Mercury Racing’s quad-overhead cam, twin-turbocharged 1350 engine has completely changed the high-performance powerboat engine game. Even the Fond Du Lac, Wis., engine builder’s toughest competitors, from Mike D’Anniballe at Sterling Performance to Tommy Hofstetter at Chief Engines, won’t argue that point. Listed at a jaw-dropping $203,000 with an M8 drive developed specifically for the power, the 1,350-hp engine has been among the company’s most successful releases. That it was released in the midst of the toughest economy since the Great Depression speaks volumes on the unrivaled quality of the product.

And yet, without Mercury Racing’s CNC Cleaver propellers — manufactured to handle that kind of power, and even more notably the associated matching 1,350 foot-pounds of torque—the 1350 wouldn’t go anywhere, so to speak.

Read More: Mercury Racing CNC Cleaver: Props for the Props

(Above photo courtesy/copyright Jay Nichols/Naples Image.)