ZR6 or not to ZR6. That is the question

[Tony-M.]

Tomorrow, we are going to test drive and pick the colors for our Air 216 limited. Is it worth upgrading to the ZR6? Or is the Excalibur strong enough for this boat loaded?

[AbunDiga909]

Been there, done that. It's all a about the money. Do you believe you can never have enough power? Do you like having a large crowd on the boat and still having plentiful power? Do you enjoy hearing the rumble and feeling the out-of-the-hole power? And the biggest question of all, do you have 4 grand to spend (before discount)? My family happens to be one of those families that considered it a must. My family is the third to buy a ZR6 from our dealer withen the past two years. Yes their rare, and thats one more reason our family had to have one. Anyway, to answer your question, I frankly think they are not necissary. However one could say the same thing about the excaliber oppose to the 275 hp engine. It all depends on where the buyer draws the line. Also, I have to admit that if you do not fill your boat to the limit and don't require a lot of power and all of the above I mentioned before, I'm sure the exaclibur 330, and even the 275, will suit your needs. How much money are you willing to spare for 30-35 more horsepower and a top speed of about 4 mpg faster than the excalibuer? Again, it all depends on where the buyer draws the line. Our line is very high...

One day, everyone will have an engine comporable to teh ZR6. Remember when 220 was a lot?

[AbunDiga909]

Take a look at the Motor Comparision Topic (http://planetnautique.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=720) and the Chicago Boat Show Topic (http://planetnautique.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=564&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0) (last two pages specifically) for more info and talk about that engine...

[skinautique]

Reallistically no! The 330 will satisfy 95+% of the nautique owners. The only real reasons for the motor are for jumping or maybe barefooting or just for the sake of saying you have it. I have never had an issue yet when I have been out. What colors are you thinking?

[NautiqueJeff]

It would be a nice option. Not sure it is worth the money though.

[ag4ever]

I have the the excalibur in my SANTE, and it is just fine.

While the ZR6 does have more HP, does it give up some torque down lower to get it?

I would say that $100/HP is kinda steep, but if ya got the extra cash and test the 216 with both engines, get the one you really like.

If you don't have the power you want, and don't mind giving up top end you can always reprop.

If I was buying tomarrow, I would get the excalibur, mostly so I can get the shower though.

[lcap]

Shower is more important to me than the few extra (45 hp.) Then again 260 hp was/is more than enough for me.

The extra $3,000 in my pocket is not so bad either.

[SuperAirDave]

Unless you really need the horsepower, or feel a huge difference when you do your demo, (I didn't) save the $3000 for equipment and stereo or whatever. I have the 330 hp in my SANTE and it does great, pleanty of power, and great torque characteristics. Plus, we all love the hot shower on those chilly mornings!! :lol:

[Tony-M.]

We barefoot a lot, so that is main reason that I am considering the upgrade. Yea, $3,000 is pretty steep. Decisions, Decisions

[AbunDiga909]

Whether the excalibur or the ZR6, you wont regret getting either...

[SGY]

A couple thoughts:

a. I had a dealer tell me that if he was going to buy the 216 he would have the ZR6. Not sure I put much stock in such comment given the markup.

b. A promo guy with a 196 (I think his name is skinxis? posted some very favorable comments about the ZR6 in the following post:

http://www.planetnautique.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=51

I know there is another discussion but I can't find it right now. I'll keep looking.

c. The ZR6 is a closed loop system. But I recently read that you can put a shower on it--using the lake water from the heat exchanger. You might call the guys at Skidim--www.skidim.com. They know their boats. I believe I saw a posting on MBO regarding such a shower. Again, can't find it right now.

d. I have the 6.0 liter in my Sierra p/u. The truck runs great empty but suffers in pulling. Seems a bit peaky to me. Also, it is a gas pig. Oink oink. I'm getting 11 mpg., empty. Also there is the issue relating to the piston slap that GM is taking alot of heat about. I know reasonable minds can differ, but I'm not thrilled about the tink tink tink I hear every morning on cold start up. Metal on metal contact can't be good no matter what GM says.

So, what would I do? Test drive them both if you can. If the ZR6 floats your boat, so to speak, and you have the money, buy it. I was really amazed how much faster the 196 was with the ZR6 than the Excalibur on the Waterski Mag testing. Witth the ZR6 the 196 0-36 times were under five seconds. That is smokin'.

Good luck.

[SGY]

Here is another thread on the ZR6

http://www.planetnautique.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=490&highl ight=

[Hollywood]

Barefooting would be the only reason I would consider this, and since you said you do a lot of this, I would seriously consider spending the extra $. You can always make more if you need it, and certainly don't want to look back once you have the boat and need to go faster with a few more footers back there.

[Tony-M.]

Thanks for all of the comments. I'm testing a 216 with the Excalibur on Saturday. They don't have anything less than a 226 with the ZR6. I'll know if it is enough after Saturday. I'll try to figure out how to post pictures and let you see my color combos.

[Amazon]

Did you get to test the 226 by chance? If so, how was it?

[lcap]

In Feb 04 "Boating" magazine they have an article on "Horsepower vs Horses @#&! Are bigger engines a better buy?"

