAKE zone at the marina, I gave the throttle a gentle push forward and the boat came nicely up on plane and accelerated to about 30-MPH. When you push the throttle hard forward, the engine spools up rapidly and gives a nice low-pitched growl as the supercharger boost kicks in. I then tweaked the trim to bring the bow up, and we cruised along quite nicely, the engine noise reduced noticeably without the supercharger boost.

Poking at the right-arrow button on the SmartCraft tachometer gauge, I paged through several read outs until I found the miles-per-gallon computation. The boat did not have any added electronics, so I believe the speed input was from a PITOT tube on the motor. The fuel flow is self-computed by the motor. So both boat speed and fuel flow are indirectly measured. The fuel economy was nearly 5-MPG, and I pulled back a bit on the throttle to see where it might peak. About the best I could get was 4.9-MPG, but that is quite respectable.

After a minute or two, I pushed the throttle ahead and ran the boat up to about 40-MPH. The Verado was turning about 5,500-RPM at this point, leaving a few hundred RPM (or more) to go. I did not want to firewall the throttle, as this was a new motor, but there was some throttle left to go. In any case, 40-MPH was flying. The engine noise was still relatively quiet. At this point we were getting into some shallow water, and lacking a depth sounder, our Mercury dealer guide suggested we turn around and head back. I turned the wheel over to another test driver and sat back to enjoy the boat ride.

posted 08-26-2007 08:40 PM ET (US)            

The 175-HP motors, the four-cylinder ones, are real Verado motors, not the little Veradito motors like the 75, 90, and 115-HP.

[I corrected my usage above.]

posted 08-26-2007 08:49 PM ET (US)            

The VERADO, a supercharged four and six-cylinder motor with DTS;

The VERADITO, the same motor as the four-cylinder Verado minus the supercharger and who knows what else. (Does it have DTS? Maybe Dick will tell us.)

posted 08-26-2007 09:02 PM ET (US)            

I really wish someone would "step up" ( and here I just love to use that term and all the connotations associated with it) and buy a Verado for installation on a classic Boston Whaler boat. These motors have been out for over three years and as far as I know there is absolutely no one who has bought one and installed it on the transom of a classic Boston Whaler. Does that make this discussion moot? MOOT--another one of my new favorite terms being thrown around the website these day. Let me try it on you, Dick: If you don't own a Verado that makes your comments moot. Or at least that is what some would say.

posted 08-27-2007 12:20 PM ET (US)         

My personal impression of the Verado was very positive. I have never owned a Mercury outboard, but found the 250hp Verado (unfortunately, not on a Whaler) to be an incredible motor. I think the DTS, greatly enhanced that experience.

posted 08-27-2007 01:39 PM ET (US)            

The Verado 135/150/175/200 might face an even more difficult repower challenge than the I6 Verado because at the 135 to 200 HP level, the 4-cylinder 4-stroke (one big bang every 180 degrees) has to compete against very smooth running V6 2-strokes (one smaller bang every 60 degrees).

posted 08-27-2007 01:59 PM ET (US)         

For smaller 4-strokes, 115Hp and below, how about:

Honditos
Supukis (why nnot, since we have Opticrap here also)
Tohatsitos
Yamahitos
Mercaditos (60 HP and below)

It's interesting to see how similar Spanish and Japanese can be.

Needless to say, the rumor on the street & web is that you're not making any friends at corporate Mercury with that Veradito handle, hence their absense of any Verado or Optimax based participation whatsoever. Although it's popular with the anti-Merc crowd around here, a lot of people, like Dick, don't think it's very funny, that there is nothing wrong with using the term "EFI 4-stroke" (like all of the Japanese manufacturers use), and that Veradito (I hear this is soon to be the name of Taco Bell's next offering?) is derogatory to the world class engineering that went into the entire Verado platform, 75-300HP.

posted 08-27-2007 03:37 PM ET (US)         

I tend to agree that Mercury has done a wonderful job to distinguish themselves from the crowd with regard to their offering, so a unique name should be appropriate.

