As Acura most successful and most selling product, the new 2009 TSX has a lot of ground to cover. Acura didn’t mess with success and designs the new TSX with similar cues as the out going generation. To satisfy the demands of its customers, Acura made the new TSX bigger and with a revised engine, producing slightly lower horsepower but more improved torque. More pictures and witty comments after the click. Continue reading
So the buzz is out! Well, at least according to a nameless source from Edmunds.com, Honda will finally build a top of the line over the top luxury full size sedan featuring all of Honda’s latest technology and the first ever production V8. Under Honda’s own luxury brand, Acura, the car will carry on the RL moniker, which in turn was Honda Legend. Continue reading
Acura apparently has admitted that they are not up there with the likes of Mercedez, BMW, or even Lexus at a recent dealer meeting. Starting next year, Acura will make a huge “shift” to tier 1 although I suspect that this shift will probably just the start of something big, not necessarily the “it” factor, so expect results in 2-3 years time. Here’s the summary of what Acura shift will be. Articles and witty commentary after the click. Continue reading
Behold, the 2009 Acura RL, the most expensive minor model change (MMC) Honda luxury division, Acura ever done to a single vehicle. New for this MMC is… Well, it’s just too many actually, but let’s take a look one by one as we peel the outer shell of the new Acura RL into its inner core.
From the outside, Acura brings about massive changes to the front and rear end styling of the car. Beginning from the front, the headlamp, the grill, and the bumper has been totally revised. New for the MMC RL is a streamlined design of hood, grill and bumper. As you can see, there’s a crease running from the base of the engine hood (the nearest point to the front window) straight down to the lower line of the bumper, before, this crease stops at the lower bumper area where it met with a large air duct. For 2009 model, the air duct is replaced with a uniformed bulge and crease from the hood, streamlining the whole front fascia. The headlight also changed, from the usual tear drop shape to now… Well, I should say that the designer pay a homage to BMW 5 series headlight.
The rear end also got a massive treatment, for this MMC, Acura designers only left one thing, it still retains dual exhaust, and that’s it, everything else is changed. The original 3rd generation Acura RL has a large rearlights housing the turning signal, brake lights and the reverse lights. For the MMC Acura RL, the reverse lights are now separated and is put on the chrome panel on top of the name plate holder. The “flower” shaped brake lights and turn signal are now replaced with a full LED lights for both. The rear lights housing also moved slightly towards the front and a bit more curved, giving it an edgier look. The lower bumper is revised and given a crease, the muffler tips are fatter, giving it again an edgier look. The overall design is not just for show, it is claimed that at high speed, the new rear design actually reduces lift… No need for that huge ricey wings for this baby to carve the road.
On the inside, according to Temple Of VTEC reports, is that the rear seating area is enlarged. There are no definitive data or claim how much it is bigger, but probably would not be much. One poster mentioned about the rear roofline is moved further back, indicating larger seating area though. The overall design also changed, there are a lot of minute changes, you can see it at Acura website later when the car’s website is fully launched. Suffice to say, the most important things are: Larger rear seating area, better sound insulation, lots of visual changes.
And now we come into the most interesting part… The drivetrain, the engine, gear, SH-AWD system and some more. For this MMC, Acura gone the whole nine yard by offering the same engine found on the successful Acura MDX in the refreshed RL. A nice round 300 HP and 271 lb-ft of torque from a 3.7L VTEC engine will propel the car with ease. However, don’t let the MDX engine pedigree fool you, this is a revised engine with some important changes. This 3.7L V6 VTEC engine is equipped with VTEC valvetrain system for both the intake and the exhaust valve, it used to be only on the intake side. The intake manifold is a dual stage design, as can be operated in single or dual plenum manifold depending on the engine load.
As always, the car features Acura own advanced all wheel drive system, dubbed the Super Handling All Wheel Drive system or simply SH-AWD; Unique because it vectors torque to the outside rear wheels during aggressive cornering to maintain balance of the car. For the refreshed Acura RL, the computer management system seems to be updated to allow quicker respond on high twist areas.
Now for the witty commentary…
On Temple Of VTEC news post about the car, there are lots of users who complaints about the car looks. To me they are talking nonsense and more gibberish than fact. The car is basically the same car as it is 3 years ago, a refreshed model this scale is more than enough for Acura to rewrite its Acura RL saga. Before, the RL was deemed as too boring and plain looking as a true “flagship” product. I even personally called the RL as a super Accord, because dimension wise it looks like Honda Accord, it underpins the same platform, but it uses large V6 engine and snazzy all wheel drive system… Which was tested on a modified 7th generation Honda Accord.
