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1.5 liter 3 cylinder making 255 hp? Holy crap....
That doesn't sound all that unreasonable. If you take a Cosworth BDA as an example, they are 1600 cc and about 225 HP. Very simple technology and they are good for about 10-15 hours of use in a Formula Atlantic on a track. That Rotax engine probably doesn't spend much time at it's power limit. I used to water ski behind a 75 HP boat, so I would think that would be pretty exciting on a Jetski. Since this has a supercharger, the cams might be milder. I think many engines these days have high quality internals that wold have been unusual in the days when the BDA was the cat's pajamas...
Are any of these larger 4 cyl jetski motors available at anything like a reasonable price?
Kawasaki 15F looks intersting, water cooled I4, 1500cc and 160 HP. It has a semi-dry sump for lower crank so might fit well in smaller locosts and sevens. Also water cooled exhasut manifold, so it might be easy to keep the noise down.
Compare to a Zetec/Duratech which generally takes some parts like cams to get to the 175 HP as sold in some seven type cars, which aren't actually dyno'ing at that number... I don't thing the jetski engine would have any low end problems at all in a locost...
Not sure I understand the gearing problem? It should run like a street car motor, but you have the option of running higher speeds before shifting on the track or at an autocross, that seems to be what you want.
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That's funny I forgot the original subject after the Rotax comments and started searching for prices on used engines and came to the Kawasaki without noticing it was the same thing. It said 160 HP on the review I looked at though...