Now, to more important matters: Larry, when are we going to see two new beautiful Verados on the equally gorgeous Whale Lure? I really think they would look and operate wonderfully with that rig. Have you given any thought to adding one (or more) to any of the Whale Lure fleet? If so, please don't let past ramblings here or elsewhere, keep you from submitting photos. I, for one, would like to see it!

posted 08-27-2007 04:17 PM ET (US)            

Do you think 150 would be ample? The $3,300 upcharge seems steep considering the 50 hp jump. I'm basing that on the assumption of the 150 and the 200 being based on the same block.

posted 08-27-2007 08:20 PM ET (US)            

But the Veradito motors (75, 90, 115-HP) are not the topic here, it is the four-cylinder Verado, a fine motor, it seems, and in spite of the reputation of the Verado for being a heavyweight, the 200-HP Verado four-cylinder is the lightest 200-HP four-stroke motor.

However, one thing that worries me about these motors is the high ratio of horsepower to displacement. When I was young and learning about motors, it was more or less a benchmark of performance if you could get one horsepower for each cubic inch of displacement. When you got to that level, you had a high-performance motor. If you had a 283-cubic-inch Chevy V8, when you got 283-HP from it you had high performance. It was time to go out on Woodward Avenue and do a little street drag racing. These Verado motors shatter that notion.

The 200-HP Verado motor is based on a 1.7-liter engine. In cubic inches that is only 105.7-cubic inches. When you get 200-HP from a motor with this little displacement, you are really cranking on it. To go back to my Chevy 283-cubic inch V8 analogy, if we got the same horsepower from the small block Chevy as Mercury does from the Verado, we would have to crank out 535-HP. If you have a 283-cubic-inch small block Chevy that can deliver 535-HP you have one fire-breathing, full-blown, race motor. Well, silly me, I guess you do have a full-blown motor, because that is what a supercharger is.

To put this into better perspective, consider the 350-cubic-inch V8 in my GMC truck. In its current form it produces about 210-HP and hauls my boat around quite nicely. If it were hot-rodded to the same extent as the Verado, it would develop 662-HP.

So let me ask you a simple question:

If GM had a 350-cubic-inch V8 in a truck or a car that produced 662-HP, would you consider this to be a nice conservative engine, something that can go 150,000 miles with ease, something that can last for decades? Let me have your answer on that, please.

The level of performance and power that Mercury is asking these small displacement motors to delivery is really quite amazing. For every cubic inch of displacement the Verado 200-HP motor is producing 1.89-HP. That is really a high-performance state of tune, in my opinion.

When you compare the 200-HP Verado four-cylinder against all the other 200-HP four-stroke motors, its displacement is very small. Most of the other motors are about 200-cubic-inch displacement or roughly twice as large.

In terms of how the rest of the world views CONTINUOUSWAVE and its opinions of the Verado, I can tell you this: I never spent a long weekend in the Bahamas hanging out and partying with the Verado marketing and engineering staff, I don't have the telephone number of anyone at Mercury Marine on my cell phone speed dial, and all my observations and comments are based entirely on my own first-hand observations and experiences. Does that make me unqualified to have an opinion? I will stick with the same opinion that I had back in 2004 when I first saw them; see my article for details:

http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/006715.html

I think there is some weird new dimension to talking about the Verado; if you do not gush and rave about it, somehow this is now considered being a Verado-hater. I am not a Verado-hater, at least I do not consider myself to be one. On the other hand, I am not a Verdo Fan Club website publisher. My mission is not to endlessly extol the virtues of the Verado. I am interested in outboard motors and I enjoy writing about them. What I do here is to write about my own experiences with them, including the Verado, When I write about my own personal, first-hand experiences with the Verado motor I am giving you exactly that: my own first-hand experiences. I am not reading from a press release. I did not check my senses at the door. I have not accepted any special favors or treatment from Mercury and I do not think I owe them anything in return. I think I make all this clear. I just write what I experience and what I think about the motors.

posted 08-27-2007 08:29 PM ET (US)            

I would say inside the console looked the same size as the Dauntless 22 did. But I did not have a desire to go into it.