Before the 2008 MDX was launched, Acura basically doesn’t have any flagship product to be proud of. The new MDX is the crème de la crème, it won many accolades as the best luxury SUV in America, but the RL… Well, it’s just an old man car (a reliable, boring car). With this refreshed RL model, I believe Acura can turn for the best, as it is now more daring and kind of show that the car is actually expensive. Before, well, suffice to say that the RL is looking rather… affordable. I’ll be talking about Acura history and why it’s not up there with the big dogs at separate entry.
For the haters out there, really… Don’t buy the refreshed Acura RL. Sometimes, we need to slap our loved ones to bring them out of nightmare. So please do boycott Acura RL if you (whomever you are who claims wanted to buy Acura RL but didn’t because it is ugly) doesn’t like the car, spread rumors, spread hate words and convince them to buy Infiniti or Lexus. That way, Honda/Acura would listen and make the next generation Acura RL a real killer.
P.S. Almost forgot to add some info, Acura RL = Honda Legend in Japan and Europe. So expect to see the same visual changes fo Honda Legend soon.
The guys at Temple Of VTEC never ceases to amaze me. After a slew of definite past news, now one of its member managed to take two pictures of the supposedly Acura TSX/Accord Euro Sedan being tested in America. I wonder why Honda/Acura tests its brand new car in a suburban area? You can click the thumbnail for larger pictures.
From the frontal view, the car is a dead ringer to the teaser pictures of Accord Euro wagon. It looks… How to say it, normal… Again, we are talking about Honda, the producer of boring looking cars which surprises us in every turn. Oh by the way, I’ve found a dry ground not long after evacuating with my trusty notebook, next up, exit strategy and why we all got to have it!
So, it’s that time of the year again, when everything has come to an end and people at Honda can breathe slightly, before the new year starts that is. As usual, the head honcho at Honda befall his year end speech, and here are the most interesting part of that speech:
And that’s that, the rest is just mumbo jumbo about increased sales and other heartening facts about Honda increased performance throughout 2007. For me, 2007 is a dry season for Honda, globally this year Honda only launch Accord + Fit and no Acura news while Lexus has spread its wing to Indonesia. There are some news floating around, mostly written by American journalists about how Acura is struggling. Well… Actually they only need to change two sedans, the RL and TSX, because MDX, RDX, and TL is already Acura exclusive (not taken from Honda product line). However, one couldn’t change market perception, and while Acura is still rebadging Honda products, people couldn’t associate Acura as luxury because well… Luxury is unique. I’ll do a write up about Acura Vs Honda in the near future.
Anybody who likes Honda, can spell VTEC right and knows what VTEC stands for, knows that Honda is faithful for the longest time to naturally aspirated engine. Every known popular Honda cars are naturally aspirated, it can even be said that nowadays Honda is the purveyor and champion of naturally aspirated car engine maker. Honda S2000 F20 engine is considered to be the best 2.0L engine available in the world, producing 250ps (246hp) on the high spec Japanese Domestic Market. Honda newest K24 displacing 2.4L in America even produce 190 horsepower in the 8th generation Accord, using regular gas, the most powerful engine of its class. Moreover, Honda Fit RS produces 120ps from a 1.5L, and it is just a simple SOHC engine, wonder what number it can churn if the car uses DOHC type engine.
All Honda venerable Type R cars even have a trademark of using only naturally aspirated engine, from Integra, to Civic, to Accord Euro, and the everlasting NSX. None has ever needed a force induction to make the car go fast around the tracks. Sure sure people will mock Type R cars for having no torque and pit it with a forced induction engine cars and the Type Rs will go bye bye. But what naturally aspirated engine cars with displacement below 2 Liters can go toe to toe with the Type Rs? Answer… Only a few and most often than not they uses bigger displacement engine to win (hints: Nissan and BMW).
With all of this naturally aspirated engine affection, do you know that in the 80s Honda had a brief affair with turbo?
After the advent of CVCC engine that put Honda in the long road to fame, Soichiro Honda’s son Hirotoshi Honda decided that Honda needs a proper “enthusiast” car, one that can go fast but still showcase the spirit of Honda. Then, he took the unjustified tame looking Honda City and installed a turbo in it. So who is this snobby son of Soichiro who can decide what Honda needs? Well, he is after all the founder of Mugen, the-not-so-affiliated-but-actually-is Honda tuning division.
