115mph in a 2700 HP race boat was eerily smooth

by Kristen Lee on 9 Sep 2017 One-hundred and fifteen miles an hour in a car isn’t anything to turn your nose up at. Certainly, automakers these days tout their elite models as 200-MPH-smashing beasts, but, honestly, how many people take their cars up to those speeds anyways?

One-hundred and fifteen is still very fast, but also a perfectly attainable speed, given a decent enough stretch of road and ample power. Would it be just as feasible on the Hudson River? I went to find out. Last summer, boat engine maker Mercury Marine invited me to check out a 1,400-horsepower Cigarette boat. It was mind blowing. I don’t think the skin on my face has settled down into quite the same way after that encounter.

This year, they brought something a little more extreme: the one kilometer speed record-breaking SV 43 Outerlimits race boat, built largely out of carbon fiber. Powered by two twin-turbocharged 9.0-liter, 90-degree V8 engines, the SV 43 makes 2,700 horsepower at 6,500 RPM on 91 octane fuel.

I’m confident that I probably won’t ever come close to a car with nearly that much power. So, boats it is.

The pitch email that Mercury sent mentioned that the Outerlimits boat could go “100-plus mph,” and, gazing down upon the boat’s two sleek, staggered engines, I had no doubt. The SV 43 is shaped like a lance for this very reason: you aim it at the heart of the horizon and you go, quickly.

The man responsible for our outing was Dan Kleitz, Outerlimits customer service manager. He greeted us with a winning smile and showed us how to climb onto the boat and lower ourselves into the cockpit. Usually the cockpit was enclosed, but that day they had the top off. Kleitz warned me that my hair might get messed up. I assured him that this was most certainly the intent of the afternoon.

The inside of the SV 43 cockpit was spartan. Kleitz and I settled in the two Alcantara-lined carbon-fiber bucket seats in the front. Jalopnik video producer Adam Milt and two other Mercury employees crammed themselves into the backseat. Screens, buttons and switches dotted and sparse carbon-fiber dashboard splayed before me. It all looked very complicated.

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