BRP bringing back Evinrude name?

In last week’s Outdoor News they ran a story on new engines for 2023. The write up on this called it “The Ghost Project” and said the Evinrude Rotax X engines will be available exclusively with Alumicraft, which makes sense as they’re also under the Bombardier umbrella, plus I’m guessing this is the motor that will power the new Alumicraft design with the rear platform over the motor. But had no idea it was going to carry the Evinrude name. Wonder if there’s more to come? Rotax is it’s own company also under BRP so wondering if maybe the marine units will be sold under the Evinrude name? BRP’s website supports Evinrude parts and service but does not list it as a brand. Interesting.

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if you need some info and a good laugh, check out team marine service’s take on the rotax.

Thats hilarious!

Whoa that guy was hard to watch.

Bearcat89 wrote:

Whoa that guy was hard to watch.

Agreed, but it was funny as heck.

It is a very strange design, I just don’t see where it’s going to fit.
I’m not going to knock it, but I will say it seems like a bold move.

I looked up some things on that motor from last year, fifteen bolts hold the aluminum covers together in a supposed water tight case around the engine, the air intakes are routed into the inside of the transom area of the boat, no need to remove the cover for five hundred hours or five years, uh, yeah, right.
Valves that are electrically operated that close to protect the engine from water intrusion after the key is turned off, can anyone see just a few problems yet?? I will give you a few hints, corrosion corrosion corrosion.
Couple that with owner neglect…..

I’ll toss another one out there, you lose a certain percentage of power anytime you direct your power through a ninety degree turn, IE, the lower unit, this thing uses two of them! and its at the crankshaft where it meets the driveshaft to the lower unit, how much is lost in that alone???
And its a dang two stroke???!!

I couldnt get past the guy demanding you smash the like button, ugh.

Looks like one bad seal on the cowling away from sucking up a bunch of water .

They had a few of these on some of the manitou pontoons at the boat show. In concept these are great for pontoons as you get an extra 2-3ft of deck space.

Interestingly enough, the guy also mentioned the stunt with the new Alumacraft Competitor with the nasty deck was a PR stunt to get feedback… Sounds like we may see some re-work next year.

I got no clue about a bombardier outboard motor, but I sure like the snowmobiles and ATV’s.

Bearcat89 wrote:

Whoa that guy was hard to watch.

Yeah I couldn’t make it through the whole video.

Ugh, yeah, that was brutal. I’m really just curious about the Evinrude name being used in print and wondered if BRP was resurrecting the name. I think the Rotax motors themselves are cool engineering, but I’d be very hesitant to bank on one in this type of application for reasons everyone has already stated.

It looks to me like they are trying to create an engine that combines the best attributes of an I/O with the best features of an outboard. The goal seems to be to get the quiet running of an I/O with no blocked access to the area behind the boat, so you can have swim platforms, etc with no outboards in the way, but then have the ease of access when the engine is out of the water.

Interesting, but I have to wonder if times haven’t moved on too far to go back toward the I/O days. The biggest thing the I/Os had going for them was that you could go way, way, way beyond what an outboard could produce as far as HP and torque. Well, now that outboards are going north of 400 HP and twins, triples, quads etc are designed into boats from the get-go, is there really a market to go back?

glenn57 wrote:

I got no clue about a bombardier outboard motor, but I sure like the snowmobiles and ATV’s.

The ironic thing–and it shows you the sticking power of a product’s reputation in the minds of many consumer–is that there are a lot of outboard guys who won’t touch a HPDI outboard like and Evinrude eTec because they heard they are unreliable.

To be certain there were some teething issues with both the HPDI Evinrude and the Merc has had its share of issues. Buy yet the snow machine guys seem to love the HPDI engines from BRP/Skidoo, Polaris, and I believe Cat has its own as well. Try to tell a moutain or high-performance snowmobiler that he should dump the “unreliable” HPDI 2 stroker and go 4 stroke.

So go figure.

Have a Rotax engine in our Jet Ski at the lake. Never had an issue with it. Had to do some reading of the Manuel to figure how to do routine maintenance but that’s just because most of the family is older school gear heads and usually just start tearing things apart.
They will have a tough hill to climb with it on a boat however IMO.

I have faith that it will be a game changer for some. Not everyone of course… I have owned many Rotax engines and they have never left me stranded. Generally speaking if you want lightweight and the abilty to still maintain fuel efficiency, the 2 stroke Rotax direct injection is hard to beat. Im looking forward to “on the water” reviews.

I will say I love my 2 strokes every day of the week

I made it 30 seconds, however I want the sign that’s on the wall over his left shoulder.

EPG you had to point something out that I JUST had to see the sign you wanted. I’ve seen that sign in a smaller version and how true. I usually don’t look at posted videos unless it’s an IDO member.

They have them on ebay… came in a set of 3 signs in the 90s, There is the one in the video, one that says long ago men kissed the ground when they got back to land, now they kiss their outboard, and one that says something about catching fish so big you clear 3 generations of family photos off the mantle. I have them hanging in my shop.