Mercury Racing has done a remarkable job transitioning to 4 stroke outboards and offering an array of horsepower that suits many performance boat enthusiasts. But, mass producing for a niche market is tricky and you can’t please everyone. And, due to manufacturing efficiency goals, you have to make compromises. When Mercury Racing popularized the inline 6 cylinder Verado as a Racing version, they needed to offer a sport master surfacing gearcase, but the version on the 3.0 Liter Optimax at the time were not as robust as would be needed for the big 400R. A larger case, housing 1.60 or 1.75:1 gears, coupled to a 1.25 shaft, was designed for the incredible power and torque of the 400R and later the 450R. Here, I want to make the case that the 200R, 250R and 300R should have a more appropriate design for single engine application; while addressing the issue of added complexity in manufacturing.

The venerable Torque Master has remained in the Racing lineup for several generations and configurations. The semi surfacing case is really popular because it’s more appropriate for large variety of hulls that need to run high, but not surface, and carry a load up to about 85 MPH. The water pickups are on the nose and sides of the case, allowing for being run with the prop shaft just below the running surface. You get great bow lift and generally with the prop more submerged, you put less strain on the prop shaft. The cambered skeg makes it ideal on single engine performance boats, up to 85 MPH. However, when you cone the torque master case, adding a bullet nose and moving the water pickup lower to accommodate surfacing, it out performs the sport master.

Generally speaking, the big sport master is a bit too fat for smaller fast boats, and above 90 MPH, it’s just not as good as the coned torque master, which has a smaller diameter. The dynamics of the bigger case might have too much lift effect on small light boats and maybe punch too big a hole at high speeds. On big twin engine cats, this is fine, the dynamics are different. On a light pad bottom boat, the effect is more pronounced.

For the 200R, 250R and 300R; why not offer a newly designed surfacing case similar to the smaller diameter sport master the 3.0L had that can be more appropriate to the boats the engines are intended? Would a redesigned torque master with a nose adapter like the 500R has be feasible? An interchangeable nose cone is a really slick idea and would make manufacturing and optionality much better. Every case would be effectively the same, you would be selecting the interchangeable tip. Typically a surface drive is going to need a skeg designed for that, but somehow melding the torque master with a sport master to create a universal drive for the lower HP R outboards might be an innovative idea.