Well, Honda did makes turbo engine, but it’s only for one off racing purposes… Not anymore, Honda is finally making production turbo engine with plenty of extremely exciting products and concepts. The aptly named VTEC TURBO sounds very boyish (I was expecting VTEC-T), but it’s the end result that counts.
To start it off with a bang, we now have confirmation that the second generation NSX will be powered with a twin turbo 3.5L V6 hybrid, exclusively developed for the car. Why is this such a big news? Because it was feared that Honda will just use RLX hybrid engine which produces respectable power (377HP), but falls way off from the competition which has north of 400HP. To make matter worse, Honda was known to dislike turbo, so a tweaked RLX engine can only get south of 400HP at the max… It was a joke. With a turbo, the engine can be boosted to a power target, and can be future proof if need be. Let’s just say that in two years time suddenly all sports car gains power, well, Honda engineers can just up the boost and increase horsepower for the NSX.
No power figure given but time and again Honda claims that the car will rival Ferrari 458 which produces power shy of 560HP. Then again, Honda with the NSX has advantage in form of Sports Hybrid All Wheel Drive, a four wheel drive system that vectors power back-forth and left-right of the driving wheels and it’s a hybrid. Why a hybrid is good for the NSX? Good question, because the instantaneous torque from the electric motor can fill the lack of power for when the turbochargers are still spooling. All sign points to the right direction.
The second is the Civic (Euro) Type R, now confirmed running a 2.0L turbo engine which produces power “more than 280HP” as told by Motorauthority on their track day at Honda proving ground facility. The response is very positive, turbo lag is barely noticeable and there is a “Type R button” when pressed, changes the characteristic of the suspension and engine tuning. The Tochigi oval track that took 15 seconds to finish a lap now can be blown away in just 10 seconds after the “Type R button” is pushed… Type R button…
Also, Honda release a press statement on their intention to streamline the turbo engine in its lineup. So far the confirmed turbo engines will be 2.0L, 1.5L and 1.0L. I don’t think it’s too far fetched where the engines will go, the 2.0L will definitely comes to the big cars, such as Accord, CR-V and the likes, while the 1.5L will go to medium size sedans and SUV like the City or Crider, while the 1.0L will go into the small compacts like the Fit/Jazz.
And that is why my friends, fun time for Honda fans is now restarting!!!
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