So after the turbo installation, Hirotoshi named the City appropriately as City Turbo, and the car was an instant classic. The engine now produce 100ps up from the measly 70ps, it seems small but consider this… The City Turbo only weighs around 700 Kilogram!! That gives it a power to weight ratio as good as today’s Civic Type R, and that car is fast. When Honda facelift the car, giving it the designation of City Turbo II, the power was upped a little to 110ps. However, according to many various resources, the boost pressure for the engine is limited to preserve engine life, and the car can be boosted easy to more than 150ps (I’m guessing, but being conservative). That’s just insane!
The small car that could
Then, there is the thing about 1989 Honda Legend, the first ever 2L V6 with a variable geometry turbo. This variable geometry turbo that Honda created was aptly named the Wing Turbo as it uses some kind of a winglet inside a turbo that variably change the boost pressure depending on the engine load. This beats out conventional turbo concept because it can change boost on demand depending on the engine load, unlike the static boost single turbo charger and the “low-high” characteristic of twin turbo chargers. However, even though the engine was ground breaking, the price reportedly was “too much” for a car of that class back then. Furthermore, I personally suspect that the effect of force induction that is detrimental to the engine was one of the main cause Honda ditch turbo engine.
A legend in its time
When VTEC was integrated into Honda product lineup starting from Integra back in 1990, suddenly turbo development was put into stasis, and nobody ever talk about it anymore. Like turbo, VTEC allows for a surge of extra power when the engine is forced to its limit however unlike turbo, VTEC allows daily driving to be efficient. This is because Honda introduce a cam profile changing system that allows “soft” cam to be used for slow driving and “hot” cam to be used for full throttle condition. Furthermore, unlike turbo, the engine is not forced to operate beyond its limit, giving that longevity trait of naturally aspirated engine compared to force induction engine. Now, Honda has this miracle engine that can be driven efficiently but can produce power at high RPMs and have a long life time. It’s a no brainer, turbo is dead! Until recently…
When Acura (Honda lux division) RDX, Acura answer to BMW X3 was launched, enthusiast and media gasps with what type of engine the car used. It is a factory spec turbo, a first for Honda after nearly 20 years! The K23 as it is called produces 240hp and 260 lbs-ft, the torquiest engine Honda ever made. As it code sign gives away, it is a K series engine, the engine that can be found anywhere in the Honda product line, ranging from Accord, Odyssey (JDM), Accord Euro, Civic, Civic Euro, Edix, Element, and others. However Honda engineers strengthened the engine block and added the turbo unit, a variable geometry turbo… The past has return, with a vengeance!
Acura RDX: Variable geometry turbo in action
With this in mind, speculations about another engine used by Acura TSX replacement (Honda Accord Euro outside US), is a turbo engine producing at least 260hp are running rampant throughout the web. With Honda proprietary torque vectoring all wheel drive system (Super Handling All Wheel Drive, SH-AWD for short) will be adopted by every Acura cars, they need high power high torque engine, and what could give that kind of power except for turbo or large displacement engine? There is something else though, and it is called the A-VTEC.
In the late 80’s Honda ditch turbo for the favor of VTEC. From the looks of it, turbo seems to be a short answer to the long awaited completion of VTEC mechanism. Now does history is repeating itself? Honda new variable geometry turbo engine is faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr from complete. It doesn’t feature direct injection like many advanced engine featured in the Lexus (expensive Toyota) line. Therefore its performance can still be increased with the addition of this simple mechanism. However, 20 years and Honda only took an existing engine, lower its compression, strengthen its structural integrity and adding turbo… Skipping the important direct injection technology? I smell something fishy. I smell Honda is going to repeat history again, introducing stop gap turbo technology before the real “true” advanced engine to be introduced.
A-VTEC or Advanced Variable Valve Timing and Lift Electronic Control, is a more advanced version of I-VTEC (Intelligent VTEC), which itself is a more advanced version of VTEC. I won’t try to be a smart guy, you can check how VTEC works by clicking the links I provides at the end of the article.
Anywho, that’s that for now. Will Honda introduce direct injection or not is up to them, but one thing for sure, the existing K23 turbo engine is far from complete. Will Honda repeat history and introduce next generation of their venerable VTEC, or will they soldier on with turbo is still up in the air.
Honda Very Own VTEC Documentation
Pictures are taken from Acura.com, Asia.VTEC.net, wikipedia.