It was in early 2008 when we were first introduced to Honda’s completely relaunched and re-imagined Aquatrax lineup. The new year brought a completely radical “clean sheet” redesign to the table, beginning with a tall, near vertical bow, near-inch deep reverse chines beginning at the thick, plastic bowsprit and running the length of clearly Kawasaki Ultra 250X-inspired hull ending with pronounced outtermost chines. Running below the flattened keel, the bow’s Deep-V design eased into a planing hull, allowing the newly rechristened F-15X sluice through chop, but still skim across the water’s surface at speed.
While at Personal Watercraft Illustrated, we hailed the hull as being one of the most impressive we had encountered, particularly for a full-sized 3-seater. Although propelled by a 155mm axial pump, spinning the prop’s shaft was a truly impressive four-cylinder 4-stroke, dual overhead cammed 1470cc plant fed by an intercooled IHI turbocharger pushing 10psi down the 1.5-liter’s 54mm throttle body, and maintained by a one-of-a-kind two-stage dry sump oiling system, with a network of oil ets spraying up beneath the piston skirts while reducing overall windage and frothing, all adding up to a moderate 197.3 horsepower.
Coming in at 133.8 inches long, the F-15X was a hair longer than the aforementioned Ultra, and tipped the scales slightly lighter, at 955-pounds (with fluids). Add to that the new hull characteristics, and the F-15X Turbo fit somewhere between the Ultra 250X and the Yamaha SHO, at least in the eyes of the media. Unfortunately, Honda effectively priced their relatively frills-free craft right out of contention ($13,299 MSRP in 2008), especially when all other manufacturers provided more horsepower and Sea-Doo offered a mile’s worth of options like full iS (suspension), iBR (brakes), and iControl (fly-by-wire throttle), for nearly the same price.
Nevertheless, James Tod and the JetSkiShop.com crew took to the new Aquatrax F-15X with aplomb. Wrapping their new turbo Honda in superbike Repsol livery, and giving it the WORX Racing treatment with new sponsons, a Sports Pac Ride plate, intake grate, billet aluminum steering neck, moto bars, ODI grips, billet throttle, and a few added tricks to push the Honda ahead of its 65mph top speed to the low-70s, the JetSkiShop.com Repsol Honda Aquatrax was a heck of a machine that could be replicated and ordered through the Honda specialist in Queensland, Australia, for $27,500 (AUD) with a custom trailer.
