300r vs 300xs on same boat

[mjw930]

Let's not forget 87 octane fuel, you don't have to shut the motor down to shift, lower units that don't puke their guts without modified seals, vents, etc.......... Yep, these new fangled 4 strokes are just for the lazy who only want to fill up the tank and go boating, AKA 99.999% of the boating population.

How dare Mercury make motors that are so popular it took over 18 months to catch up on the demand.

[powerabout]

The argument seems be be always skewed comparing todays 4 slug with 20 year old 2 strokes

[Capt.Insane-o]

My only complaints is they are #!$@ing ugly and I hate changing oil...and no15 inch motors.

[WILDMAN]

Yeah! Changing oil every year or two really sucks!

[Capt.Insane-o]

[motuman]

I have checked fuel mileage the old fashioned way on 300R and 300XS and 300X by dividing miles by gallons after a fill up. On a 21 Liberator at 4000 RPM, 300xs got 6mpg, 300R got 5 mpg.
Running hard all day, the 300XS got 4mpg and the 300R got 3.3.
The 300X got 3mpg at 4000 and 2mpg running hard

On a twin 25 Liberator, the pair of 300XS at 3500 rpm got 3.7mpg and the 300R got 3.2mpg
Running hard, the 300XS motors got 2.4 and the 300R got 2mpg
300X's got 2.25 at 4000 and 1.5 running hard

Basically, the 300R uses about 15% more fuel than the 300XS.

Great post! Thanks for putting up real world data, from a trusted source.

[Noah Burns]

Yep.

Reminds me of when the F-1 bikes went to 4 stroke.

The speed of advancement in technology was stunning.
Once rules changed, the tech in the 30 yr old 2 strokes stopped.
More importantly, they went from a race only motor to a modified consumer unit that they could win with Sunday and sell Monday.

when you say F1 bikes, I assume you mean MotoGP (experimental)... there is NOTHING in common from a MotoGP bike to any consumer bike. Yes they use them as part of their sales programs, but there is nothing on a GP bike that makes its way to a street bike. World Superbike on the other hand maybe, but still not a direct lineage from one to the other, certainly closer tho. WSBK is more like the old nascar, it looks like what you can buy, but certainly isn't the same under the hood.

[powerabout]

Yeah! Changing oil every year or two really sucks!

waste oil and filter goes where?
save the environment buy a 2 stroke..lol

[Chaz]

when you say F1 bikes, I assume you mean MotoGP (experimental)... there is NOTHING in common from a MotoGP bike to any consumer bike. Yes they use them as part of their sales programs, but there is nothing on a GP bike that makes its way to a street bike. World Superbike on the other hand maybe, but still not a direct lineage from one to the other, certainly closer tho. WSBK is more like the old nascar, it looks like what you can buy, but certainly isn't the same under the hood.

The old AMA / WERA "factory superbikes" couldn't hold a candle to you can buy off the showroom ten years later. Let alone what they sell today.
When Eddie Lawson was at Palm Beach in the early 80's , after racing all day, he cleaned up he came back and bracket raced his rent a car. My friend Tommy recognized him, we got a chance to talk with him a bit. Besides the full Rob Muzzi power treatment, those bikes used guessed up stock frames, a loop under the swing arm, lighter wheels, better brakes, and a cherri front fork.
That weekend, there was Lawson, Spencer, and Jimmie Filice. Everyone else was in the way.





They were Sherman tanks compared to what they brought to Daytona just a few years earlier ..






And the "real GP bikes they took to Europe ..









Not everybody could ride them, let alone ride them fast. And that was with 1980's tech ... as it's been said, if they would have been able to continue to march ...














No ... no .... now it's a whole different world in which we live ...

I went to a doctor a few years ago, he saw my Rockingham dragway Nat event shirt. He said, I have a BMW that I take to the Autocross at Moroso. I asked if he had improved since getting involved. He told me of his acomplishments and I said, doc you autta try racing in the Barbor school events. he said ..........
Ohh I'd love to, but my wife won't let me ...
I thought for a moment, and as nicely as possible , I said Doc, that the *** ist ******* thing I ever heard ... Never say that outside the polo club ever again, or I'm snippin a corner off your man card ...

Chaz = thinkin I've heard this way too many times for a High-performance site, and has to run a close second to "My wife won't let me race" ..... >

Let's not forget 87 octane fuel

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[Instigator]

Thank you Chaz.

That was when it was Formula 1, 250’s were F-2 and 125’s were F-3.

