What may have been the worst-kept secret in the history of the high-performance marine industry was officially “de-classified” Feb. 7 when a group of marine writers and boatbuilders got an exclusive first look at Ilmor Marine’s new Indy stern drive at the Los Angeles Boat Show

Rated to handle engines up to 900 hp, the drive currently is being packaged with the company’s MV-10 725 engine, which is rated at 725 hp.

Indy drive units feature a dry-sump transmission and are built in Plymouth, Mich. Ilmor’s Bob Mason said the drives are in production and delivery to boat manufacturers should begin in early summer.

“We worked on the drive for three years,” Mason said. “It took time to come out with just the right package. Eliminator and Dave’s Custom Boats already have orders for them.”

There are several key features in the Indy drive. The dry-sump transmission reportedly drops 4 hp to parasitic loss, as opposed to 38 hp for its competitor. Oil for the drive is housed in a reservoir in the drive’s nose cone, and distributed to all internal bearings and gears. To minimize the size of the lower-unit housing and gears, the builder used two vertical shafts to reach the lower unit.

The drive is electronically connected to the Ilmor Control Electronic (ICE) unit, a computer-control module on the MV-10 725 engine. The drive’s oil pressure, transmission temperature and gear positions are fed to the ICE unit, which adjusts engine and drive operation accordingly. Though the first few Indy units will set up with traditional cable-shifting-and-throttling, the ICE unit does allow for drive-by-wire conversion.

For protection against the elements, the Indy drive is coated in PPG corrosion-resistant paint. To keep rigging tidy, the unit comes with a hydraulic distribution block so all the requisite hydraulic lines can be laid flat. The tie-bar connection points, standard for twin-engine installations, can be replaced with a stylish cover plate in a single-engine setup. With the plate removed, the opening becomes an inspection hatch for all the gearing, as well as an entryway for filling the oil reservoir.

Ilmor representatives declined to give pricing for the engine-and-drive package, but said it would be “comparable” to that of a HP700SCi with a NXT1 drive from Mercury Racing. They also said that they plan to do something with the Indy drive, which comes with a 12-month warranty that Mercury Racing currently does not do with NXT1: Sell it as a stand-alone unit.

The new drive made its pubic debut at the Miami International Boat Show.—Matt Trulio

If you like what you're reading, get more by subscribing to Powerboat magazine here.