Sunseeker launches Fiat powered challenger.

Having already made its mark in four-wheeled motorsport, Fiat is to power an entry into the Powerboat P1 World Championship for the 2008 season.

Sunseeker, the world's largest privately owned yacht company, has confirmed that it will enter a 39-foot Sunseeker XS Challenger into the SuperSport class of the series - which kicks off in Italy on 11 May - for Andy Wilby and Pete Little, with the pair being powered by twin Fiat six-cylinder, turbocharged diesel engines - each pumping out 480 horsepower and producing 1,400 Newton metres of torque.

The engines, which are dyno-tested by race organizers to ensure they aren't uprated, also contain racing style data loggers which record the rpm, fuel consumption and boost pressure. A specially developed ecu constantly monitors and regulates the engine speed, throttle position, and ambient and fuel temperatures to maximize the performance. The rev-limiters are set at 3,000 rpm and the engines are lifed at some thousands of hours, even for racing.

The boat itself is half a ton lighter than the one entered as a 'toe in the water' by Sunseeker last year, taking it down to the class minimum weight, and will be capable of top speeds of up to 85mph in calm sea conditions.

"It was a steep learning curve for all of us," Mark Dean, Fiat Powertrain Technologies business development manager, said. "Fiat started a new line of development on the N60 engine, which has powered trucks in the Paris-Dakar Raid, to meet the demands of racing on water.

"We learned a lot last year, and so did Sunseeker because the production craft was really too heavy, and our engineers have worked together to produce a superior craft for 2008. We do have high hopes for the season."

The season's highlight is the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes race on August 22-24, midway through the season which features events in Italy, Marseilles, Malta, Tunisia, Spain, Portugal and Bahrain.