It is a well thought out boat for all purpose use.

Reverse shear still hurts my eyes though.

posted 08-27-2007 11:40 PM ET (US)            

I have not posted in a while but I think we need to clear the air…

Our site and message board are totally free. The message board is for anyone to post anything they want, good and bad. It’s pretty neat because Merc will go on and ask questions to gather data thru the board. The verado club rendezvous with merc staff is totally paid for by the members and sponsors. We are just a group that trades information, just like your board. Any people who want my personal help I charge for emails as I receive 30 emails a day. If you don’t' want to pay, surf all day with no charge whatsoever, just like your site. I take offense to this swipe at a club that is just trying to get more info about a product, just like what you do here.

As far as what I get from merc, I paid my way to all the rendezvous and I still run the 2005 250 Verados that you drove on my boat and still pay for all my maintenance.

Thanks for letting me post here.

posted 08-28-2007 06:03 AM ET (US)            

As far as socializing with the manufacturers, I do this with Boston Whaler employees from time to time at Boston Whaler sponsored owner events. Yes, a lot of information gets exchanged at these gatherings, going both ways. The customers learn things from the manufacturer and the manufacturer learns from the customers. But in terms of maintaining an independent perspective or point of view, getting too cozy with a manufacturer puts a reviewer's credibility in a bit of jeopardy. It is only human nature that after you have a few beers and a few burgers on the grill with nice folks that it tends to make it harder to say anything critical about their product in public.

I consider myself to be a Verado-booster, and I judge that based on what I have written. But somehow a few people--the dyed-in-the-wool Mercury fans--seem to think I am a Verado-hater. If I say anything at all which is the least bit critical of the Verado or another Mercury product, then--Voila--I am instantly a Mercury basher. That is nonsense. I just write very simply and plainly about my personal first-hand experiences with outboard motors of many brands.

By the way, you can read about my experience on Glen's boat in the archives:

posted 08-28-2007 08:31 AM ET (US)            

BTW, I think the name Veradito sounds good and in no way sounds degrading.

Erik

posted 08-28-2007 10:37 AM ET (US)            

Was this a dealer demo you were on, or a private boat?

posted 08-28-2007 12:41 PM ET (US)            

******

Now at the risk of being threatened with bodily harm by members of the Verado fan club for discussing the Verado ;) ....

The problem or danger with comparing outboard motors to engines found in automobiles and expecting similar things is that they operate with different duty cycles. The average duty cycle on an outboard, if one uses the average rate of fuel consumption as a measure of duty cycle, is about three to four times greater than the duty cycle for an automobile engine.

For example, I have a small car with a supercharged 4-cylinder 150 HP motor with about the same displacement as the Verado 150. Over the course of depleting a tank full of fuel, I average about 28 MPG with an average speed of about 30 MPH. That means that the average rate of fuel consumption over the course of depleting the fuel tank is about 1.1 GPH for the mixed driving that this car gets.

At cruise on a flat highway at 60 MPH, the instant fuel economy for this car is about 32 MPG which is a consumption rate of about 1.9 GPH. Accelerating up a hill with a significant grade starting at 60 MPH, the instant MPG drops to about 10 MPG so the instant fuel consumption rate climbs to about 6 GPH for just about the hardest work I can put this little car through in normal driving. This acceleration up a hill event never lasts more than 1 minute in duration.

Now, using Whaler's performance report data, compare that to a Verado 150 on a 200 Dauntless. An average consumption of 1.1 GPH would have the Dauntless moving about 6.5 MPH. At an instant fuel consumption rate of 1.9 GPH, the Dauntless will be moving about 8 MPH. At that speed, its not on plane. At the 6 GPH consumption rate, the Verado 150 is moving the Dauntless at about 25 to 26 MPH, just about minimum plane speed from what I can tell. So, anytime on plane, the Verado is running in conditions that at a minimum would be equivalent to accelerating my little car up decent grade hill at 60 MPH. It's not unusual for the Verado, or any other outboard, to be required to work like this for perhaps an hour or more at a time.