Tested Volvo Penta's; 280-hp, 320-hp and 375-hp.

Excerpts from the article:

"The answer: Even though there is a 40-hp difference on the printed spec sheets, there isn't that much of a difference in real life.
Here's an important lesson when you're shopping for a boat. Manufacturers allow themselves a fudge factor when publishing horsepower ratings. An outdated industry agreement permits a leeway of plus or minus 10 percent in published horespower. Sometimes an engine model may have less than its rated power, and sometimes it may have more."

"If you want more performance the only way to get it is to opt for the big-block engine. Anything in the midlle is not likely to be worth the cost."

[Tony-M.]

I think that it depends on the application. Now in run-abouts where Volvo Pentas are being used, it probably doesn't make a huge difference. Pulling a couple of guys doing deep water starts with 4 or 5 friends in the boat....most definitely. I guess I just talked myself into a ZR6. Oh well, better to have too much power than not enough.

[AbunDiga909]

I guess I just talked myself into a ZR6. Oh well, better to have too much power than not enough.

Thats the spirit!!! :D

[Tony-M.]

Abun.....What colors are you going with on your 216. I'm thinking about: Primary - Midnight blue, Secondary - titanium gray, Silver metallic striping all on white cloud for the exterior. I would get tired of something flashy.

[AbunDiga909]

Tony M., We think that we are gonna go with something very unique, eye catching, and yes, flashy... Just to be different and unique from everyone else, and we also like the color combo. If you wanna go with something classy, your combo seems very nice. I bet you won't get tired of it and even though it wont be flasshy or anything, it will still look nice and everyone would like it. I would get the vapor blue. Just because I like the new color a lot. I think it stands out from all other blues and looks very nice. I saw it in person at the NY boat show and thought it was beautiful. Yours seems nice also and I think it will look very cool. I'm just into the vapor blue more than the midnight. The gray secondary is somethign that we may go with also...

[redelf75]

Tony M., We think that we are gonna go with something very unique, eye catching, and yes, flashy... Just to be different and unique from everyone else, and we also like the color combo. If you wanna go with something classy, your combo seems very nice. I bet you won't get tired of it and even though it wont be flasshy or anything, it will still look nice and everyone would like it. I would get the vapor blue. Just because I like the new color a lot. I think it stands out from all other blues and looks very nice. I saw it in person at the NY boat show and thought it was beautiful. Yours seems nice also and I think it will look very cool. I'm just into the vapor blue more than the midnight. The gray secondary is somethign that we may go with also...

You wrote a lot, but you didn't answer the question.

[AbunDiga909]

Sorry I got confused, I thoght your color combo was for your boat? Am I right, or is that another suggestion? Anyway, the point I was trying to get across was that we are not sure and are not set on a specific color combo, I was just telling you the properties that the combo would be, i.e. unique, flashy, eye catching, etc... Sorry if I was misleading...

[Tony-M.]

Abun....Someone else commented on your reply. Probably one of the main reasons we are not doing flashy is that we had the purple/teal combo in the nineties which was nice, but it got to be dated. Also, the vapor blue looks nice but it just too close to Carolina blue, which would cause me some grief from my other NC State buddies. :)

[SuperAirDave]

Tony M: Sounds like you are leaning towards the exact color we just bought. You can check it out in the 'Show us your nautique" area if you haven't seen that color in person. We are very pleased with the combo. Out of direct sunlight it becomes real dark blue which looks nice. There are more photo's with different lighting under my photo gallery. Hope this helps :lol:

[Tony-M.]

Dave: That's the colors that I ordered. I never got to see the combo in person. I went to your photo gallery and I think that I am going to like that color combo. April/May is too far away!!!

[AbunDiga909]

Tell me about it.... :lol:

[SuperAirDave]

Only difference between our colors will be you have metallic silver striping between your primary and secondary, and mine is black. They both look good. Just so happens they had a used 2003 216 with the silver striping sitting next to mine, when mine was delivered, so I got to compare. Only difference was the silver kinda blended into the gray from a distance. But up close it looked awesome. Great choice, you won't regret it. April/May is right around the corner :lol:

[Tony-M.]

I didn't notice the black striping...That really sets off your boat.

[Tony-M.]

Today, I had the pleasure of test driving both the 216 and a 210 team. The wake on the 210 was awesome and of course I decided to get a Air 210 Team with the ZR6. I think my wife is going to kill me if I change anything else :roll:

[AbunDiga909]

Tony M., Aren't you a barefooter and were just about to buy the 216? I'm just curious what made you change your mind because wouldn't it be harder to barefoot behind a 210 due to the wake size?

[Tony-M.]

Abun: Yea that's me, we liked how open the 210 is and I thought it handled very good for a v-drive boat. Also, The table behind the 216 wasn't that clean for barefooting. Since we are talking about two extremes (barefooting and wakeboarding), it's probably too much to ask one boat to do it all well. I mostly wakeboard, so I decided that I was kidding myself and the 210 was the boat to get. I'll have to Monday to think about the decision.

[AbunDiga909]

Decisions... decisions... decisions...

[SuperAirDave]

210 210 210 210 210, Just a suggestion :lol: