Bombardier and it's reincarnation as the the Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP) have been producing personal watercraft and Seadoo engines since 1968. There was a 20 year holiday from 1968 until 1988 and BRP celebrated a 20 year anniversary in 2008. Through the history of these machines the engines have evolved from air cooled problem prone machines to super sleek powerful racers
Bombardier produced the first commercially available PWC in 1968. The first model had an air cooled engine and the second model had a liquid cooled engine. However, due to the limitations on engine technology at the time, the products had a number of problems. The company discontinued the project in 1969 and did not produce another model until almost 20 years later. Bombardier introduced Seadoo Sport Boats to their product line in 1994. These Seadoo Sport boats used the same two-stroke engines as was used in their PWCs.
In 2002, BRP began to use a much superior and efficient four-stroke Rotax engines in their machines. These engines were all fuel injected and some are supercharged and intercooled to further increase performance. The last Sea-Doo pwc to use a two-stroke engine was the 3D-DI stand-up.
When the RXP was introduced in 2004, it was by far the fastest and most powerful four-stroke engine two-person PWC ever produced. It could kick out 215 horsepower and could reach speeds close to 70 mph. When the RXT was introduced one year later, it was the most powerful 3-seater on the market. It had the same engine as the RXP and could reach the same speeds at the same acceleration.
Starting in 2007, almost all Seadoo Sport Boats were available with either two 155 hp engines which combined to make 310 hp, or with two of these engines supercharged and intercooled, which could produce 215 hp for a combined power of a whooping 430 hp.
In 2008, RXP and RXT models were introduced offering a special "X" engine package. This package increased the power of the engines to 255 hp. The introduction of this new package was an attempt to compete directly with the 250 hp Kawasaki Ultra 250X. BRP's Sea-Doo personal watercraft now claims to be the industry leader in engine output, with the RXP-X and RXT-X models producing 255 horsepower while boasting of an incredible acceleration of 0-50 mph in a matter of 2-3 seconds.
These personal watercraft are very fast and as each year goes by faster and faster models are being introduced to the market place. There will come a time when fast is fast enough for Seadoo PWC engines but it would appear that we have not reached that point yet.