Based on the data for the Dauntless 200, the ICOMIA duty cycle would have the average hourly consumption of the Verado 150 at approximately 4.5 GPH which, as mentioned above, is about 4 times what is actually experienced in a car with a similar engine running a typical mixed driving cycle. While I am not implying or suggesting that the car engine and the Verado are built the same, but even if they were built the same, the Verado 150 does have an advantage in that it has an inherently better cooling system to take care of the heat generated by an average duty cycle that is 4 times that experienced by the typical automobile engine.

Although I think automobile engine analogies for boating are not very good, I think the best auto analogy one can make between outboard use and automobile use is to make reference to the large SUV many of us use in the U.S. to tow our Whalers. An automobile motor operated while towing something uphill is probably the closest thing to an outboard motor moving a boat through the water. Now none of the large SUV manufacturers, even the European makers of SUVs, that expect that some part of their vehicles' use could be for towing something employ a small displacement, forced induction, gasoline motor. Perhaps the experts will jump in to answer the question of "why not use small displacement, forced induction for such applications"?

****

One last comment: I don't see the coined term VERADITO as being negative in any way. Rather VERADITO quickly and efficiently distinguishes the group of FourStroke branded Mercury 4-stroke outboards in the 75 to 115 HP that are built using VERADO based components from all of the other FourStroke branded Mercury 4-stroke outboards which do not use such components. It also distinguishes the latest generation of FourStroke branded (a.k.a. Veradito) 75 to 115 4-strokes made and sold by Mercury from the prior generation of 4-stroke outboards that had Yamaha powerheads surrounded by Mercury "clothing" often referred to as YamaMercs or Mercahas. Veradito is no more or no less damaging to anybody's reputation than these other previously used coined terms to convey information about the product origin quickly and efficiently.

posted 08-28-2007 01:58 PM ET (US)            

Regarding the habits of automakers in Japan and their engine displacement size, this is an interesting opportunity for a comparison because it just so happens that all of the Japanese manufacturers that made outboard motors also make automobile engines. Honda, Suzuki, and Yamaha all make four-stroke engines for automobiles and for outboard motors. The comparison is most apt in the case of Honda, where they actually use the same engine in a car and in an outboard. The Honda 200-HP outboard uses a 3.5-liter displacement engine, or 212-cubic inches. This is more than twice as large as the 200-HP Verado. I am not certain what inference to draw from this, but if we are to be guided by the experience of small four-stroke engine automakers, it seems that displacement is used more generously in their outboards than in the four-cylinder Verado.

We can also look at Suzuki for guidance. Their 200-HP outboard is even larger displacement, 3.7-liters or 220.5 cubic inch.

And in the case of Yamaha, their automobile engines are somewhat more obscure, but their four-stroke outboard motors are very popular. The displacement of the Yamaha F200 is 3.35-liter or 204.6 cubic-inches.

Another interesting commonality among the Japanese four-stroke motors--and just about all small automobile engines these days--is the use of variable valve timing or cam phasing to enhance performance. In this regard the Verado is a complete departure in that it does not use any sort of variable valve timing or cam phasing. To my way of thinking a variable valve timing arrangement is added complexity and complication, but on the other hand its use is so widespread that is seems to have become the norm.