The 500’s we’re right at 200 HPs at the end.

Superbike was bad assss in the same era.

Eddie Lawson was my man.
They called the early Suoerbikes flexi fliers due to their weak frames.

I remember a story in a bike magazine after his retirement, a California motorcycle patrolman saw his garage door open and stopped to BS with Eddie.
Eddie gave the cop a ride on the back of his patrol motorcycle and after the ride had a picture of the cops lower lip bleeding from him biting it after being scared so bad with Eddie at the wheel :-)

F-1 then compared to today......= no wheelie control, no launch control, no ABS, no auto shift, the riders were STUDS!

PS, the pipes in the bottom picture give me wood!

The old AMA / WERA "factory superbikes" couldn't hold a candle to you can buy off the showroom ten years later. Let alone what they sell today.
When Eddie Lawson was at Palm Beach in the early 80's , after racing all day, he cleaned up he came back and bracket raced his rent a car. My friend Tommy recognized him, we got a chance to talk with him a bit. Besides the full Rob Muzzi power treatment, those bikes used guessed up stock frames, a loop under the swing arm, lighter wheels, better brakes, and a cherri front fork.
That weekend, there was Lawson, Spencer, and Jimmie Filice. Everyone else was in the way.





They were Sherman tanks compared to what they brought to Daytona just a few years earlier ..






And the "real GP bikes they took to Europe ..









Not everybody could ride them, let alone ride them fast. And that was with 1980's tech ... as it's been said, if they would have been able to continue to march ...














No ... no .... now it's a whole different world in which we live ...

I went to a doctor a few years ago, he saw my Rockingham dragway Nat event shirt. He said, I have a BMW that I take to the Autocross at Moroso. I asked if he had improved since getting involved. He told me of his acomplishments and I said, doc you autta try racing in the Barbor school events. he said ..........
Ohh I'd love to, but my wife won't let me ...
I thought for a moment, and as nicely as possible , I said Doc, that the *** ist ******* thing I ever heard ... Never say that outside the polo club ever again, or I'm snippin a corner off your man card ...

Chaz = thinkin I've heard this way too many times for a High-performance site, and has to run a close second to "My wife won't let me race" ..... >

Let's not forget 87 octane fuel

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[WILDMAN]

Now we have a motorcycle website?

[JPEROG]

This is off course but worth noting. I recently learned that Eddie Lawson has a twin outboard cat at Havasu. It would be great to hear some of the stories from his perspective while chilling at a sandbar some day.

Comparing the engine output of something with a narrow powerband "which will never work in a direct drive outboard application" is not relevant but those bikes are super cool and a RZ 500 is still on my bucket list.

Joe

[Instigator]

Had a 28’ Eliminator w/twin V-8 OMCs in the ‘80’s.

This is off course but worth noting. I recently learned that Eddie Lawson has a twin outboard cat at Havasu. It would be great to hear some of the stories from his perspective while chilling at a sandbar some day.

Joe

[JPEROG]

Had a 28’ Eliminator w/twin V-8 OMCs in the ‘80’s.

23' with yamahas now-

Joe

[Chaz]

Now we have a motorcycle website?

If that's how you look at it, that's all you'll see. I see it as a time @ the peak of two-stroke development. Racing programs from both Europeans and Japanese manufacturers fueled by the desire to win is what pushed the development.
Merc and OMC each pushed outboard development into the 1950's by then, and basically stayed there. So if we want to see two strokes .. thats where we have to look.

The "new" V-8's .. it has a Keith Duckworth head, bucket tappets, but more important the crank trigger eye had millions spent on it so it doesn't whistle when the flywheel goes "wizzzzin by" ...
Wanna know how many people have came to me and said .. Charlie please put this 4 stroke outboard head on the windmill and see if you can get it to blow some better numbers, put some bigger valves in. Have a cam ground for me, find springs to match .... Zero So when we want to see 4 stroke stuff, were going to need to post car motors .. Hope that won't offend you as well ..

I can't count high enough to list the ones that brought me heads and say .. Can you fix this big hole that rotted out between the water jacket and the ... intake port, combustion chamber .. etc. Mind you, I'm not complaining .. just stating, that I see first hand what a few years in the "acid" does to a powerhead ...

JP .. If the kneel down boat guys put the head pipe of a chamber on a slider in the 70's (maybe even before that) .. I'm sure that someone would have come up with a lil sumptin to get a bit more nutz off the bottom by now ...