2012 Kawasaki Jet Ski® Ultra® 300X

2012 Kawasaki Jet Ski® Ultra® 300X

Power is great. Power plus handling, even better. Power plus handling plus all the features a hardcore enthusiast wants in a personal watercraft? That's the best. With the incredible Jet Ski® Ultra® 300X — producing 300 horsepower, making it the most powerful Jet Ski ever built — riders get the massive power they desire.

Drooling yet?

The 2012 Ultra 300X boasts incredible power and thrust with a design that ensures typical Kawasaki reliability. A high-tech supercharger and Kawasaki’s Electronic Throttle Valve System help channel that tremendous power exactly where and how a rider wants it. And a race-derived hull means that the Ultra 300X delivers the sort of top-tier handling hardcore enthusiasts expect.

Power and thrust are key ingredients in the Ultra 300X package, and the 1,498cc inline-four DOHC engine supports that recipe like no other powerplant in all of watercraftdom. (Not a real word, we know. But we get so excited talking about this amazing engine!)

The Eaton Twin Vortices Series (TVS) roots supercharger, introduced just last year on the 300X, features twin four-lobe rotors and offers an impressive performance compared to its supercharger peers. Roots-type superchargers are known as fixed-displacement units, which produce large quantities of boost at all rpm, even right off idle, for a flat torque curve and usable, step-free power across the rev range. That’s a good thing.

This supercharger is capable of smooth power delivery, due to its ability to channel compressed air through at a steady rate, instead of in waves, as other superchargers do. Mechanical losses are only 10 percent. A liquid-cooled intercooler helps keep the compressed intake charge cool, which stops power-robbing heat from sapping the system’s efficiency.

There’s more. Stong internal engine parts assist power production and help maintain the high level of reliability you’ve come to expect from Kawasaki Jet Skis. An efficient oil cooler helps minimize temperatures when the action gets really hot upstairs by sandwiching oil between two cooling jackets. The result is a staggering 300 horsepower.

The 300X’s array of futuristic electronics include a highly advanced fuel injection system controlled by a high-tech Electronic Control Unit (ECU), the “brain” of the entire system. The ECU not only commands the injectors and throttle bodies to route a precise amount of air/fuel mixture into the combustion chambers with help from the Electronic Throttle Valve (ETV) system (which converts throttle lever inputs into electronic signals that are then passed on to the throttle body), it also allows a host of other technologies.

These include a range of varied riding “modes” such as Fuel Economy Assistance mode (for maximum economy during slower going), one-touch 5 mph mode (for use in no-wake zones), the 300X’s handy Electronic Cruise Control system (for steady cruising speeds when touring) and the Smart Learning Operation (SLO) mode, which allows newer riders to become familiar with the handling and response of this Jet Ski at a more relaxed pace. The setup also includes a digital dash display called the Economical Riding Indicator that shows the rider when riding conditions are most efficient (such as at planing speed, where hull resistance is minimal).