To start, I will say that this article is aimed at documenting the abandonment of a specific market that Mercury Racing was instrumental in creating. The high performance outboard market is almost non existent, yet outboard sales are at all time highs. How does that make sense? I want to look at the market opportunity Mercury Racing has created by slowly abandoning the high performance market. The last model, the 200 XS ROS, was not really marketed to consumers, had no warranty and was only available in a 15’ mid section. Basically, they made it extremely difficult to buy. At the same time, the outboard market is growing and outboards are dominating new boat sales. From pontoon boats, bass boats and family cruisers, outboards are all the rage and with good reason.

Today, high performance outboards are geared more towards fishing boats, not high performance boats, with a few exceptions. The Mercury Racing 250 XS and 300 XS are the only true performance engines for consumers, as we outlined in our “Ultimate Outboard Buyer’s Guide” a true performance outboard has some critical differences. Differences include solid engine mounts, choice of gearcase, optional 20’ or 15’ mid and internals that can handle high RPM running. But, there is one more critical point, weight, the lighter the better and the current offerings are too heavy.