Now I am not a Luddite, and I don't think that the path to the future for the automobile industry is to go back to the 389-cubic-inch V8 with two-barrel carburetor that powered our family's 1962 Pontiac CATALINA. In the old world of manufacturing it was probably more cost effective to produce a big block which was not assembled with the precision of a Swiss chronometer, and back then there was a much lower expectation about longevity than there is today. But in the modern approach to manufacturing in which less displacement is asked to produce more power, it seems to me, in a sort of natural and intuitive way, that the tolerances, precision, and quality needed in the product will have to be higher. And coupled with this is an even greater expectation of durability from the customer. When you add all that up, and then ask the engine to make the power with half the displacement of the other four-stroke outboards, how does this affect the durability?

posted 08-28-2007 04:33 PM ET (US)            

Your point about durability is well taken. One would be smart to ask about it. That said, I have a bit of an inside track on what the testing was like prior to release of the Verado, and what is currently going on. Suffice it to say, that never in Mercury's history was a product that made it to production more thoroughly tested. From what I know I don't think Tim Allen or the Mythbusters could have been more torturous. Further, it is my understanding that internally, Mercury believes that they have produced their most reliable engine to date. Of course that comes with the caveat that not everything shows up until a product has been in the end users hands for a while.

posted 08-28-2007 08:21 PM ET (US)            

The Audi engine is not quite as high-output as the Mercury Verado, but it comes about as close as I can find in a production automobile. If there is another production automobile engine which cranks more power from its displacement, please let me know.

Like the Verado, the Audi also uses a forced induction system, a turbo-charger, to boost horsepower. However, it is also akin to the Evinrude E-TEC in that it uses direct-injection, and I think it is one of the first gasoline four-stroke engines to use this advanced technique.

posted 08-28-2007 11:17 PM ET (US)            

My 07 R1200GSA is the traditional boxer twin. It does just south of 100 hp but puts out gobs of torque.

posted 08-29-2007 05:41 AM ET (US)            

Here are just a few that I can remember and a couple of new engines showing just how much output HP can be achieved in small displacement engines on standard production cars. There are probably many more.

The older models:

- Honda Civic 1.6L VTI : 160 HP

- Nissan 200SX Turbo: 1.8L and 170 HP

- Renault Clio Sport 2.0L : 172 HP

- Toyota Corolla T-Sport 1.8L : 189 HP

Now the newer models:

- Seat Leon Cupra FSI 2.0L : 237 hp

- Vauxhall Astra VXR 2.0L : 240 HP

- Lotus Elise 1.8L : 190 HP (Toyota sourced and Yamaha built btw)

Now the beast;

- VW Golf 2.0L GTI : 270 hp ..yikes!

From my own experience all I can say is that I have owned diesel powered cars for many years now but my first new car was a 1985 Renault R11 Turbo with a 1.4L turbo charged gasoline engine. I believe it had 115 hp for the small 1.4 liter . It was fast to say the least and reliable and I drove her for 250.000km (156.000) miles. I find this to be durable. I believe this engine was derived from the first turbo charged Formula One engines designed by Renault in the late 70's early 80's. Formula One was and is still the testing field for many innovative engine designs.

Peter, you are absolutely correct when you say that we get taxed for displacement. That's one of the reasons the European (and Japanese because they first targeted the European market before the North American) engines are small displacement - high output. I think that fuel prices are an even bigger reason for building small, highly efficient engines.

BTW, wasn't the chief design engineer for the Verado engine the chief design engineer at Porsche? Maybe that would have something to do with these lighter Verados having high output, small displacement.
It may just be the first Verado we will be seeing on the back of some classic boats, like Whalers.

Also, I totally agree with what you and Jim say concerning large displacement engines and their use in marine outboards. Maybe this time Mercury is just ahead of Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki with their concept. Time will tell if they are durable and I believe they will be because of the experience we have here with the smaller displacement-high output engines used in the automotive industry. In any case it makes for fine, friendly debate.

Erik

posted 08-29-2007 08:01 AM ET (US)            

You are correct about the designer being a prior Porsche engineer. However, he has recently left Mercury and is back home in Germany.

posted 08-29-2007 03:26 PM ET (US)            

I would love to see a classic 25 with a pair of 175s on it.

There was a 27 I was noodling recently, and I was wondering how it would perform with a pair of the small-block 200s on the transom.