The SHO gets my vote. I have a 250 SHO on my Eyra and have not been passed by a Mercury yet. (Not saying that it wont happen but they better be doing over 82+) Another thing that you do not hear a lot about is hole shot with a SHO…..I have a couple friends that have to play with props, vents, jack plates and have to settle on a great hole shot or top end with a Merc. You can also find thousands of threads about this but very few where it concerns a SHO. With the SHO I just threw the ventless prop on and 3-4 second holeshot and great top end. I did change props because I was hitting the limiter. The torque of the 4.2 liter SHO is incredible. The 2013 powerhead and up have been pretty stabile after some mods from Yamaha, in their first couple years they went through some powerheads. The XS is also being discontinued in the near future so that could hurt when it comes time to sale the boat. Just a couple extra things to throw in the decision making process.
