Sea-Doo launches jet ski in honor of Senna with 355 hp and limited series of 1,991 units

Sea-Doo, the watercraft brand of Canadian BRP, presented the RXP-X Senna 350, a limited series of 1,991 units worldwide that pays homage to Ayrton Senna. The model debuts the Rotax 1630 ACE, the most powerful engine ever installed at the factory in a watercraft of the brand, with 355 hp, and is already on pre-sale abroad.

The agreement with Senna Brand — a company created by the family of the three-time Formula 1 world champion to manage his legacy — lasts for one year. In the United States, the special edition starts at R$ 145 thousand (US$ 27.799), according to the website The Big Lead. BRP did not disclose prices or delivery time to Brazil.

References to the third championship

The yellow and green paint reproduces Senna’s original helmet, and the driver’s signature is integrated into the hull by laser. The years 88, 90 and 91, of the three world titles, are engraved, next to the phrases Seek your truth and Born to win, used by the family brand. A numbered plate with the reference to 1991, the year of the last championship, identifies each of the 1,991 units.

The package includes a passenger seat in the same paint and a protective cover with the Senna brand. “Ayrton Senna never accepted limits. He was driven by the desire to inspire other people to go beyond what they believed was possible,” said Bruno Senna, the driver’s nephew and Senna Brand ambassador.

Why Senna and not another driver

Senna was a water sports enthusiast and spent his days off at the house he kept in the Portogalo condominium, in Angra dos Reis, on the coast of Rio de Janeiro, where he rode jet skis in front of the beach. Among the equipment he had is a Kawasaki Jet Ski X2, from the 1980s, displayed alongside other relics of the rider at the 2024 São Paulo Boat Show.

In the water, the behavior was the same as on the tracks. “He was competitive even in games and didn’t like to lose to me, who had an advantage because I was lighter. That’s why I always found a way to make a stronger engine on his jet ski,” Bruno Senna told Caras magazine in 2024.

The obsession with power also applied to the speedboat. The 19-foot (5.8 m) Pole Position from the Rio de Janeiro shipyard Cobra, used by the pilot from 1986 to 1994 in Angra dos Reis and Ilhabela, was ordered with hull changes and a 225 hp engine, about three times more than the boat would need, according to the current owner, Danilo Iakimoff.

The hobby also took its toll. In June 1991, a week before the Mexican Grand Prix, Senna fell from his jet ski in front of Angra’s house and was hit in the head by the vehicle of a friend who accompanied him. He had stitches in the back of his skull, raced at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez with the cut protected by bandages, flipped over in practice and still finished third. That same season he won his third world title, the 1991 that now appears on the numbered plate of each Sea-Doo.

Brazil is now the world’s second-largest market for jet skis, behind only the United States, according to the Australian website Watercraft Zone, which helps explain the commercial appeal of the tribute. Part of Senna Brand’s royalties finances the Ayrton Senna Institute, which has been working in public education in the country for more than 30 years.

A motorcycle different from street bikes

Unlike a car, the jet ski does not have a gearbox. The engine drives a jet pump that sucks water from the bottom of the hull and expels it through a movable nozzle at the rear. It is the direction of this jet that makes the vehicle change trajectory, an unintuitive characteristic for those who only drive cars: without accelerator, there is practically no steering. Braking is also different, and Sea-Doo uses the iBR system, which redirects the jet forward to slow down and reverse.

The Rotax 1630 ACE is a 1.6-liter three-cylinder with mechanical compressor. According to the manufacturer, the set is 15% faster from 0 to 96 km/h than previous engines, which yielded 329 hp. The Big Lead cites 3.1 seconds in this acceleration, measured in the North American standard from 0 to 60 mph, equivalent to the 0 to 100 km/h used in Brazil.

In the country, piloting a jet ski requires a Navy license in the Motonaut category, and the vessel needs to be registered like any other.